SETTING UP YOUR HOME WIRELESS NETWORK PT.2

WIRELESS NETWORKING 101 - PART 2

Let's refresh both of our memories! You are either setting up your first wireless network or replacing the old one that died, and if it's the old one that died it's probably looks like the one below -

A very good wireless router for it's time, but like everything there is change. If you've never set up a wireless router before you may want to use the CD that came with it and choose the "Wireless Wizard" which will get you "ON-THE-AIR" relatively fast.

If you're a brave soul, you can try to configure it without the CD and by using it's IP address and your browser, have a go at it. This isn't such a bad idea; sure, you'll make mistakes and probably reset the router to it's out-of-the-box settings a few times, but by doing it you'll learn a little more how it works.

If you're the person who doesn't have the time, or even care how it works you'll call someone in like SugarLandpc to do it all for you. No fuss - no muss.

And, you could always use the setup CD and then go into the wireless router to see how it's configured. Not all, but some routers have the option to make a backup of it's configuration and it yours does I would suggest doing so.

Just remember:

• First of all things, you don't want your router sitting on top of the modem. The heat vents from the modem are often on the top, so it's slowly baking your router.
• You want WPS disabled
• You should change the SSID (name) or the router to something else, and not your name.
• You should have some security setup on the router, but you'll have to check all of your wireless equipment to make sure they will all work with the setting you've chosen. Sometimes older laptops won't connect to the router because when it was made because certain types of security weren't around. And I've run into new devices that wouldn't work unless I set the router to the oldest security setting.
• The wifi password should be difficult, yet fairly easy to remember or at the least, written down in your notepad of passwords. A simple name wouldn't suffice because if someone was intent on getting onto your wifi they would do a brute force dictionary type attack, and if the word is in the dictionary it will eventually find it.
• As I said in Part 1, a password doesn't have to be one word, it could be a sentence or phrase. I believe my example was: itrainsinspain. You could leave it at that or substitute and "i" for a 1, so it would be 1tra1ns1nspa1n, or, use the original and add a "!" somewhere in the password (beginning, middle, end, etc.)
• Once it's set up, try all of your wireless devices to make sure they'll work. If one or two don't, you may have to try and older security setting.
• As well, once set up, walk around your house to see if you have any dead spots or very weak signal connection. It may be that, if possible you'll have to move the router to a different position or at least a higher location. Many times I've walked into a residence to find the wireless router sitting next to the modem - on the floor.
• Once you are satisfied that you've done the best you can, change the admin password that allows access to your routers configuration. If someone can figure out what router you have, it's not hard to Google for the default admin login and password.

I suppose one last thing should be mentioned. Just because you've bought the latest, fastest, most powerful wireless router available it will only do these things with wireless equipment that can take advantage of it. Otherwise you'll probably get the same signal you got before with your old router. And if you suddenly lose all Internet access, what should you do? That's right - call your Internet provider to see if there is an outage in your area. And I always recommend that you purchase a UPS (uninterruptable power supply) with an AVR circuit in it. This will prevent an untimely modem or router death.

'Nuff Said,
Brian