Important things to keep in mind while setting up Home Wireless Network!
With improvement in technology, setting up home wireless connection has become quite affordable and because of it’s benefits (who wants to live in the web of wires!) most of the people prefer wireless setup too. In this guide, I’ll cover that what all important things you have to keep in mind while setting up the Home Wireless Network.
Devices required for setting up the connection :
1. Wireless enabled router.
2. DSL or Cable Modem.
3. Wireless network interface card (NIC) (may not be required, if it’s already inbuilt).
4. Wired network interface card (NIC).
5. And of-course 2-3 computers (even 1 computer will do, but I don’t see any point in setting up the wireless connection with 1 computer). Things to remember before buying router or Wireless NIC :
1. Make sure that you buy both these devices of same manufacturer (it leaves you call, only 1 companies technical support and you don’t get run around).
2. Only buy products of trusted companies. I’ll suggest anything from Netgear or Linksys. 3. If you have a desktop computer, then you may need to buy Wireless NIC which needs to be plugged into the PCI slot of the computer (you’ll need to open up the computer for that) and if you are not comfortable in opening up the computer, then you can purchase a Wireless USB adapter.
4. Most of the times, Laptops come with inbuilt Wireless cards however, if your laptop doesn’t have one, then you’ll need to buy either a Wireless PCMCIA network card or Wireless USB adapter.
5. Make sure that Wireless NIC is compatible with Linux. Although, its not necessary but its always good to have extra options, no one can predict the future.
6. Try to buy the router which is compatible with both 802.11 b and 802.11 g standards. It’s the 802.11 G which is backward compatible with 802.11 b.
Things to do after you’ve got all the equipments ready :
1. Location : Make sure that you analyze your house properly and then chose the best location for placing the router. Ensure that, it must be placed at such a place, where almost each and every room comes in the range of router. (most of the routers have the range of 25-30 feet only (unless you use any high range antennas or other devices).
2. Possible interference : Many wireless networks fail because of interference between other wireless enabled devices. For e.g. Cord-less phones, Microwave ovens and sometimes waves of wireless devices from the neighborhood can interferer. So, do take care of any possible interference as well.
3. Survey the area using a laptop : The best way to analyze the location of the router is to use a laptop and then check the signal strength using that laptop. You’ll be able to check the signal strength in your house using that laptop and that will help you decide that where exactly you need to place the router.
How to setup the Wireless internet connection :
Well, I can give you the basic instructions on that one, however, I’ll always suggest you to get in touch with the Router or Wireless NIC manufacturer’s technical support for that. Just follow that they’ve to say and I’m sure that you won’t find even a single difficulty in setting the connection! In case you face any problems, then you can contact me anytime and I’ll be all ready to help you with your connection problem :)
Do you plan to use the wireless setup or do you already have one?
Update : This is how a basic wireless setup looks like :
22 Responses so far
Leave a Comment
RSS Newsletter
Loading ...
- maria echelon Hey there, my name is Maria and i was wondering if i could s...
- Michael I'm really glad I found this thread. I did the auto-update o...
- BT Linda - great tip. After having major issues with SP2, I re...
- Linda HEY EVERYBODY--I WAS READY TO CALL BILL GATES TO BUY ME A NE...
- Evan Fell Earth Class Mail is a terrible service and I was extremly di...
About | Feeds | Subscribe | Contact | Privacy Policy | Sitemap
Good Tips Mayank! Would be really helpful for a non tech person.!
You bet! really helpful for me, an non-techie-dino guy! ;p
I’m going to apply it for my office. It’s fun to think that no more LAN cable accross the ceiling! Stumbled!
I am using one already at my house. My roommate and myself, we have 3 pcs at home. One desktop and two laptops.
The config is quite easy and there actually is not much hassle to set them up.
Nice tip. Thanks for sharing :-)
nice tips there.. I have a wireless setup at my home for my PC and macbook and yeah it works in all rooms :)
HMmm, seems interesting. almost flawless, but you forgot to mention the 802.11a, still in some of the place we get to see those routers. Yes, but for new ones, no “a” series.
And for setting up the wireless connection, These router manufacturer like netgear, linksys they provide softwares for that, but in case you are using win xp sp2 and above, including 2k3, you can easily create your own wireless network, with the wireless network wizard available, in Cpanel.
However the windoes n/w doesn’t provide that flexibilty, what a third party software can provide. :)
Good article. When you consider wireless home network consider about the security also as usually the coverage are of the network overlap to neighboring houses also and they might pop-in and use your network!
I would recommend DLink as well since I have been using it from quite some time now.
Also I would recommend to go for a Router+Modem in one unit. (Eg. DLink G604T)
It has both the RJ11 interface and the Ethernet interface in one unit. If you are on Airtel, you could save the rent paid on the modem :)
[...] Important things to keep in mind while setting up Home Wireless Network! Planning to set up a wireless home network? Read these guidelines before you plan to buy any hardware or device. [...]
oh mayank.. i wish i had a coin with your name on both sides .. but i don’t!! but guess what, I stumbled your post …
nice site and yes i’m also using the same template… at Ken Xu’s recommendation :)
I’m glad that all of your liked the posts. Thank you, Pearl and ken for stumbling the post :)
@ Vaibhav : Windows wireless networking wizard provides almost all the options which you’ll see in any other utility.
@ Mr byte : Yes, security is also important while setting up the wireless router. It was detailed, so I kept it as a separate topic!
@ Venu : Oh thanks for the recommendation. D-Link products are indeed good. Router+modem is a good option too, but they are generally expensive than Router and modem combined!
Just tagging on to what Mr Byte said, if you don’t setup security on your router, at least make sure you’re not sharing folders w/ sensitive material on your network. And especially don’t let others have permissions to change those files!
Hi Mayank,
Are you planning a trip to Florida ?
I need you to install my wireless connection :):).
I have no clue on this and getting one of the guys in the church to help us to do the connection next 2 weeks. He might need to read this post :)-.
Cool post, I love it.
After reading u, Ken, Kuanhoong, I am writing like a tech guy, check my latest post on 5ways to travel… and this silly buger, Kuanhoong insist I was writing a paid post, chilaka :)-
nice info… great.. ok now for the next step.
after setup the wireless connection… give us tips on what wireless security would we need.
or should we free up our wi-fi to let other people ride in with our connection… just an idea.. :)
@ Bush : It’s just not shared folders which can create problems. There are various other threats which can cause lot of trouble. So, enabling security is really important too!
@ Jamy : I wish I could plan a trip to Florida! I can’t even after reading your nice 5 tips of travelling :) Anyway, just in case you need any help you can leave comment or email me directly and I’ll try my level best to help you in what ever way I can :)
@ Jaren : Sure, I’m already working on it and shortly you’ll have a post which will give you more info on wireless security :)
I needed this info. yesterday only I did the setup for my home wireless, but needed technical info which was provided by ISP’s technical helpdesk . But i was unable to setup the security . WEP is what they call it .. It asked for 10 digit number , but when i entered , it was not accepting . Any idea where I was wrong ?? gonna send it to technical support today !!
Hey I am back…..after 1month hiatus from blogging
Hey Kanak!
WEP is the security standard used for Wireless. If you could provide more info, i.e. which wireless router…you are using. If you know, how to access the router’s configuration page or not ?
If you are using Windows utility to connect to wireless or the one which came with the router. All these things help a lot. So, if you can provide more information, I’ll be able to provide the solution!
@reviewsauras , I got speedstream wireless router. Yeah i know how to access the router config page with gateway ip , 192.168.254.254 . I logged in to admin control panel and clicked the security link on the menu . Initially it was disable , I selected enable and went to 64bit(I think it was 64) wep encryption . Then it asked me enter 10 digit code , which I entered and clicked next , It displayed some 4 to 5 hex codes option, After this what ever I select and enter , and click next , it comes back and stay in the same page which was displaying the hex codes without any warning or error message. SO i had no idea what to do !! and just closed the panel. This is how I was not able to enable security on my wireless network. Any suggestions where I was wrong.
@ Kanak : I’m sorry for replying so late to your query. Well, you did the right thing by enabling the security and followed absolutely right steps. There are no hex codes involved in this. May be those hex codes are some way displaying an error :P
Try to enable the WPA and then see what happens, if it works or not. Wireless security is important and it should not be neglected.
Mayank,
2 questions here.
1. Where do you install the wireless router (software).
Is it on the old computer that has the DSL or on the new computer we just bought ?
2. Do we plug in the physical router into our DSL modem ?
Thank you for your help.
Jamy
@ Aunt Jamy :
1. You need to install the software on all those computers which you want to use. It is not necessary but usually you’ll find it easier if you use the software which came with the router.
2. Yes it has to be plugged into the DSL modem. For your convenience, I’ve embedded a presentation which has the image of the basic setup of wireless router or click on this link to see that presentation in bigger size : http://viewer.zoho.com/docs/sYTvd . If you need any other info do let me know.