Home Networking: The Missing Manual

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Sure, there are a heck of a lot of products in the networking aisle down at Big Giant Computer Store, but don't be overwhelmed. Planning a home network is a lot like picking the types of telephones you need when you're moving into a new home: you can choose between old-fashioned landlines and snazzy wireless cellphones, corded and cordless handsets, speakerphones and headsets. Nowadays, you can even get walkie-talkie features or the ability to make calls over the Internet. But, thankfully, in order to choose from this smorgasbord of options, you don't need to know anything about the phone system's underlying technology. You do, however, need to understand some telephone basics, like the fact that you don't need to have a phone jack in every room if you're going to go the cordless phone route.

Home networks are a lot like phones in that you don't need to understand the gory details of how computers talk to each other—but you do need to know what equipment makes sense for your situation. For example, if you want to be able to surf the Web while sitting next to your pool, wireless networking—also known as WiFi—will save you from running 30 feet of ugly cable out your back door. But if you've got only two desktop computers in your home office, a small wired network is probably your best bet. This chapter explains the main components of a home network, a few variations on the theme, and how to decide what's best for you.

To set up a home network, you need three things (beside computers, electricity, and a little bit of moxie):

A router. This device distributes your cable or DSL (digital subscriber line) Internet connection to the computers on your network. It's like the clerk at the train station giving everyone on your network a ticket to ride. Figure 1-1 shows a picture of both a wired and wireless router. .

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To set up a home network, you need three things (beside computers, electricity, and a little bit of moxie):

A router. This device distributes your cable or DSL (digital subscriber line) Internet connection to the computers on your network. It's like the clerk at the train station giving everyone on your network a ticket to ride. Figure 1-1 shows a picture of both a wired and wireless router. .

Figure 1-1: Whether they're wired (top) or wireless (bottom), your network's router keeps the traffic moving along your network and divvies up that high-speed cable or DSL connection, distributing it from your Internet service provider to all the computers connected to your home network.
Routers designed for wired networks typically have jacks on the back so that they can connect (via network cables) to a modem and all the PCs that are on the network. Wireless routers, on the other hand, have jacks to hook up to your broadband modem and maybe one other network device. But wireless routers use invisible radio waves to connect to PCs that are within range.

You connect the router to your cable or DSL modem with a cable, and, depending on the kind of equipment you choose, you connect your individual computers to the router either with cables or using wireless technology.

It's possible to set up a home network that doesn't use a router and simply links all your computers to each other to share files. But since one of the biggest reasons to set up a home network is to share a high-speed broadband connection among several computers, the heart of most home networks is the router.
Cables or wireless signals. Whether they're colorful strands of plastic-coated cable (Figure 1-2) or invisible radio waves (not shown, because invisible doesn't photograph so well), these are ways you connect your computers to the network.

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Good news: the software that lets your computers hop onto a network is already part of your operating system! You don't need any other complicated software, just maybe a little program called a driver, which is a piece of code that comes with your networking hardware and lets it talk to your computer's operating system.

Many people think that popping off the top of the computer case and installing a network card inside the machine is the only way to get a computer on the Internet. But if the thought of poking around your PC's innards makes you queasy, there's another way to make the connection: the Universal Serial Bus, otherwise known as the USB.

USB jacks have been standard on PC and Macintosh hardware since the late 1990s. Not only can they connect everything from scanners and printers to external hard drives and force-feedback gaming joysticks, they can also hook you to the network without forcing you to take apart your computer.

As mentioned on Section 1.1, a USB network adapter is all you need. You just pop the adapter into one of your available USB ports, install the software that comes with it, and insert an Ethernet cable into the other end of the adapter.

In a pinch, you can even link a couple PCs together and make a mini-network by stringing a special USB cable called a USB-to-USB adapter or a USB bridge. This can be helpful if you don't have a network set up yet but want to copy three gigabytes of digital photos from one computer to the another.

USB is available in two versions, USB 1.1 and the newer USB 2.0, which is much faster, and especially useful when you hook things like iPods to your computer, because you can quickly copy over 20 gigabytes of music files. Most new computers these days have the USB 2.0 ports, but all USB connections use the same flat, rectangular connector, so you can still use a slower USB 1.1 device in a USB 2.0 port.

Hundreds of devices use a USB connection, and products for USB wireless networking are also available. If the world of USB (and everything you can plug into it) intrigues you, check out the official USB home page at

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While you may have heard lots about wireless networking, wired networks are often the easiest to set up, the cheapest to buy, and the most stable to maintain. Wired networks come in two main flavors:

Ethernet uses cables that look like fat telephone wires. Ethernet is by far the most common type of network in use today because it's fast, cheap, and reliable. How fast? It runs anywhere from 10 to 1,000 megabits per second (see the box "A Bit about Bits" for detailed information about these data speeds, but for now, just imagine that at 10 Mbps, you could transfer the entire contents of a 40-gigabyte iPod in about 9 hours across your network; with a 1,000 Mbps connection, you'd be done in under 6 minutes). Practically every piece of home-networking equipment in existence includes Ethernet ports. Even wireless networking equipment includes Ethernet capabilities so that you can easily connect it to a wired network. This standardization is particularly important because it makes it a lot easier to mix and match networking technology.

The speed of your Ethernet network depends on your hardware. 100 Mbps is the most common speed today, and 1,000 Mbps, (also called Gigabit Ethernet), is gaining popularity. 10 Mbps is going the way of the vinyl record.

The only downside to Ethernet is that if you want to connect computers in more than one room, or if you want the freedom to use your laptop on the sofa or in bed, you have to run unsightly cables to every computer in every room you want to connect to your network. Chapter 2 covers Ethernet in detail.
Powerline, which is also called HomePlug, uses your existing electrical lines to carry your network's data. This type of network is even easier to set up than Ethernet, because you don't need to buy and run cables from room to room. To set up a Powerline network you need just a few Powerline adapters (Figure 1-4), which easily connect your computers and your router to your electrical wiring, and come equipped with either Ethernet or USB connections.

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Wired networks have lots of advantages, but they can require enough wiring to reach Mars—and they keep you chained to your nearest network connection. Enter wireless networking, which uses radio signals instead of cables to transmit data. It can be a handy alternative to having your desk chair get tangled in a mass of Ethernet cable spaghetti, and it lets you roam as far as your signals reach, like out under the shade of a tree on a nice summer day. In addition, if you have a laptop that's ready for wireless, you can hop online at an ever-growing number of places—known as WiFi zones or hot spots—that broadcast Internet signals, like airports, public parks, and trendy coffee shops.

Engineers, when not making up complicated names for things, develop wireless networking technology according to a series of rules. An international association—the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, known as IEEE (pronounced "eye triple E")—creates those rules, or standards, which specify how wireless devices work: what part of the radio spectrum they use and how they talk to each other. "WiFi" refers to the predominant family of wireless standards.

To set up a wireless network, you need a wireless router or base station (the term Apple prefers), which broadcasts your network traffic (including your Internet connection), over the airwaves. Depending on the type of wireless technology inside, wireless routers usually beam their signals over an area of about 50 to 150 square feet. Any computer with a wireless network adapter (Section 3.3.4) can join the network. Figure 1-5 shows you how it works.

Figure 1-5: Your broadband modem plugs into the wireless router. Computers outfitted with wireless adapter cards can access the network and communicate with both the Internet and each other.

While WiFi offers terrific convenience, it does have a few disadvantages. It's not as fast as old, wired Ethernet; 54 Mbps is the current speed limit. Configuring the system can be tricky (but Chapter 3 is here to guide you through the process). And interference from other devices that use radio waves, such as cordless phones and microwave ovens, can drag down and diminish the stability of your network.

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Deciding between a wired network, a wireless network, or a hybrid network—that is, one that uses both wired and wireless components—depends on what type of equipment you plan to connect, how you want to use the network, and the layout of your house. (After all, people living in glamorous, Donald Trump–sized mansions probably have different network needs than people living in 300-square-foot studio apartments.)

It may be obvious to you right off the bat that your house calls for an all-wired or pure wireless network. For instance, if you just moved into a spiffy new condo with Ethernet cabling built into every room and all your computers are desktop models, WiFi may be a waste of money and radio signals. Or, if you're just going to connect a couple of computers that happen to be in the same room, an Ethernet network will work just fine and is quite easy to string up. On the other hand, if you have a killer outdoor deck, and you want to use your laptop to surf the Web while soaking up the rays, WiFi may be your sunniest option.

But if you're not sure whether to go wired or wireless, don't worry: you can experiment and build your network over time. You may even find that a combination of wired and wireless technologies works best for you. For instance, you may discover through trial and plenty of error that the wireless router in your top-floor home office won't reach the kitchen on the ground floor. The solution? Extend your network with Ethernet cables or Powerline, and off you go, browsing those food sites on the Web for the perfect side-dish recipe while you whip up the main course.

To help you figure out what's best for you, this table compares the network types:

	Ethernet	Powerline (HomePlug)

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It may sound like some sort of anesthesia, but Ethernet is the most popular networking technology in the world today. Linking computers together with colorful cables is not a brand-new technology, either. Ethernet was invented back in the early 1970s in that happy bell-bottomed era of macramé vests and early Elton John. Created by Bob Metcalfe at Xerox's Palo Alto Research Center, Ethernet offered a way to let everyone in the building use the first laser printer ever invented—which Xerox PARC also happened to have. (Some things never change: people on computer networks have been trying to make do with one shared printer ever since.) But over the decades, Ethernet has gotten faster, sturdier, and more powerful and remains an excellent choice for a network.

Unless your house is pre-wired for Ethernet, with conveniently placed network jacks in each room, you probably won't want to use Ethernet to string together PCs spread across the far corners of your home. Wiring the innards of a whole house is a bit more than most people are willing to undertake, and stringing Ethernet cable down hallways can get old quickly. Therefore, the examples in this chapter assume that your computers are fairly close to one another—for example, clustered in a home office, or in neighboring rooms within reach of a 30-foot cable.

In this chapter, you'll learn about the hardware that makes Ethernet zoom, and you'll get step-by-step instructions for setting up your very own home Ethernet network. As you get started, it's a good thing to remember that you're not limited to just one type of network technology. For example, there might come a time when you want to add a wireless wing to your Ethernet network. Here and in the next few chapters, you'll find sections on mixing and matching different types of networks. By the end of this chapter, all your computers will be linked using Ethernet and will be able to use the Internet.

Every network needs three basic things:

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Every network needs three basic things:

A router (Section 1.1)
Network adapters for the computers
A way to get from A to B (either cables or radio signals over the airwaves)

This section tells you what you need when you're ready to whip up an Ethernet network. For help picking out the specific devices you need, look for the shopping lists in each section to recap what you should buy and how much you can expect to spend.

As your network traffic cop and the last stop between all the linked computers inside your house and the rough-and-tumble world of the Internet outside, a reliable Ethernet-ready router is tool number one in your network.

When you're wandering the aisles at Big Giant Computer Store looking for your router, you'll probably be bombarded with boxes bearing confusing terms such as "Cable/DSL Router with 4-port Ethernet Switch." You might see something about "10/100 Ethernet" or "Ethernet/Fast Ethernet" on the box, too.

You'll learn more about switches in a moment, but for now, just know you want your router to have a switch, because switches let a whole bunch of computers plug into the router. (See the box "Making Sense of Routers" on Section 1.1 for a synopsis of the various types of routers you'll see in stores these days.)

Phrases like "10/100" or "Ethernet/Fast Ethernet" describe a router's network speed. The older version of Ethernet, called plain ol' Ethernet, has a top speed of 10 megabits per second (enough to, say, beam 600 pages of plain text per second from one computer to another). The newer, speedier, and all-around better version of Ethernet is called Fast Ethernet. It has a top speed of 100 megabits per second and can blast through 6,000 pages of plain text per second.

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If you're reading this book, the chances are fairly good that you have a computer or two at home and want to figure out how you can link them together so you can do things like use a single printer or share a high-speed Internet connection.

For most people with a regular cable or DSL modem and a couple of computers, a basic network is pretty straightforward to set up. Here's the Cliffs Notes version: you take the network cable out of your modem (the one that used to plug directly into a single PC) and plug it into the modem port on your new router. You make sure each computer you want to connect has an Ethernet network adapter installed or attached. Then you take one network cable for every computer and plug one end into an available port on the back of the router and the other end into the computer's Ethernet port. Then you turn everything on and have a race to see who can be the first one on the new network to order a pizza online.

Let's say you're not the average Josephine and you arrive at the network setup dance wearing a slightly different dress. For example, say you've been assigned (or requested) a static IP address. A static IP address is an Internet address for your computer that never changes; some folks get them when they want to run their own Web server. If you have a static IP address, you will probably have to take a couple extra steps in your network setup adventure.

Similarly, some Internet providers force their subscribers to use an older connection method called PPPoE (which stands for the long and windy name Point-to-Point Protocol over Ethernet) to get online. You'll also probably have a few extra steps to perform. Both the static IP folks and the PPPoE people need to follow the numbered steps below and then move on to "Manually Configuring Your Router" on Section 2.3.

In the example described here and shown in Figure 2-4, our Model Home has two computers in the same room—say, the spare bedroom upstairs that Mr. and Mrs. Model are using as a home office until they have little Models scampering around. They've got a nice PC running Windows XP Home Edition, a gleaming Macintosh running Mac OS X 10.3 (also known as Panther), and a Netgear RP614 router. Of course, these are fake people and

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Okay, so your basic network setup wasn't so basic; your computers are not quite yet ready to get online. No problem. This section will tell you everything you need to know to manually configure your router. (If the term "manually configure" makes you nervous, relax. It really just means "typing stuff into boxes onscreen and clicking OK.") If you've got a static IP address, read on; if you're a PPPoE person, skip ahead to "Information PPPoE People Need" on Section 2.3.2.

If you've got yourself a static IP address, you need to obtain the following bits of info from your ISP before you can move ahead: the IP address, subnet mask, default gateway, and DNS servers. Here's a quick primer on what all this arcane technical jargon means.

Section 2.3.1.1: The IP address

Every computer connected to the Internet, even temporarily, has its own exclusive IP address (IP stands for Internet Protocol). An IP address is always made up of four numbers, separated by periods. Think of your IP address as the number of your house on your street—350, 1060, or whatever. If you have a static IP address, make sure your Internet service provider has given you an address that will allow you to get out on the Internet. If the static address falls within any of three restricted ranges—192.168.0.0 to 192.168.255.255, 172.16.0.0 to 172.31.255.255, or 10.0.0.0 to 10.255.255.255—it won't let your PCs get online. These numbers all fall within the category of what's known as private IP address ranges. Internet engineers once decided that these number ranges should be reserved for secure private networks that can't connect to the big sprawling Internet, which is very public. So if you've been assigned one of these numbers, ring up your ISP and get a new one.

Section 2.3.1.2: Subnet mask

The subnet mask (also sometimes called the

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Using Ethernet doesn't mean you can't also use the other types of networks like WiFi (Chapter 3) or Powerline (Chapter 4). In fact, there might come a point when you need to mix it up a bit, for instance by adding WiFi to the other end of your house so you don't have to staple a 100-foot Ethernet cable to the molding all the way down your hallway.

When you're picking out Ethernet networking equipment, make sure to think long term whenever possible. Maybe you're thinking about getting a WiFi-enabled laptop with your tax refund. Wouldn't it be much more relaxing to update your blog in front of the fireplace instead of being tethered to the drafty computer room upstairs this winter?

If you think you'll ever want to add wireless, consider buying a router that comes with WiFi built-in. If wireless sounds good to you right about now, let's cut the wires and move on to the next chapter.

Figure 2-7: To enter your PPPoE user name and password, select Other from the list of options in the Internet Service Provider drop-down list. In most cases, all you need to enter are the PPPoE login name and password that you have in hand. In rare instances, you might need to specify a service name, which you'll get from your ISP. You can just ignore the timeout field.

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Imagine working away on your computer anywhere in the house—with no strings attached, footloose, and fancy cable-free. You can move from room to room with your laptop and still stay connected to the Internet. Stationary desktops can join in on the fun, too, since wireless networking works on all computers, big and small. No wonder WiFi (short for Wireless Fidelity) is the fastest growing type of network being used by people at home today.

WiFi networks come in three distinct varieties, formally known as 802.11a, 802.11b, and 802.11g, but sometimes referred to casually as A, B, and G. Although they have important differences, which you'll learn about in a moment, they all accomplish the same task: beaming data over radio waves. Each format also uses a central antenna to wirelessly communicate with computers, and in turn, each computer connected to the network needs to have a wireless networking card installed so it can communicate with the central station. By the end of this chapter, you'll know a lot more about how all this works.

Along the way, you'll get step-by-step instructions for setting up a basic wireless network and will learn how to secure your network to keep folks outside your home from piggybacking your network.

As you learned in Chapter 1, WiFi, just like every other type of network, needs three things to fly:

A router. In WiFi's case, this router not only works to connect your home to the Internet, it also contains a WiFi antenna that beams an Internet connection to the computers in your home. WiFi routers transmit their signals according to one (or more) of the three WiFi standards in use today.
A wireless networking card, which is plugged into, or internally installed on the computers you want on your WiFi network. These cards also come equipped to work with one or more of the WiFi flavors.

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As you learned in Chapter 1, WiFi, just like every other type of network, needs three things to fly:

A router. In WiFi's case, this router not only works to connect your home to the Internet, it also contains a WiFi antenna that beams an Internet connection to the computers in your home. WiFi routers transmit their signals according to one (or more) of the three WiFi standards in use today.
A wireless networking card, which is plugged into, or internally installed on the computers you want on your WiFi network. These cards also come equipped to work with one or more of the WiFi flavors.
And air, which thanks to the magic of WiFi, serves as the connective link between your PCs and your WiFi router.

As with any networking setup, you can find a zillion WiFi variations when it comes to the equipment sold in stores and the rigs your neighbors have in their homes. But most WiFi networks are something like the one represented in Figure 3-1.

Figure 3-1: A WiFi network lets you and your WiFi-ready computers roam throughout your home (or however far your WiFi router's signal reaches). Meanwhile, you can plug any computers that aren't equipped with WiFi (like a desktop PC) right into the WiFi router, using a standard-issue Ethernet cable (Section 2.1.3.1).

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To most people, A, B, and G are just letters of the alphabet, but these particular letters have special meaning when it comes to WiFi. Each wireless standard has three characteristics that distinguish it:

The radio frequency that it uses
The speed at which the network can transfer data
The physical range of the wireless signal

You should consider all these factors when you're trying to figure out which kind of wireless gear to buy and install in your house.

Section 3.2.1.1: Radio frequency

The next time you hop in the car for a drive, consider that humble radio in the dashboard. It has the power to pull music, news, sports, and mattress commercials down from the airwaves and play them out of your car's speakers. You find your favorite stations by their call letters and the number of the radio frequency they occupy on the dial, like 1010 WINS or KSSS 101.5 FM. Unless you're almost out of range, you hear just the one station you're tuned to.

This is because each radio station transmits on its very own frequency in order to prevent signal overlap—the chaos up and down the dial if all of a sudden a hockey game from one station and a live classical music concert from another were both pouring out of your speakers at the same time. Your home networking radio equipment works on the same concept, but it's limited to just two major radio frequencies: 2.4 gigahertz and 5 gigahertz (GHz).

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Wireless networks use the same basic type of equipment as a wired network, but while the wireless hardware serves a similar function, it looks and acts a bit differently.

The central point of any WiFi network is the wireless router or wireless access point. Both these devices contain the antenna that broadcasts your network's signal. But a wireless router goes beyond simple beaming duty: as the name suggests, it also acts as a router. If you're just looking to set up a basic WiFi network and want to cut down on the number of boxes you've got cluttering your house, you want a wireless router (also sometimes known as a WiFi router).

Why would you buy a wireless access point? If you've already got a plain vanilla Ethernet router (Section 1.1) handling your router duties, then you could just go for the wireless access point. But, honestly, WiFi gear is getting so inexpensive these days that it's almost always worth it to get the whole enchilada—router and WiFi antenna—packed into one box: the WiFi router.

You probably want your wireless router to have a built-in Ethernet switch (Section 1.2), because this gives you several Ethernet ports on your router (Figure 3-2). That's useful if you want to give access to your network to someone such as a visiting cousin with no wireless card for her laptop.

Figure 3-2: Top: A WiFi router beams your network's connection throughout your home.
Bottom: The backsides of most WiFi routhers have built-in switches, which are handy if you've got a desktop PC that you want to plug directly into the router.

Macintosh owners looking for an easy solution have probably heard all about Apple Computer's hangar full of wireless products: the AirPort, AirPort Extreme, and portable, pocket-sized Airport Express.

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For many people, the main reason to install a home network is to share a cable or DSL Internet connection among a couple of computers. Maybe you've got a desktop computer that, all of a sudden, needs to share its broadband connection with a newly arrived WiFi-ready laptop. Or perhaps you've just signed up for broadband and want all your PCs to join in on the high-speed fun. Whatever the reason, you're in the right spot if you've got one or more computers and you want to get them set up on a WiFi network.

The setup instructions covered in the steps below should work for the vast majority of prospective home networkers. But since it's not practical to describe every possible computer and WiFi equipment combination, you're going to read about one particular setup: a desktop computer running Windows XP and a Windows XP laptop with a built-in 802.11g card. The router in the starring role for this network production is a Linksys WRT54G unit, which uses the 802.11g standard and includes a four-port Ethernet switch.

Of course, you might be running different operating systems at home, or have an additional computer you want to invite to the wireless party, or have some other slight variation. The cool thing about networking in the 21st century is that whichever company you buy your WiFi gear or your computers from, the setup has become a pretty uniform process. The smart engineers that created WiFi, and the related gadgets and software that make use of it, designed things so your network works no matter what you connect to it—as long as you properly connect all the parts.

So your equipment might vary from the equipment used in this example. Heck, the Linksys router might not even be available by the time you read this paragraph. It doesn't really matter all that much. Even though WiFi routers come in all shapes and sizes, at heart, they all perform the same service: beaming that juicy WiFi signal throughout your home.

By the time you complete the following steps, all your computers should be able to connect to the Internet. And when you're bored with browsing the Web and catching up on email, flip on ahead to Part 2 of this book to learn how to get your computers to share files and other documents with each other over your new home network.

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Okay, so what happens if your basic network setup turns out to be not-so-basic? No problem. The two most likely culprits are that you've got a static IP address or your Internet service provider makes you use a PPPoE connection. In either case, you've probably got to take matters into your own hands and manually configure your WiFi router. (If the term "manually configure" makes you nervous, relax. It really just means "typing stuff into boxes on screen and clicking OK.") If you've got a static IP address, read on; if you're a PPPoE person, skip ahead to "Information PPPoE People Need" on Section 3.5.1.4.

If you have a static IP address, you need to obtain the following bits of info from your ISP before you can move ahead: the IP address, subnet mask, default gateway, and DNS servers. You'll need all this arcane technical jargon to configure your router correctly. All these terms are described in the following sections.

Section 3.5.1.1: The IP address

Every computer connected to the Internet, even temporarily, has its own exclusive IP address (IP stands for Internet Protocol). An IP address is always made up of four numbers separated by periods. Think of your IP address as the number of your house on your street—350, 1060, whatever. If you have a static IP address, make sure your Internet service provider has given you an address that works. If the static address falls within any of three restricted ranges—192.168.0.0 to 192.168.255.255, 172.16.0.0 to 172.31.255.255, or 10.0.0.0 to 10.255.255.255—it won't work for getting on the Internet. These numbers all fall within the category of what's known as private IP address ranges. Internet engineers once decided that these number ranges should be reserved for secure private networks that can't connect to the big sprawling Internet, which is very public. So if you've been assigned one of these numbers, ring up your ISP and get a new one.

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From the beginning, wireless networks have suffered from poor security. All that data flying over the airwaves is tempting prey for determined snoops on the hunt for personal information like passwords, credit card numbers, and your mother's maiden name.

If you live out in the country and your closest neighbor is miles away, you might not worry so much about eavesdroppers, unless the cows in the field next door have wireless laptops and a bone to pick with your backyard grilling habits. But if you live in a high-rise or other densely packed living quarters, things are different, since it's much easier for criminals, neighbors, or any combination of the two to try to pick up stray signals from vulnerable wireless networks.

Fortunately, there are some simple steps you can—and most definitely should—take to protect your personal information. While no level of security will completely protect you, you can put up enough of a defense to deter casual and intermediate intruders.

Figure 3-9: Enter the PPPoE user name and password that your ISP gave you.

One reason many people hesitate to batten down their home network is the intimidating thicket of terminology and choices awaiting them when they enter the world of wireless security. And unfortunately, as of now, there's no such thing as a simple solution (the equivalent, say, of a home alarm system where you just punch in a code). But if you're willing to learn just a few words and phrases—things like SSID, authentication, and WEP—you'll at least be able to decide what kind of security setup makes sense for you, and find out how to go about setting it up.

Section 3.6.1.1: Service Set Identifier (SSID)

Everything has a name, even your wireless network. Your router beams out a Service Set Identifier

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Almost all wireless networks use other types of network technology at some point. At the very least, your broadband modem uses an Ethernet cable to connect to your wireless router. But what if you want to extend these wired/wireless partnerships even further? The simplest step is to make sure the wireless router you buy comes with plenty of Ethernet ports. That way, if you've got devices you want everyone on the network to use—for example, a printer, or a network attached hard drive (Section 8.3.1)—you can just plug the gadget directly into your wireless router. But in the next chapter, you'll also read about another type of networking technology, called Powerline, that gets along very nicely, both with Ethernet and WiFi. Powerline uses the existing electrical wiring in your home to extend the reach of your network. Flip the page to find out more.

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Ethernet and WiFi tend to hog all the networking glory, but there's a third way of linking your computers, and it's gaining some attention in the home-networking industry. Powerline networks use the electrical wiring already in your home to link your computers together.

In this chapter, you'll learn about Powerline's nuts and bolts and how to install a Powerline network in your home. If you've already done some networking but were stymied on how to extend your network into some hard-to-reach spot—the basement or an attic office, for example—you'll learn how to add Powerline onto your existing Ethernet or WiFi network.

You might sometimes see Powerline referred to as HomePlug—that's the name of the official networking standard all Powerline devices use. To make matters worse, some hardware makers pile on even more monikers by slapping their own names, such as HomeLink or PlugLink, on their Powerline products.

Powerline is an impressive and easy-to-use network technology, but it's a little different from Ethernet and WiFi, the current networking champs. While Powerline devices can theoretically work all by themselves, most companies have focused their energy on developing products that work with your existing network's Ethernet or wireless router. In practice, most people use Powerline as a supplement to the main network, sort of like adding a room over the garage to get more living space in your house. Figure 4-1 shows a typical Powerline network setup.

Now that you know what a typical Powerline setup looks like, here are a few points to consider before deciding whether Powerline's for you:

Powerline's good for extending your network to hard-to-reach spots. If your PCs are spread far and wide across your house (say, greater than 150 feet apart, which is too far for WiFi to reach, or would require an unsightly mass of Ethernet cables), Powerline's a great alternative.

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Powerline is an impressive and easy-to-use network technology, but it's a little different from Ethernet and WiFi, the current networking champs. While Powerline devices can theoretically work all by themselves, most companies have focused their energy on developing products that work with your existing network's Ethernet or wireless router. In practice, most people use Powerline as a supplement to the main network, sort of like adding a room over the garage to get more living space in your house. Figure 4-1 shows a typical Powerline network setup.

Now that you know what a typical Powerline setup looks like, here are a few points to consider before deciding whether Powerline's for you:

Powerline's good for extending your network to hard-to-reach spots. If your PCs are spread far and wide across your house (say, greater than 150 feet apart, which is too far for WiFi to reach, or would require an unsightly mass of Ethernet cables), Powerline's a great alternative.
Powerline's not the fastest network on the block. With a maximum speed of 14 megabits per second (Mbps)—compared to Ethernet's current standard of 100 Mbps—Powerline networks aren't exactly going to win the Indianapolis 500 of networking technologies. And that's the theoretical maximum speed—in reality, a Powerline network will probably coast along at 5 to 8 Mbps. These speeds are fine for low-bandwidth tasks like surfing the Web and email, but you'll likely get frustrated by speed lags and slow performance if you try to use your Powerline network for muscular chores like copying large files between computers or streaming digital movies.

When your power system is hindered, Powerline automatically falls back to speeds as slow as 1 Mbps, which is probably slower than your broadband Internet connection. Surge protectors, uninterruptible power supplies, electrical interference filters for stereo equipment, drills, hairdryers, and microwave ovens can also create harsh conditions on your electrical system that results in poor Powerline network performance.

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If you're still game, you're going to need to bring three things to the Powerline setup party: a Powerline network adapter, a router, and some cables.

Like every type of network, Powerline requires the use of network adapters (Section 1.1)—sometimes also called bridge adapters—that let your computer to talk to the Internet and to other computers hanging out on the network. If you've been reading this book from the beginning, you know that Powerline adapters (Figure 4-2) look a bit different than those used by Ethernet and WiFi networks.

Figure 4-2: At the top back of this Powerline network adapter are the prongs that you plug into an electrical outlet. You plug a cable into the Ethernet port (which is not visible in this photo), which then lets you connect the adapter to a PC or a router.

Powerline network adapters come in two varieties: Ethernet and USB. Both versions use their respective cable types to plug into the appropriate port on your computer. (If your computer doesn't have an Ethernet port, check out Section 2.1.3, which tells you how to open up your system and install one.) Unfortunately, there's no such thing as a Powerline adapter that you can install inside your computer. You always have to use a Powerline-to-Ethernet or Powerline-to-USB adapter. If you do have an Ethernet port on your PC, you'll want to use the Ethernet Powerline adapter, because it's speedier than its USB counterpart.

Most Powerline equipment is Windows-only. While this factoid is not much of a problem for 95 percent of the world, it tends to depress Mac people. Luckily for them, though, a company called SMC Networks (www.smc.com) is now making Powerline networking equipment that works with all-Macintosh networks. Macwireless.com also has some Mac-friendly Powerline devices (search under "Powerline").

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Now that you know what goes into a Powerline network, you're ready to learn how to set one up. By the end of this section, you'll be able to jump on the Internet from any of the Powerline-connected computers in the house.

To get a simple Powerline network up and running so all your computers can browse the Internet at once, follow these steps:

Make sure you've got an Ethernet or WiFi router up and running.

Pop back to Section 2.3 for information on how to set up an Ethernet router. Section 3.4.2 tells you everything you need to know to set up a WiFi router.
Buy your Powerline equipment.

Remember that you need at least two Powerline adapters and that at least one of them has to be an Ethernet Powerline adapter for the connection to your router.
In the room with the router, plug the Ethernet Powerline adapter into the electrical outlet on wall.

Try to use an outlet close to the router to keep the amount of cables snaking through the room to a minimum.
Connect the Powerline adapter to the router.

Plug one end of an Ethernet cable into the Ethernet port on the Powerline adapter and the other end into a free Ethernet port on the router. Make sure both ends of the cable click into place to ensure a good connection.
Plug a Powerline adapter into the wall next to each computer and then connect the adapter to the computer.

In each room where there's a computer, plug a Powerline adapter into an available electrical outlet. Connect the appropriate cable (USB or Ethernet) between the Powerline adapter and either the computer's USB or Ethernet port.

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If you don't want your neighbors to potentially pop onto your network, you'll want to install the encryption software that comes with every Powerline adapter. Encryption protects your network by wrapping up all your traveling data into a package, and only you and the Powerline hardware have the key to unlock it.

Without encryption, a neighbor or another tenant in your apartment building could plug a Powerline adapter into one of their own electrical outlets and be able to see everything on your network. A Powerline signal can travel more than 1,500 feet over electrical lines before becoming unusable, so people living in apartment complexes, townhouse condo communities, and neighborhoods where single family homes are shoved up against each other are particularly at risk for signal leakage.

Why do many Powerline adapters from different hardware companies look exactly the same?

When you're doing your shopping research for Powerline hardware, you may notice that many of the standard Ethernet-to-Powerline network adapters look very similar to each other. If you browse through online manuals and setup screens on each company's Web site, you might even notice that many of them use identical software and the same factory-set password.

So what gives? Are hardware makers that unoriginal that they all copied the first person who made Powerline adapters?

Actually, this serious case of device déjà vu stems from the fact that there are only a couple of different electronics companies that make the communications hardware found inside all of the different Powerline bridge adapters. Home-networking manufacturers like D-Link, Netgear, IOGEAR, and Belkin buy these standard components and then slap their own labels on them. One good thing about this uniformity: the different brands work really well together if you've got hardware from a couple companies mixed in together on your Powerline network.

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The basic Powerline setup you learned about in this chapter is not the only way you can use Powerline in conjunction with other types of networks. You might, for example, want to set up a WiFi zone (Section 1.4) in a far, far corner of your house.

This challenge is especially common for people who've got basement or attic offices or playrooms that they want to blanket with WiFi coverage. The problem these people face is that their WiFi router's stuck back in some other part of the house and the far corner is, well, too far away to be reached by a standard WiFi antenna.

Powerline can help you out. The procedure can take a little bit of time, but it involves performing steps you've already learned, or will soon learn, if you're willing to read Chapter 2 (on Ethernet) and Chapter 3 (on WiFi). The basic steps are pretty straightforward: you set up a network that uses Powerline to link your broadband modem to your far-off room. Then, with the Powerline adapter in the far-off room, rather than plugging it into a PC, you plug in a wireless access point (Section 3.3.1), whose sole purpose in life is to broadcast a wireless Internet connection. Figure 4-5 shows how it all comes together.

Figure 4-5: Using Powerline in conjunction with WiFi can help you spread connectivity throughout even really sprawling homes.

If you do something along these lines, you're actually using all three of the network types discussed so far and have officially won the Triple Crown of home-networking. Congratulations!

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Surfing the Web from your newly networked computers is fun, no doubt. But some of the best parts of having a home network revolve around what's going on inside your house. You, proud network owner, have got your own wide world of resources waiting for you on the PCs sitting right within your home. The files, folders, disk drives, and printers—in fact, almost anything you can attach or store inside any computer on your network—can be shared among all your PCs. Sharing requires taking three basic steps:

Naming the PCs and people on your network. Every computer needs a name. And, in many cases, you'll want to create user accounts for everyone on all the PCs you want them to have access to. You'll learn much more about both procedures in the first part of this chapter, but the user accounts in particular are a great way to keep everyone's stuff private and looking exactly the way everyone wants it to look.
Designating what you want to share with others. You can share—or not—pretty much any file, folder, or hard drive that's attached to your computer. The second part of this chapter shows you how to designate what you want to share, as well as what you want to keep private.
Learning how to access the items others have shared on their PCs. Once everyone's set up their computers to share, the next step is learning how to get to other people's stuff. This step is a piece of cake.

This chapter covers how to share resources among Windows computers. If you've got some Macs in your mix, you'll want to read this chapter and then skip ahead to Chapter 7, where you'll learn about sharing with the Apple lovers in your life.

Even though, under the hood, computers use cryptic numbers called IP addresses (Section 2.3) to keep track of each other, you, lucky modern-operating-system-owner, get to use real names to identify the PCs on your network. These names will be of great help later on, when it comes time to actually find other computers on your network.

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Even though, under the hood, computers use cryptic numbers called IP addresses (Section 2.3) to keep track of each other, you, lucky modern-operating-system-owner, get to use real names to identify the PCs on your network. These names will be of great help later on, when it comes time to actually find other computers on your network.

Windows computers are also kind enough to let you put them into groups—called workgroups—that are especially useful if you have lots of computers to handle. While not particularly helpful for a home network with only a few computers, someone at Microsoft long ago made the decision that every Windows computer will belong to some kind of workgroup.

In the next two sections, you'll learn how to assign or change the name and workgroup of all your Windows computers.

All computers come shipped from the factory with computer names that don't always make sense. If you just bought a new Dell, for example, its name might be something like EJKL776JJRTYUI456. Fortunately, you can change the factory-assigned name to something easier to remember like "PC1," "DiningRoom," or "Fluffy."

The name you pick for your computer can be just about anything you want—as long as it contains only the letters A–Z (lowercase too), the numbers 0–9, dashes, spaces, and some other special characters, such as apostrophes. When naming your computer, the only real rul

Table of Contents

Section 2.3.1.1: The IP address

Section 2.3.1.2: Subnet mask

Section 3.2.1.1: Radio frequency

Section 3.5.1.1: The IP address

Section 3.6.1.1: Service Set Identifier (SSID)