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If you have broadband Internet access and more than one computer, a wireless network will let you make the most of your connection and let all users surf away from anywhere in the house – you can even choose to share files, printers and more. |
Wireless networking is, in a nutshell, all about freedom. The freedom, specifically, to have access to your Internet account anywhere in your house – and depending on your environs, all the way out to the side of the family pool or barbie. It removes the clutter and difficulty of installing cables, or of having them trail over the floor, where they become a natural trip hazard.
However, there are some drawbacks to wireless networking. Security is a big issue (see ‘Lock it down’, below), and in some home environments, trying to get a wireless signal to pass through a wall can be a real challenge. We’ve covered the basics of wireless networking standards in our Buyers’ Guide to wireless routers (June NetGuide); this guide is intended to complement that by showing you how to set up your own home network, and manage it as well.
The first step to setting up your wireless network involves adding wireless capabilities to your existing computers. If you’ve got a moderately new notebook, the odds are that it’ll already have wireless capabilities built in; check for a Centrino sticker on the laptop and if there is one, all you should need to do is flick the ‘on’ switch – sometimes a physical switch, sometimes a combination of the function keys (usually Fn-F2). Check your notebook’s manual or manufacturer’s Web site for how to enable wireless on your particular model.
If you don’t have wireless already embedded, you’ll need to purchase wireless adaptors. There are four varieties to contend with – PC Card/ExpressCard (for notebooks only), PCI cards (for desktops only) and USB dongles (for everything). USB adaptors are by far the easiest to install, and the most portable, as you can shift them from system to system as required. Installation is as simple as installing the drivers and plugging in the USB stick to a spare port.
Physical setup of your router should, by and large, be covered by the manufacturer’s documentation that comes in the box with it, but in basic terms it’s not much more complex than plugging in the power, plugging in your broadband connection – if it’s a router/modem combo, this will be your ADSL phone line; if it’s just a router, this should be a standard Ethernet cable snaking out from your ADSL modem. If your modem came without documentation or you’ve managed to lose it, you can check the manufacturer’s Web site for documentation and technical support if your installation isn’t going to plan.
Configuration is the big challenge in setting up the wireless router side of things, and it’s the hardest for us to cover exhaustively, as the methodology varies so much between routers. Most new routers do come with simple installation utilities for Windows – although you may need XP or Vista rather than older Windows variants to take advantage of this. Otherwise, you’ll be configuring your router via its Web interface. Nearly all routers use a common address – 192.168.1.1 – but check your router documentation to be sure.
In order to ‘talk’ to your PCs, your router needs to allocate addresses to each PC. It does this via a process called DHCP (Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol), which allows it to manage addresses for every device. These addresses are those long strings of numbers that identify each machine – for example, if your router is 192.168.1.1, the additional machines on the network will be 192.168.1.2, 192.168.1.3, and so on. Make sure that DHCP is enabled on your router – it’s usually a toggle switch or checkbox, and should be on by default. Once you’ve checked that DHCP is enabled, and entered your ISP’s login details – this will probably be a PPPOE login for ADSL users – you may need to save your changes and reboot the router. At this point, your router and network should be working properly, but there’s just one more step – and it’s arguably the most vital (and most often overlooked) part of wireless networking: security.
Lock it down
There’s a confusing mix of wireless security standards on the market today. You’re free to use whichever one works with all your equipment – without doubt any wireless device will support the older WEP (Wired Equivalent Privacy) standard, but WEP is not particularly secure. It’ll keep out random snoopers, but anyone who wants to get into your network can sniff out the code using some pretty basic applications. Newer devices support WPA (WiFi Protected Access), which is a much stronger algorithm. There are three different flavours of WPA: WPA, and WPA2 with or without PSK. The terminology can be confusing, but essentially you just need to work out the strongest WPA setting your technology will handle, and then come up with a secure pass-phrase to lock it all down. Resist the urge to go for a simple, guessable password – something with a mix of capital and lower-case letters and numbers is best. Mnemonics can be your friend here, as an easily remembered phrase with a few number substitutions for letters can be indecipherable to others, but easy for you to remember. Ignore settings on routers looking for things such as RADIUS servers – that’s technology for enterprise-level deployment. What you’re after is a PSK (pre-shared key) setup. Once you’ve set the PSK in your router, connecting up your PCs simply involves finding the access point from the computer and inputting the correct key.
One other setting that’s worth changing is the SSID (Service Set IDentifier) of your network. This is the network ‘name’ that your router uses. It’s worth changing basically because leaving it as the default – usually the name of the manufacturer of the router – is a bit of a flag to others that your security isn’t up to scratch. It’s also nice to have a network that’s identifiably ‘yours’. You’ll also have the option to broadcast the SSID name or not. An unbroadcasted SSID won’t show up automatically for those doing a simple scan for access points, but this is as much a matter of convenience as security; a determined person can find out a hidden SSID fairly easily, and you’ll need to manually enter the SSID correctly if you hide it.
Basic Windows Networking
A home wireless network isn’t just limited to sharing Internet access to all the PCs in your home; you can also use the same wireless infrastructure to share files, stream music and video, and share peripherals such as storage drives and printers between all your machines. Windows networking is a big topic, but fortunately, there are some easy ways to set up a small home network using Windows.
Both Windows Vista and Windows XP include fairly decent Wizard-based approaches to setting up a home network, although you may have to toggle a lot of settings in order to get Vista talking to just about anything else – confusingly, this also includes other PCs running Vista. Vista’s networking is controlled from the Networking and Sharing Center, which you’ll find under Start>Control Panel>Network And Sharing Center. From here, Vista users should click on Network Discovery, and enable File And Folder sharing. While Vista has dedicated ‘Public’ folders for this purpose, you can still right-click on a folder and share it manually. Make sure that your Workgroup name (typically "WORKGROUP") is the same for all the PCs you plan to share with. Whether you enable password-protected sharing is up to you; in some configurations, the password mechanism can cause big bottlenecks between PCs, but without it, you're leaving your shared folders open to the rest of your internal network.
Windows XP’s setup for networking is similar, accessed via Start>Control Panel>Network Setup Wizard. The Wizard is nicely self-explanatory, but remember that you’re now going to be connecting to the network via your router – this is the second, Residential Gateway option when you’re asked. Once again, you’ll make life easier for yourself if you choose an identical Workgroup name for all your PCs, but you’re by no means beholden to the default naming Microsoft uses.
The final step in getting your shared network up and running is firewall configuration. By default, most firewalls will block traffic they don’t understand – it’s more secure that way – and while configurations differ, you may be able to get away with something as simple as allowing traffic the first time your firewall pops up, if it detects the external systems at all. Otherwise, you’ll need to explicitly allow your additional machines from within your firewall interface. Again, some (but not all) firewall manufacturers are getting smart and building home networking options into their firewall interfaces, so you may be able to simply tell your firewall to allow internal traffic and let it sort out the fiddly details. One final tip here: if you’re not running a firewall, start now. Enabling wireless networking across your machines brings the Internet to every PC in your home, and that’s akin to opening up a whole new series of doors into your home, with absolutely no idea who’s out there waiting to come in.
Useful Web Site
www.networkmagic.comWhile it does sport a paid version, the free version of Network Magic, available as a 13.5MB download, gives you an excellent and easy-to-discern network map that lets you identify everything on your network in a visual way. Other tools, such as Linksys’s LELA, offer more overall flexibility, but they’re somewhat router-limited and not free anyway.
Beginner Tips:
Same bat-time, different bat-channel
Wireless routers use one of 12 different channels for broadcast. Typically, most will default to using channel 1, but if you’re having trouble with wireless signal strength, try one of the other channels. Some routers work better on different channels, and you can also dodge the heavy usage of other wireless networks that may be nearby.
ISP, please help me!
If you’re struggling to get your Router to talk nicely online, call your ISP. They should be able to advise the exact settings you’ll need to enter, and if they’re familiar with the router you’ve got – especially if they’ve supplied it – they should be able to walk you through getting it working.
The password is “password”
If you’ve bought/inherited/come into a secondhand router, or lost the documentation, you may not be able to access the default password. The solution to this is pretty easy, as long as you’ve got Net access somewhere else: Google for “Router Name”+”default password”. You’ll almost invariably find a ton of sites listing it, which will give you easy access and a really, really good reason to change the default, because if you can find it, so can other people.
Expert tips
MAC attack
If you really want a secure system, use a blacklist approach – that is, blocking everything except those systems you already know about – by enabling MAC filtering on your router. You’ll need to note the MAC address of every wireless adaptor on your network to do this, which is a fiddly process but a much more secure one.
MTU
The MTU (Maximum Transmission Unit) describes the single largest packet that your wireless network will handle. On most routers sold here, it’s set to 1492, which works well with most ISPs. If you’re having trouble with your wireless network, try adjusting the MTU downwards (especially if it’s set on a default 1500 setting, which is the maximum that an Ethernet network can natively handle).
HomePlug is where the heart is
If you’ve got trouble getting a wireless signal to a specific room due to building issues, you have two basic choices. The first is to knock the offending wall down, which is admittedly a little extreme. The easier option is to invest in some HomePlug adaptors, and use them to extend your wireless network. Plug one end in at the router, and the other in the offending room, and you’ve got an instant Ethernet port.
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