Networking Fundamentals

Setting up a broadband connection

In the 1990s, when I got my first computer, most ISPs would provide you with a CD that included software that configured your home connection to their service. These usually would configure your dial-up modem, and in some cases also gave you a graphical user interface to navigate the internet. However, the use of CDs has pretty much faded with the demise of modems. Nowadays, our ISP will provide us with some form of preconfigured home router that will connect directly to the ISP, and all you have to do is connect your devices to the router.

While we can usually connect directly to our ISP-provided hub/router, there may be times when we need to manually configure this broadband connection. In the following ...