In this article:

1. Overview: various networks
2. Hardware requirements
3. Setting up the network
4. Setting up the wireless clients

Various Home Wireless Networks

Building a wireless network in home is not as complicated as building medium to enterprise class wireless network. The main reason of setting up a wireless network in home originally is to share the broadband internet connectivity. Later when you explore what you can do with your wireless network with internet connection, you demand high bandwidth to support high performance wireless network for home theater environment.

As general there are three types of wireless network infrastructure you can build based on the devices currently running in place. The wireless infrastructure can consist of:

1. All-in-one wireless router with built-in modem
2. wired router (with built-in modem) plus wireless access point
3. modem-only plus wireless broadband router

There are two most popular broadband internet services available for homes or small offices: Cable or DSL services such as Comcast and Verizon. Before discussing any further, the figure 1 shows network block diagram as general which consists of modem; a router; a firewall and your internal home network. For home network, typically a router and a firewall are integrated into a single device what we are familiar with – a router. A router supports dual firewall feature NAT & SPI. However, there are many all-in-one devices which integrate the modem; the router; the firewall and the wireless access point in a compact device.

One thing that you also need to know is the IP address deployment. As shown in the block diagram, the public IP address is provided by your ISP which is assigned to the external interface of the router that is facing the internet (typically the WAN port of the router). While the IP address assigned to the internal interface of the firewall is the private IP address. The IP address assigned to the router itself is the private IP address to let you manage the router via the network.

Fig 1 Block diagram home network

The following table 1 shows the private IP address you can use for your internal network. Remember, private IP addresses are not routable to the internet. It is therefore the NAT feature comes to bridge (mapping) between the internal and public network.

Mostly the default IP address of wireless routers from different vendors comes in the Class C private address. Table 2 shows the manufacturer’s default settings of some wireless routers.

Network Using All-in-One Device

The easiest way in building a wireless network in home is using the All-in-one device which integrates the function of wireless router (with firewall feature) and the modem in a single device. For example: with Cable service you can use Surfboard SBG6580 Docsis 3.0 wireless cable modem, and with DSL services you can use DGND3700 wireless N600 ADSL modem router.  Click here for lists of popular Wireless router with built-in modem.

The figure 2 shows networking diagram with Surfboard SBG6580 cable modem with XBOX, HDTV and Blu-Ray player connect wirelessly to the internet using four-port wireless universal bridge (WLI-TX4-AG300N). Some wireless modem routers include one USB port for shared storage.

Fig 2 Cable modem router diagram

Setting up is easy; connect the cable line to the coaxial port of the modem. You need to know the account name and password for your cable services. Consult with your ISP to help you configure the modem – just one phone call.

Wired Router Plus Wireless Access Point

There are many wired router with built-in ADSL modem available in the market for example DSL-2540 by D-Link or Actiontec GT701D. To extend the network wirelessly, you can add a wireless access point (AP) device. Typically a wireless AP consist of one (or more) Ethernet port you can connect it (using network cable) to one of the Ethernet port of the wired router.

Click here for more detail how to create a wireless network using DAP-1360 wireless AP as an example of building a wireless network with wired router plus wireless access point.

Wireless Broadband Router plus Modem

This is a common solution for homes, separating modem-only device (no routing feature) with a wireless router. Typically this configuration is mostly used by users with cable services. Figure 4 shows a wireless networking diagram with cable modem, a wireless router and some home theater devices clients.

Fig 3 Modem with wireless router diagram

For your home wireless environment that you want to support “work” and “play” you can consider any types of wireless routers with two USB port for shared storage and shared printer such as Asus RT-N56U black diamond. If currently you would like to upgrade your legacy router to support home theater environment, you can consider this ultimate speed and range the Netgear WNDR4500 N900 router which includes two USB port too.

See also some Linksys wireless routers for networking solution.

Setting Up Wireless Clients

Most recent wireless routers support WPS (Wireless Protected Setup) to let you easily connect the wireless clients with WPS-enable by just pressing WPS button to create secure connection with the router. Assure to purchase wireless clients with WPS feature.

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