Home Networking Annoyances

Chapter 1. Hardware Annoyances

Networking hardware is annoying on general principle. In fact, most people (including computer professionals) find installing routers, hubs, and network adapters boring. Worse, hardware troubleshooting is frequently quite difficult because the devices are stubbornly noncommunicative. Unlike software, hardware doesn’t display error messages to help you determine what to do. I’ve spent many hours pointing a screwdriver at a computer in a threatening manner and muttering, “I hate hardware.”

However, because a simple black box the size of a paperback novel can turn a bunch of individual computers into a network, there’s no way to avoid messing around with hardware—this is where your network building starts. In this chapter, you’ll learn about various types of network adapters and how to solve the most annoying problems associated with installing an Ethernet, phoneline, powerline, or wireless network.

NETWORK ADAPTER ANNOYANCES

A NIC IS A NETWORK CARD IS AN ADAPTER

The Annoyance:

My computer-literate friends, and the articles I read about home networks, tell me I need to buy NICs or network cards. How do I know what I need?

The Fix:

Those terms are nicknames for the same thing—a hardware device called a network adapter. The following are the most common adapters:

• PCI Cards fit in a PCI slot inside your computer (the slot is sometimes called a bus).

• USB adapters connect to a USB port on your computer.

• Embedded adapters are built into the computer by the manufacturer ...