Now that you’ve purchased the proper equipment to setup your new home wireless network, as explained in Part One of our three part article series, we’ll talk briefly about what the terms 802.11g and 802.11n actually mean - while trying to keep this as non-jargon as possible.

We know what 802.11 means, as explained in part one, so then what do the letters g and n mean? A wireless access point (Router) using the g standard transmits bandwidth at 54 megabits per second (Mbps) using the 2.4 Ghz frequency. This basically means that you’ll get a fast connection to your wireless router, which is connected directly to the modem, that will transmit through walls with a range of 80 to 120 meters, dependent on the thickness and material of the obstacle. A signal will pass through drywall a lot easier than stone or brick. What this means in your home is that one access point should transmit a signal to every room - unless you live on the Neverland Ranch, or in a cave.

The more common standard you’ll find today is the n standard. As with the previous standards, n improves on g with a 74 Mbps transfer rate, double the range of the g standard and a signal more resistant to interference. You’ll also notice that the n standard routers have more than one antenna. This is called MIMO technology, which basically means “hey look, two antennas! Lets use both and double the signal strength!”.

The term Bluetooth is everywhere, so I thought I’d write a brief paragraph about it as well. Bluetooth won’t be involved in your basic wireless network setup. It’s used mainly for hand-held devices, like PDAs, GPS’, mobile phones and similar gadgets. You get the idea. Bluetooth supports a very short range, about 12 meters. It uses a very low frequency to save battery power. Obviously, with such a short range, Bluetooth is not very useful in a wireless network configuration, where the goal is to be able to place a wireless router in the den upstairs and still have an internet connection while you’re sitting outside on your deck.

So now that you have a basic understanding of all the technical jargon regarding the standards and terminology, lets put it all together! Here’s what you’ll need to do to setup the hardware and get your computers connected. For this walk-through we’re going to assume that you have cable internet, a wireless router, a desktop computer that you’ll be connecting with a network cable and a laptop that you’ll connect wirelessly to the access point. This will be your home wireless network. Very basic, yet this is the setup you’ll find most often in the average consumer’s home.

It is ideal that you place your Router in a central location. If you setup your Router on the top floor, you may not have a good signal if you use your laptop in your basement. Of course, in this scenario you have a desktop PC without a wireless network card that you’re connecting physically to the router, so you may not have the luxury of placing it wherever you want. Just make sure you place it on a desk, so the dog doesn’t eat it.

To begin the installation, unplug the power to your broadband modem, turning it off. Plug in the power to your wireless router and the Ethernet cable from your modem into the uplink port on your router. This port is often labeled Internet, WAN, WLAN or something similar. The other ports on your router (usually 4) are used with direct Ethernet connections. Plug the Ethernet cable from your desktop computer into one of the free ports on your router. Plug the power back into your broadband modem. After about 20 seconds you should see a row of flashing lights on the modem, as well as the router. The router picks up the IP from the modem, provided by your ISP.

If your computer was previously plugged directly into the broadband modem, you may need to reboot your machine, or open a command window and type ipconfig /release, then ipconfig /renew once the first command is complete. This will drop the IP currently used by your system and fetch a new one through the router. This may not be necessary, but I’ve found that at times it will fix connection problems.

Once the process above is complete, open a browser window on your computer connected physically to the wireless router and type in the router’s IP address. The handy table below shows the default router IPs, usernames and passwords for common router manufacturers. If you can get to the router’s configuration page, you should be good-to-go. In the next chapter we’ll explain how to configure your router for your new wireless network.

Router	IP	Username	Password
3Com	192.168.1.1	admin	admin
D-Link	192.168.0.1	admin
Linksys	192.168.1.1	admin	admin
Microsoft Broadband	192.168.2.1	admin	admin
Netgear	192.168.0.1	admin	password

You should be able to reach an external web page automatically on your PC (just type http://cnn.com or http://yahoo.com into your browser) without changing any settings on the router. If you have special browser connection settings specified, however, you may need to adjust those. Congratulations, your wireless router should be connected and functional at this point. In article 3 we’ll go over the process of setting up your wireless network.

See other articles in this series:
Part One

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The topic that comes up the most when people ask me about computers is wireless networking (also known as Wi-Fi - Wireless Fidelity, or WLAN - Wireless LAN). What does 802.11g mean? How do I configure my router? How can I leech off of my neighbor’s wireless network? Since I’m running a technology blog, I thought I’d impart my knowledge on the technically-unsavy (or the WLAN beginner). These tutorials are not for the super advanced networking guru, mind you, so don’t take it as such! This will be a three-part article, broken down into the following parts:

1. What you’ll need to setup a wireless network (the part you’re reading now).
2. What the standards mean and how to physically setup the wireless network.
3. How to configure your wireless network once it’s been setup.

We’ll be practical here. I’m not going to bore you by going into detail about the out-dated wireless standards. You don’t want to know about old technology that you can’t buy anymore. Saying that, I will give you a single paragraph rundown on the origin of the terms IEEE and 802.11, because you’ll see them throughout this three-part article.

What do the terms IEEE and 802.11 mean?

The incremental wireless standards are designated by a letter (e.g. b, g, n) after the numbers 802.11. It’s called 802.11 because that was the name of the group formed to create the standard. You’ll see the acronym IEEE as well, which means ‘Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers’ - the organization that ultimately oversaw the 802.11 group and the creation of the wireless standard. The average consumer doesn’t need to know anything more than that. Pretty straight-forward, no?

Shopping for your wireless network.

Now, lets talk about what you’ll find when you shop for a wireless router. We’ll start with what you’ll need to setup a wireless network in your home - the basics. First, you’ll need a wireless router. There are plenty of makes and models, but generally they do the same thing. I won’t get into which is best, but I’ll tell you what I use. My wireless router is made by D-Link, using the ‘n’ standard (more on standards later). The other major router manufacturers are NetGear, Linksys, Buffalo, Belkin and TRENDnet. Like I said though, they all do generally the same thing. Don’t worry too much about the brand.

The next piece of equipment you’ll need (or won’t need) depends entirely on the computers you’re going to be connecting to your new WLAN. If you’ll be connecting a laptop, chances are you won’t need any additional hardware for it, unless your laptop is more than 5 years old (in which case I’d suggest using it as a door-stop or anti-theft device, instead of a computer). Laptops come with built-in wireless NICs (network interface cards), so chances are you won’t need to buy anything additional.

If you have a PC, you can either connect it wirelessly, or if it’s in close proximity to the wireless router, you can use a network cable and plug it directly into the back of the device. If it’s not close to the router, you’ll need to purchase a wireless NIC. The brand doesn’t absolutely need to be the same as the router, though I’d recommend it for compatibility sake. What you do have to watch for, however, is that the wireless NIC and the wireless router share the same standard. Most likely this will be ‘n’ or ‘g’. Routers and wireless NICs are usually backwards-compatible. Meaning, they’ll work on both standards (and previous standards as well).

You will need at least one network cable. This will be used to connect your router to whatever broadband device you’re using (cable or DSL modem). You’ll need a second cable if you want to connect your PC directly to the router. That’s all as far as hardware goes. Just two - possibly three - pieces of hardware. It doesn’t cost much to setup a WLAN. As I described above, the next article will be focused on the current Wi-Fi standards and what they mean. We’ll get a little more technical there.

See other articles in this series:
Part Two

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