Rob,

Forgive me if this is academic but when you say If I set empeg to DHCP, it is given an IP that starts with 169 when my network is 192.168.0.*. , can you verify/explain where the Empeg is connected? (I don't want to assume).

The 169.254.x.x address that's arped for in your tcpdump is, I think. a multicast DNS address - LMDNS (locallink?) - that is probably generated by the Orinoco and is not necessarily abnormal. I'm no wireless expert, so don't know your options to config that. Why it's arping for that on your local network, though, I haven't a clue, but that may be a place to investigate....

Will follow with interest (I'm on the verge of buying some wireless).

(edit: this is piquing my curiosity. What IETF/RFC seems to call LMDNS -- it's "linklocal multicast" -- MSFT seems to call APIPA. Or at least it used the same reserves 169.254.x.x. reserved range. Here's a link . Also, it may be just as likely that it's being generated by the SMC, I suppose. Maybe their tech support docs are less impenetrable than Agere/Orinoco!)

Jim