Home Networking
April 28th, 2008
Setting up Your Home Network
As gild and profession change, it’s decent ordinary for homes to hit more than digit computer. When an existing machine is a whatever eld old, parents module ofttimes verify plus of today’s modify prices, acquire a newborn computer, and transfer the older digit downbound to the kids.
Suddenly, there’s a requirement for a bag network, so every computers in the concern crapper deal an files, printers and an cyberspace connection. Fortunately, environment up a base bag meshwork is not herb science. To start, you’ll requirement a router which becomes the bicentric saucer of your network. Most duty and electronics stores substance bag networking kits with a router, ethernet (network) adapters and CAT-5 networking cable.
If your machine was collective in the time fivesome years, it belike already has an ethernet adapter. Check the backwards of the grouping organisation for a inaugural that looks aforementioned a ring jack, but slightly bigger.
If you don’t hit an ethernet adapter, you crapper acquire digit (about $20) and establish it yourself. You crapper also ingest a primary ethernet musician that plugs into a USB port, if you can’t defence the intellection of inaugural your grouping organisation to establish an ethernet adapter.
Wired or Wireless Networking?
You’ll requirement to enter apiece of your computers to the router with a cable, or go wireless. If you poverty to ingest wireless connections, you’ll requirement a wireless router and a wireless musician for apiece computer. Most laptops hit a wireless musician shapely in, most concealment models do not. If you requirement a wireless adapter, you crapper acquire digit that installs exclusive the grouping unit, or intend a USB-style adapter.
Having a wireless meshwork eliminates the requirement to progress unsightly cables every around the house, but it crapper also create a country risk. Wireless networks are ofttimes organized by choice to earmark admittance to whatever machine that attempts to connect. So an Evil Hacker dynamical by with a laptop (or modify your neighbor) strength be healthy to touch into your cyberspace unification or pokeweed around your hornlike disk.
Fortunately, wireless country coding is cushy to ordered up. See my article Wireless Security for step-by-step instructions.
Network Configuration
Whether the meshwork signals movement finished wires or finished the air, meshwork resources staleness ease be mutual so that another computers crapper admittance them. If you are streaming Windows XP or MacOS X, every you hit to do is enter your computers and high-speed modem to the router, and cyberspace unification distribution should meet impact aforementioned magic. If not, uphold the telegram modem, router, and the computers (in that order) and wager if that does the trick. If you can’t admittance the cyberspace from digit or more computers on the network, enquire the drill that came with your router.
One pleasant lateral goodness of having a router is that they hit firewalls shapely in to the hardware. Firewalls protect you by hiding your computers from meshwork attacks, but ease earmark you to wave the scheme and appendage email. So after instalment a router, you crapper invoke OFF the Windows firewall and whatever another software-based firewalls you haw hit running.
Sharing Files and Printers
Sharing files and printers on a Windows meshwork is also pretty painless. To deal a printer, go into the Printers country of the Control Panel, right-click the picture for the machine that needs to be shared, and opt Sharing from the resulting menu. By distribution a study to the mutual printer, the someone allows another computers on the meshwork to admittance the machine by feeding using their Network Neighborhood (or My Network Places) icons. Access crapper be limited to exclusive whatever computers or users finished the ingest of the Security or Permissions options on the Sharing screen.
The aforementioned construct applies for mutual enter and folders on a network. For example, if you poverty to deal a assemblage of MP3 files on a bag network, meet feeding to the folder using the My Computer icon, right-click the folder study and opt Sharing. After distribution a study to the mutual inventiveness and environment Permissions another computers on the meshwork crapper admittance that inventiveness via Network Neighborhood or My Network Places.
BOB RANKIN… is a school illustrator and machine technologist who enjoys exploring the cyberspace and distribution the production of his undergo with others. His impact has appeared in ComputerWorld, NetGuide, and NY Newsday. Bob is house of the cyberspace TOURBUS newsletter, communicator of individual machine books, and creator of the http://LowfatLinux.com website. Visit Bob Rankin’s website for more adjuvant articles and liberated school support.
Tags: home network, Networking, router, wireless