Set Up Your Own Wireless Home Network Articles Subir Chowdhuri subir@desdevpro.com http://www.desdevpro.com 14 August 2009 Wireless Network home network Networking This guide will walk you through the process of planning, building, and testing a wireless home network. Although mainstream wireless networking has made amazing strides in the past few years, wireless technology and terminology remains a bit difficult for most of us to understand and implement. This guide will help small business networkers, too. Preparation Wireless networks are easier to set up now than in the past,as I'll demonstrate in this article. wireless_home_nw02.jpg You need a wireless router such as those from D-Link (www.dlink.com), Linksys (www.linksys.com), and Netgear (www.netgear.com), along with an adapter card for each node (PC or laptop on the network) that doesn't already have wireless capability. Typically, notebook Wi-Fi adapters come in the form of CardBus cards or PC Cards, whereas desktop PC adapters fit into PCI (Peripheral Component Interconnect) slots. Buy devices that support WPA (Wi-Fi Protected Access) encryption. Most wireless routers at this writing support Wi-Fi G (802.11g) at a theoretical top speed of 54Mbps (megabits per second), as well as 11Mbps Wi-Fi (802.11b). Some router/adapter sets use proprietary technology to reach faster speeds. A recurring PC Today article, 'The Hot Spot' (this month on page 65), often features more information on Wi-Fi, including the upcoming 802.11n. Before you install anything, write down the settings of your existing Internet connection and network, if you have one. Your ISP can supply the Internet settings, including whether your connection uses a static (preassigned) or dynamic (changes at every connection) IP (Internet Protocol) address, such as 192.168.128.11, or static or dynamic PPPoE (Point-To-Point Protocol over Ethernet). By default, your router should use a protocol such as DHCP (Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol) to convert the single IP address by which other computers on the Internet know yours, called its WAN (wide area network) address, to multiple IP addresses (LAN [local-area network] addresses), which your nodes call each other. If you already use a router, switch, or hub to control a wired LAN, access its settings. In my old D-Link DI-704 switch’s case, I started my Web browser and typed http://192.168.0.1 into its Address bar. I entered my username and password and then wrote down these settings: WAN IP address 192.168.128.2 Subnet mask 255.255.255.0 Default gateway 192.168.128.1 DNS servers 207.91.5.20, 207.91.5.252 If you don’t currently use a router but have broadband (which comes through your computers’ LAN ports via Ethernet cable), your OS may also give you some of this information. In Windows XP click Start, select Control Panel, and double-click Network Connections. Double-click Local Area Connection. Scroll down to Internet Protocol (TCP/ IP) and double-click it to find settings like the ones above. Router Setup I set up an 802.11g WLAN (wireless LAN) with a D-Link DI-524 wireless router and two WinXP computers on a home network fed by a Cisco DSL (Digital Subscriber Line) modem. My nodes were a Gateway notebook with Intel's built-in Wi-Fi G, as well as a desktop PC with Asus' WL-130g adapter in a PCI slot. With a broadband connection, the wireless router will connect between the modem and your computers. The modem connects to the router's uplink or WAN port with an Ethernet cable. You should temporarily run a second Ethernet cable between one of the router's LAN ports and a PC; this wired connection will let you configure the router and access the Internet until the wireless network is running correctly. Although I don't have room to go into other setups here, such as a WLAN with a shared dial-up Internet connection, your router's instructions should discuss them. Next, I entered my new router's settings menu by typing http://192.168.0.1 into my browser and typing admin as the username. I pressed ENTER to proceed because D-Link hadn't set a password on the router at the factory. The first page of the DI-524's administrative settings is the Wizard page under the Home tab. (Most of the settings you’llplay with fall under this same tab.) I clicked Run Wizard and Next. I set a new password here to protect my router's browser-accessible settings from hackers. Mix letters and numbers in your password, as well as spaces and non-alphanumeric characters if your router will accept these. Write your password down and then click Next when you're done. Next, I set my Time Zone and clicked Next again. After my router detected the Internet connection, I chose Static IP Address from a list of connection types. (Your setup procedure will vary if your connection uses dynamic IP or PPPoE.) I clicked Next again and found five blanks waiting for the IP addresses and settings I gathered from my old router (or the ones from your ISP or OS). These included the WAN IP Address (the static IP address my ISP assigned me), WAN Subnet Mask, WAN Gateway Address (or default gateway), Primary DNS (Domain Name System) Address, and Secondary DNS Address. I double-checked each address's numbers and periods and clicked Next. Moving onward, I named my new wireless network in the SSID (Service Set Identifier) field. Next, I chose a channel from the drop-down menu. Just like the channels on broadcast television, a WLAN's channels correspond to various frequencies. (802.11g and 802.11b both use the 2.4GHz part of the spectrum.) I chose channel 1. Write down the exact SSID and channel you chose because you'll have to type these in on each computer to connect it to your new network. If your wireless network is slower than it should be later on, check to see if other 2.4GHz devices such as microwaves, cordless phones, or even baby monitors might be interfering with your network. Changing the channel might help, as might moving antennas or obstructions. Click Next. Encryption You'll want to enable the best encryption your wireless network can handle. Otherwise, anyone with a wireless adapter nearby will be able to use your Internet connection and maybe even hack your computers. However, I skipped encryption very temporarily during setup because D-Link's wizard only let us choose WEP (Wired Equivalent Privacy) at this point. The best security protocol for home users right now is WPA, aka WEP with TKIP (Temporal Key Integrity Protocol) and other names. In order to use it, every wireless device on your network must support WPA. Because the previous standard, WEP, is fairly easy to crack, it's worth buying network gear that supports WPA. I left WEP disabled and clicked Next and Restart. wireless_home_nw03.jpg My home WLAN (wireless local-area network) looked like this. A phone line brought Internet access to my DSL modem, which connected to my wireless router's uplink port with an Ethernet cable. That was the end of my wires, however. All data transmissions between the router and my computers' wireless adapters were radio waves. After my DI-524 router rebooted itself, saving the settings from the wizard, I logged in again through my browser with the Admin username and the new password I'd set. Under the Home tab, I clicked the Wireless button. Next to the Security entry, I selected the radio button marked WPA-PSK (Preshared Key), which is the most practical form of WPA for most home users. Next, I entered a passphrase and clicked Apply. The passphrase you choose is important for two reasons. First, you need to enter it as a password in the settings of every node on the network. Second, the router and wireless adapters will encrypt data transmissions using the passphrase as part of the process, so the longer and more complex it is, the better. If your router allows it, mix uppercase and lowercase letters, numbers, nonalphanumeric characters, and spaces. Write down the passphrase next to the SSID and channel you selected previously. The Mode Setting is another option on this router setup page. If all devices on your network can use 802.11g, set this to G Mode. If you anticipate that ordinary Wi-Fi (802.11b) devices will need to access your WLAN, choose Mix Mode. Some 802.11g networks, which typically run at a theoretical maximum of 54Mbps, slow down all connections to 11Mbps or slower when an 802.11b device connects. Adapter Setup wireless_home_nw_04.jpg Install your adapters according to their instructions. Next, set up each node on the WLAN. Click Start, select Control Panel, and double-click Network Connections. Right-click the appropriate connection and select Properties. Scroll the list in the middle of the General tab and double-click Internet Protocol (TCP/IP). Make sure the Obtain An IP Address Automatically radio button is selected and then click OK twice to save your settings. You should now see a new Wireless Network Connection icon in the System Tray. Click it for a list of WLANs in your area. If yours isn't among them, click Refresh Network List or consult the router's documentation. In the list double-click your WLAN to tell your adapter to connect to it. In the Network Key field, type the WPA-PSK passphrase you made during the router setup. Click Connect. If you're successful, a message in the System Tray will tell you. You can then disconnect the temporary Ethernet cable between your PC and the router. On a side note, my Asus PCI card's instructions told me to use its accompanying software to manage wireless functions instead of Windows, but this didn't work for us. If your adapter setup software gives you this choice, choose Windows unless this disables a particular function you need. Other Settings If you didn't have a wired LAN before, run WinXP's Network Setup Wizard. Click Start, select Control Panel, and double-click Network Setup Wizard. Click Next twice. If the Wizard indicates there are disconnected LAN devices, select the Ignore Disconnected Network Hardware checkbox and click Next again. On the Select A Connection Method page, I clicked Other, Next, and then the top option on the Other Internet Connection Methods page. (You might need to choose a different option for your situation.) Click Next and type a brief description of the PC, such as Bob's, in the appropriate field and click Next again. Choose a workgroup name, such as My WLAN, which will be the name of the networked group of PCs. This will be the workgroup that your PCs will "join" in order to see each other on the wireless network. Select Turn On File And Printer Sharing, click Next, then Yes, and then Next again. If you choose the Create A Network Setup Disk option in the next dialog box and follow the instructions, it will make setting up the other PCs easier. Otherwise, repeat the Network Setup Wizard on each PC. When you’re done, click Finish and restart your PC. Sharing To enable file sharing in WinXP, right-click Start and choose Explore to open Windows Explorer. Next, right-click a folder or hard drive letter, such as Local Disk (C:), you want to share in the left panel and select Sharing And Security. Under the Sharing tab, click the link that begins, If You Understand The Risk . . . . Next, choose the options you want, such as Share This Folder On The Network and/or Allow Network Users To Change My Files. Sharing a drive or folder will also share the subfolders below it. Firewall If you use firewall software besides WinXP's, you'll probably need to tell the software to trust traffic on the LAN. In ZoneAlarm 6.0.667, as an example, double-click its icon in the System Tray. Click Firewall on the left and then select the Zones tab. Near the bottom of this tab, choose Add and IP Range. In the top IP Address field, type 192.168.0.1. In the second field, type 192.168.0.255. This range of IP addresses are universal to most home networks, typically denoting the PCs connected to them. Type a description for the rule, such as WLAN, and then click OK. Further help I admit this was a whirlwind tour. You may need to do a little more research if you hit a snag or if your network layout differs from mine, but your router's manual, CD, or online materials should help you.