This tutorial will guide 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 comprehend. This same guide will help small business networks, too!
Build a Wireless LAN, Step by Step
You can build any typical wireless home network, a Wireless LAN (WLAN), using this simple three- step approach:
- Identity the WLAN design that's best for your situation
- choose good wireless gear
- Install gear and test the configured WLAN
In subsequent pages, I break down each of these steps in more detail.
Ready to Go Wireless?
This article assumes you've already made an informed decision to go wireless rather than build a traditional cabled network. Though prices have dropped dramatically from a few years ago, when wireless gear was quite expensive, wireless networks still aren't for everyone 9yet). Unsure that wireless will ready meet your needs? Use the following supplementary articles to help you choose wisely:
Benefits of Wireless
Wireless offers tangible benefits over traditional wired networking. Ever tried to quickly look up a recipe on the Net while cooking in the kitchen? Do the kids need a networked computer in their bedroom for school projects? Have you dreamed of sending email, instant messaging, or playing games while relaxing on your outdoor patio? These are just some of the things can do for you:
Next Stop - Terminology
The field of computer networking once sat squarely in the domain of techies. Equipment manufacturers, service providers, and "experts" that study the field of networking tend to go quite heavy on technical jargon. The wireless networking industry is gradually improving home. But there is still much work for the industry to do. Let's take a quick look at the common jargon of wireless home networking and what it all means.
When researching wireless equipment to buy, or talking about wireless networking with friends and family, you should have a solid understanding of this terminology.
What is a WLAN?We've already said that a WLAN is a "typical" wireless home network. That's because a WLAN is a wireless LAN, and a LAN is a related group of networked computers situated in close physical proximity to each other. LAN's can be found in many homes, schools, and businesses. Though it's technically possible to have more than one LAN in your home, few do this in practice. In this tutorial, we explain how to build a single standard WLAN for your home.
What is Wi-Fi?
Wi-Fi is an industry name used to market wireless networking products. You'll find a black-and-white Wi-Fi logo or certification emblem on virtually any new wireless equipment you buy. Technically speaking, Wi-Fi signifies conformance to the 802.11 family of wireless communication standards. But because all mainstream wireless home network gear users the 802.11 standards today, basically the term "Wi-Fi" merely distinguishes wireless equipment from other network gear.
What is 802.11a/802.11b/802.11g?
802.11a, 802.11b, and 802.11g represent three popular wireless communication standards. Wireless networks can be built using any of the three, but 802.11a is less compatible with the others and tends to be a more expensive option implemented only by larger businesses. Use the supplemental article below to help you pick 802.11 standards for your wireless LAN.
What are WEP and Wardriving?
The security of wireless home and small business networks remains a concern for many. Just like we use radio or television receivers to tune into station broadcasts, it's almost as easy to pick up signals from a nearby wireless home network. sure, credit card transactions on the web may be secure, nut imagine your neighbors spying on every email and instant message you send!
A few years ago, some techies popularized the practice of wardriving to raise awareness of this vulnerability in WLANs. With the help of cheap, home-made equipment, "wardrivers" walked or motored through neighborhoods snooping the wireless network traffic emanating from nearby homes. Some wardrivers even logged their computers resources and Internet access.
WEP is an important feature of wireless networks designed to improve security. WEP scrambles network traffic mathematically so that other computers cab understand it, but humans cannot read it. WEP helps protect your WLAN from wardriving and nosy neighbors, and today, all popular wireless equipment supports it. Because WEP is a feature that can be turned "on" or "off", you'll simply need to ensure it is configured properly when setting up your network.
Types of Wireless equipment
The five types of equipment found in wireless home networks are:
- wireless network adapters
- wireless access points
- wireless routers
- add-on wireless antennas
- wireless signal boosters
some of this equipment is optional depending on your home network configuration.
