Very basic: what do I need to set up a home wireless network?

Factual Questions
1

I searched for a thread like this, but couldn’t find it.

I have a desktop, a few years old, running Windows XP home edition (or whatever, not professional).

I have a new laptop, running Windows 7. I also have two external hard drives, which I would like to use through the network for backing up.

I have internet access through a cable modem.

I would like to set up a network to which I could connect both PCs. The laptop would connect either wirelessly, or wired through a docking station, depending on where I wanted to work at the moment.

I would like all the security to be handled on the network, so that when I turn on one of the PCs I don’t have to wait for the security to update before I can do anything. So I would leave the network hardware turned on all the time, but turn off the PCs when I’m not using them.

So what are the basic components of a home network? Assume I am starting with 0 knowledge of networks, but a good working knowledge of standalone PCs in general. I’m not worried about cables, etc. just the hardware components. I don’t want to go to someplace and put myself in the hands of strangers, at least until I have some notion of what I’m talking about.

And if you feel like it, and if price were no object (but time and space are) what would be your ideal home network for this situation - brand names, models, anything you want to share.
Thanks, Roddy

2

You start with something like this. It provides the wireless connectivity as well as 4 wired ports.

3

Thank you. It appears, from the description, that this router is all I need.

Is this a brand that you would recommend?
Roddy

4

Yes, get a standard basic home router; typically wireless, with 4 wired ports. These are cheap nowadays, $20 to $50. Unles you get a good deal or are a technophile with money - andyour new laptop does “N” - a “G” wireless is usually adequate for home. If the laptop does N, it does G and A and B (older and slower wifi standards) networking to.

The router connects to the cable modem with the WAN port (WAN = Wide Area Network, or the “rest of the world”).

Any home computers with network ports can be plugged in to the router’s 4 LAN (local area network) ports. If your XP PC is only “aa few years old” odds are it has a network port (which you are using with the internet?)

The router as configured from the factory should be set up to hand out IP addresses to local devices on the LAN and wireless. (“DHCP” address server) Usually these are in the range of 192.168.0.xxx or 192.168.1.xxx; The router gives itself the .1 address.

You usually program your home router by connecting to the LAN port with your PC. The PC will be set to “acquire address automatically” in Control Panel - network - select the AN connection - Properties - edit the properties of the TCP/IP settings.

Then you can open Internet Explorer and go to the adderss of the router - usually 192.168.0.1 or 192.168.0.1.1; if you are debugging network settings, open a dos box (Start - Run “cmd”) and type the command " ipconfig " to see what your network address is. use the command " ipconfig /all " to determine DNS and other settings.

Set up the router for web connection. Among other things when you get connected to the router, set the management password. WRITE IT DOWN and file it somewhere. Default out of the box, routers are usually user/password combinations like admin/admin admin/password, <blank>/admin, <blank>/<blank> the documentation with the router can tell you, or google the brand and “default password” online.

Also, you will have to enter the login/password for your service onto the router if the cable company needs one. The phone company’s DSL usually does, don’t know about cable.

Set up wireless security. WPA2 is better than WPA is better than WEP. Pick a passphrase better than “password” or “hello”. Write it down!! You also set the SSID or the “network name” of your wireless. Avoid a name like “22 Smith Street” or “The Jones Family” - why make it more obvious than necessary? You can hide the SSID but serious hackers (who can crack WEP and possibly WPA) will know how to find it anyway.

Once the router is advertising the wireless network, you can connect your laptop to the wifi service.

Google file sharing in XP. You can turn on simple file sharing. The disks connected to either computer can be shared, or the properties of any folder (right-click, properties, sharing tab) can be set to shared.

your laptop (Win 7 and Vista) will allow you to describe any wifi or network connection as “public” or “private”. In sharing files, this is confusing. A “public” network is one like Starbucks Wifi. The geenral public can be on the same network, so you don’t want to share your files with everyone. So “PUBLIC” is “Don’t share” and “private” is share. This is what passes for obvious in the Microsoft world.

Your computers have names - rightclick “(My) Computer” properties - Computer name tab. I.e. FredLaptop. There is also a spot for workgroup name. To see each other, the computers bneed to be in the same name workgroup. Hopefully they default to the same “WORKGROUP” workgroup.
Get to the files by looking in network neighbourhood or Start-Run and type “\FredLapTop” and see a list of what FredLaptop shares.

If you have any questions, google and search… Someone has already posted a handy hint…

Good luck!

(Oh yeah - the times you are moving huge files around from the laptop - it may be faster to plug into a wired network port…)

5

Belkin or Linksys are both good. I use Belkin myself.

6

I actually haven’t owned this or any other Belkin router so I can’t say (It came up first in the Google seach). I had a bad experience with a LinkSys router one time but I don’t think I would condemn them as a whole. I liked the D-Link wireless router I had for awhile. Right now I am using the wireless router that came with U-Verse service. If I were going to upgrade to 802.11N I’d probably go with a D-Link product. Maybe other dopers will weigh in with more opinions.

7

Just want to point out that if your laptop does not support wifi, you’ll have to get some kind of wifi (probably usb) plug. Pretty much all laptops made in the last 5+ years have wifi built in, and wifi plugs are fairly cheap but you may want to check that beforehand if you’re short on cash, since simple wired routers do cost less than wifi ones.

8

Yes, the laptop does have wifi built in.

Thanks, everyone, md2000 that is a lot of very useful information.

I just realized I have two printers and the two external hard drives, as well as the two PCs. It sounds like I would need more than 4 ports to handle all that. Although one of the printers does do wireless connectivity.
Roddy

9

You can share your printers and external hard drives by connecting them to a PC that is hooked up to the router and enabling some network sharing settings on that PC. There is no way to hook them up directly to the router unless they are network-enabled (like the one printer), so don’t worry about using up those ports. Also remember that the number of wireless connections is not bound by the number of physical ports on the device, so you should be fine with hooking up the devices that you have (the max number of wireless connections is likely something you will never hit, on the order of tens or hundreds of devices depending on model).

10

Although, if you do ever truly need more wired ports, you can expand you network with a switch.

11

Wow pretty good info, and sounds pretty complicated. I did it a few years back but have always been a little concerned for security. (someone driving down the street and hacking into my signal) but I guess nowadays it’s a little more secure. One thing I did read that peeked my interest was the part that said if you are on a network with the wireless you can draw files from your other desktop in the house? Is that correct, if so I like that a lot but again concerned about how secure this is if someone drives by the house and tries to connect to my wifi?
One option that I have been using is a wired network for our three computers in the house and if one is being used and I am on the laptop I can access the other through the internet using a "FREE’ program called LOG ME IN which I said is completely free you just have to watch when you are signing up you click the "FREE’ box. Used in for over 2 years and it works great.
What it does is connect through the internet anywhere in the world and you connect to a computer that has that software installed.
When I want to transfer a file/link to my laptop from the other computer I just copy/paste it an email and then open the email on the computer I am sitting at.

Security is very important to me in this age.