By Ki Grinsing

Overview

How to setup home wireless network? This question is becoming so popular and is frequently asked question this day. Wireless network becomes one of the busiest tasks to do this day in home or offices. The apparent advantage of wireless connection is no clutter of the wires within the house. No drilling holes through the walls to pas the wired-cable from the router to each of the computers to connect to the network.

Wifi evolution

Unlike tens of years ago when the speed of wireless was only 2Mbps, today the wireless technology can deliver the wireless speed of up to 1300Mbps using the latest 5G Wifi (802.11ac standard). This wireless ac is the newest wireless technology which is replacing the wireless N technology. The fastest wireless N technology can deliver the speeds of up to 450Mbps with three spatial data streams. Many wireless routers today are based on this wireless N technology including wireless N750 and N900 routers.

Setting up the network

Setting up home wireless network usually means to share the broadband internet connection with some computers within the household, share the files, share a single multi-function printer, play multiplayer games, streaming HD video and other media, and go XBOX Live game wirelessly from the comfort of the living room with your large and smooth HDTV. Setting up the network is getting easier with multi-function modem-gateway (all-in-one modem router device) which combines the functions of modem, router/firewall, Ethernet switch and a wireless access point device.

Wireless Network Diagram

To setup your home wireless network using an all-in-one device, you just need little effort since there is only one device as the center of your network.

All-in-one

For DSL services you have various models of DSL modem gateway available in the market today such as Netgear DGND3700 wireless dual band ADSL router. What youo do is need to connect the phone line to the gateway RJ-11 port. Generally you require a splitter to split the phone line, so you can connect the line to both the modem and the Telephone.  Consult with your ISP to setup the WAN IP address which is commonly supplied either dynamically (IP address is assigned automatically using DHCP server) or assigned a static IP address manually.

One phone call to the ISP, then your wireless environment is ready to live. Have a look at the wireless network diagram below that will help you configure your home wireless network using multi-function all-in-one wireless modem routers.

Fig 1 A Simple networking diagram using ADSL gateway router

Modem and wireless router

What if you use the modem and the router separately? It is common that the ISP supplied you the modem when you signup for a broadband internet services that connects to a single computer using USB connection. How to create a wireless network with the existing modem? You need to purchase a wireless router. I recommend that you purchase the wireless router that is powered by the recent technology – either 802.11n or 802.11ac standards. If you would like to use the network mostly for gaming with your XBOX, consider the wireless router designed for gaming.

Network diagram

The following figure is the configuration of the wireless network diagram using separate modem and the wireless router. Typically cable services use separate cable modem and the router. For cable modem, you may use DOCSIS 3.0 cable modem such as Surfboard SB610/6121 by Motorola.

Fig 2 Wireless network diagram using cable modem and wireless ac router

Setup

As usual, connect the WAN port of the modem to the DSL line (RJ-11 port) or the Cable line (depends on the modem and whether you are using Cable or ADSL services). Secondly you need to connect the LAN port (RJ-45) of the modem (typically marked with the yellow port – but not always) to the WAN port (RJ-45) of the wireless router.

Connect the computer or laptop to the router and run the installation wizard CD shipped with the router on purchase. After setting up the Router with the Setup Wizard (located on the CD-ROM), the Router will be ready for use. If you’d like to change its advanced settings, use the Router’s web-based utility.

That’s all, setting up your home wireless network is ready to use. You can connect the computers with Wi-Fi enabled on the network coverage easily and automatically.

IP Address Assignment

By default, all the computers with Windows installation is ready with DHCP client configured. Moreover, all the wireless routers with default installation is DHCP server enabled. With the default setting, your computers are ready to connect to your wireless network.

Security

Up to here, setting up your home wireless network is completed but your network is vulnerable to eavesdropping by people around the network coverage. Because wireless networking operates by sending information over radio waves, it can be more vulnerable to intruders than a traditional wired network. They can easily penetrate into your network and espionage everything they would like to know about your private network if your wireless network is not secured. At least they have a free Internet connection from your open wireless network.

To secure your network, you need to enable the wireless security encryption using WPA/WPA2 security encryption. Actually there are various types of wireless security encryption can be deployed, but depends on what types of security features your router can support. Depends on your router, typically there are six wireless security mode options supported by the Router:

• WPA (Wi-Fi Protected Access) Personal,
• WPA Enterprise,
• WPA2 Personal,
• WPA2 Enterprise,
• RADIUS (Remote Authentication Dial-In User Service),
• WEP

The above lists are typical wireless –N router security options available. For legacy wireless –G devices or wireless –B devices, typically there is only WEP and or WPA. For advanced setting you should consult with your manual book for more detail configuration options.