Getting wireless at home

Speaking of broadband, if you have a DSL/cable connection at home and have more than one PC or device to connect, you should get a wireless network set up ASAP.

Setting this up and questions around it have been a recurring topic for the Digital Dad. People with problems with their wireless LANs tend to gravitate toward me for some reason.

However, it really is not too difficult to set up these days - a DDUS of 3 if you read the manual. Without proper documentation you are in DDUS 5 land with little chance of escape (see earlier post on Digital Dad Usability Score).

I set up my first wireless LAN around 1999, using a Wireless WebGear unit that claimed 2Mbps speed. Fortunately we lived in a VERY small house in San Francisco so I could actually get coverage all the way to the living room (if I sat on the right side of the couch). Just the fact I had any connection wirelessly was fantastic.

That was in the days before 802.11 standards, or what is sometimes knows as WiFi. The idea was to create some standards so that your WiFi enabled devices (notebooks etc) could communicate with WiFi base stations (boxes that connect to a wired network, or each other).

No there is WiFi everywhere and of course a nasty rash of standards to thoroughly confuse everyone. I won't go through them all here but there are ones to keep in mind:

802.11b - provides up to 11Mbps access between your PC/notebook/etc and the wireless base station

802.11g - provides up to 54Mbps access between your PC/notebook/etc and the wireless base station and will work with 802.11b gear. However, I have found that when you mix 802.11b and 802.11g gear, you get terrible speeds, 5Mbps or less. So it works, but not well. I believe this will get fixed in the future.

802.11a - provides up to 54Mbps access between your PC/notebook/etc and the wireless base station but doesn't work with 802.11b or 802.11g gear.

Then there's 802.16 and all of that but that's not something to bother with now.

Keep in mind that your DSL/cable modem connection to the internet is probably running at 1Mbps at the most, so going from 11Mbps to 54Mbps will not improve your internet access speed, only the speed between computers on your wireless network.

Getting back to reality, you need just a few items to get a wireless network running at home:

Base station - this box has an antenna on it to communicate with the wireless devices and connects with a cable to your DSL modem. Make sure it has a router built-in - that enables you to connect multiple devices through it and provides some security through what is called a "firewall". There are base stations without routers in them but stay clear of those unless you want to set up a repeater (another post). You should pay less than $100 for this.

WiFi card - this can be a PC Card, antenna with a USB connector on it, or a PCI card you put inside your PC. Many new notebooks come with WiFi built-in, which is great. You should pay less than $50 for this.

Two Ethernet cables - one usually comes with the base station, but check the box. I suggest a second one for set up purposes.
You should pay less than $10 for this.

You hook up the base station to the DSL/cable modem with that ethernet cable and then I suggest hooking a PC, via that second ethernet cable, to the base station. This way you can make sure your internet connection is working before you try the wireless connection.

If that all works you can disconnect the PC and connect in the WiFi card (in what ever form). Remember you need to install software that comes with the card. Follow the instructions on how to do that and all should be well.

The device will look for what is called an SSID, which is the "name" of your base station and also your wireless network. There is the option to either broadcast that SSID or not. If you want to share your high speed connection with the neighborhood you can broadcast it. Otherwise, do not. Also, I suggest changing the SSID name from the default "linksys" or whatever to something else. Again, if you do not your connection could be shared by the neighbors.

Those are the basics and I'll dig into more details in future posts. By the way I suggest you do all of this after your kids go to bed. There is nothing like having a four year old continuously ask questions over your shoulder while you set up a wireless network!

Comments

[blama]

thank you for you blog

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