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Setting up a Home Network
By TheEmperor | May 28, 2008
Gone are the days when a home had merely a single computing device. Now people have a PC in the home office, the kids have gaming PCs, maybe a laptop from work, there might be as many as five or six devices all wanting internet access, and maybe you want to be able to share files with each other as well. While on the surface this may look complicated it’s really quite simple.
Your first step is to know what you want to do. Most people want to be able to all use the internet at the same time and not much more, so that is what we will address first. So now that we’ve decided what we want to accomplish let’s figure out what we need to make that happen.
There are several factors that must be taken into account when planning your network, cost, convenience, and technical ability. For this article we’ll look at solutions that deal with several combinations of those three factors.
Solution 1 - Low Cost, Low Convenience, Low Technical Ability
This is the most common solution in homes right now. Just go out and buy any Broadband Router with Built-in Switch (for example this Netgear router here, they cost around fifty dollars and will get the job done. The downside is that they generally only support four or five devices and each device will require an ethernet cable. If you want to connect PCs in multiple rooms this may require running cable through your walls (which is not recommended if you don’t have experience doing it) or dragging a hundred feet of cable around your house (which is ugly and a tripping hazard). If you have a single room where all of your computers reside this is the best solution. Just drop it in, plug in the cables and you’re done.
Solution 2 - High Cost, High Convenience, Low to Medium Technical Ability
This is actually my favorite solution, even though it can get rather expensive. Purchase a Wireless Router and a Wireless Card for each PC involved (that doesn’t already have a wireless card, obviously). A good Wireless Router (Like this Netgear Rangemax) will run you about $130, maybe as much as $150, and each Wireless Card will cost about $80. The setup for the router is pretty straight forward if you don’t mind your neighbors being able to snoop your network, and only moderately complex if you want a secure wireless network. The cards are equally simple to install if you use USB wireless adapters (Like this one).This solution has the advantage of using almost no cables, covering your entire house (unless you live in some gigantor mansion, in which case you’ve got the money to hire a professional to setup your network), and delivering plenty of speed. The down side is that some devices like certain baby monitors and some radio devices can interfere with your wireless signal, and depending on the materials and size of your house you may not get complete coverage with just one access point.
Solution 3 - High Cost, High Convenience, High Technical Ability
This is the “Pro” solution. Buy a 1000 foot spool of Plenum rated Cat6 and run it to each room in your house from a central wiring closet. This is the room where your DSL or Cable modem will reside and where any server components will live. Terminate the cable in each room with wallplates and jacks. Terminate it in the closet with a patch panel. Now you can install wireless access points at various places in the house if you want Wireless, and you can have wired access as well. This is great if you do a lot of high bandwidth video sharing, or if you regularly host LAN parties or conferences. Generally the people who need this kind of solution already know it and either know who to call or how to do it themselves.
Most people will use a combination of Solution 1 and Solution 2 by buying a cheaper wireless router with a switch built in (Like this one) and setting it up in their home office. This way you can use ethernet cables to connect the machines in the same room, and wireless cards for the one or two laptops that move around. Most modern laptops have wireless cards built in, so this keeps the costs down while still being fairly convenient.
If you are interested in detailed help setting up one of these solutions please feel free to email me at TheEmperor@techemperor.com.
Topics: home networking, network, setup network, wireless networking, wireless router |
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