Tips for Setting up a Good Home Network
Home networks are becoming more and more a part of life as we progress further into the computer age. Kids are using computers to do their school works, parents for running the home and doing business, and the entire family for social networking, media management, email, and surfing the net.
A home network comes in handy because it allows multiple computers to share a printer, use a single Internet connection, and freely send files between them. If you're considering installing a home network, here are some tips to make yours the best it can be.
Choice of Router Unlike a business network, a home network doesn't have a central server off which all the other computers work as terminals. Rather, each individual computer is its own entity. Therefore, to connect them and make them all available on the internet, you'll need a router.
Choose a router with enough wired jacks to meet your needs. Most come with four or five, which should be more than enough. You'll also want one that accepts wireless connections as well.
Router Placement Your router will connect to your modem for access to the outside world. Hopefully, whether you use dial-up accesses, DSL, or digital cable broadband, the modem is located in a central place. Set your router fairly close to the modem so there's no long cable between them.
Wired Connections To connect stationary computers it's best to use an Ethernet cables. For computers in separate rooms, you can run the cable through the floor, along the joists underneath, and back up into the room where your router is. To make life really easy, drop your line down next to an electrical outlet. Following the electrical lines makes running the cable easy.
Plug your main computer into the number one port of your router. Your printer should also be attached to this computer. All other computers access the printer as a network printer. Consult your OS documentation on this process.
Wireless Connections To insure the strongest wireless link, the router should be placed in a position where its antennae are not blocked. For an unusually large house, an aluminium salad bowl placed behind the antennae like a satellite will improve reception.
Wireless connections require some sort of encryption in order to remain secure. WEP encryption is one of the oldest and easiest types of encryption, but it can be hacked with enough time and a pass phrase cracker. You can use WEP in areas where security risks are low.
For greater security, use WPA-PSK. This encryption is exponentially more secure because it works with a changing pass phrase and handshake. The only difficulty with WPA-PSK is that all wireless cards don't support it. And or the ones that do, usability is sketchy from computer to computer.
Finally, as an added security measure you can turn off your router's ESSID broadcast. In this case you'll be operating what's called a hidden network. When combined with WPA-PSK, a hidden network is virtually impregnable. Ishan Goradiya is freelance writer and loves to write about Home Improvement. These days he is writing on builder jobs.