Text only | Text with Images

Communiversity

Afrikan Liberation Institute => Math and Science (STEM) => Topic started by: Ajamu on Aug 07, 2012, 05:52 PM

Title: Home networking explained: Here's the URL for you-gctid53206
Post by: Ajamu on Aug 07, 2012, 05:52 PM
Home networking explained: Here's the URL for you | Crave - CNET (http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-57485724-1/home-networking-explained-heres-the-url-for-you/)

CNET editor Dong Ngo gives all his answers to questions about the basics of home networking.

  (https://www.abibitumikasa.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fasset3.cbsistatic.com%2Fcnwk.1d%2Fi%2Ftim%2F2011%2F11%2F02%2Fheadshots_Dong_Ngo_140x100_60x43.jpg&hash=fe9c13589eda1cb8818e162a8e76601e9b85c876) (http://www.cnet.com/profile/ngodong/)    by Dong Ngo (http://www.cnet.com/profile/ngodong/)

    August 6, 2012 4:04 PM PDT

'""'
     (https://www.abibitumikasa.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fasset2.cbsistatic.com%2Fcnwk.1d%2Fi%2Ftim%2F2012%2F07%2F31%2FAsusRT-AC66U_%25283%2529_610x404.JPG&hash=b46e0ec27a5c11e8341de945f520332211817dcc)  (http://i.i.com.com/cnwk.1d/i/tim/2012/07/31/AsusRT-AC66U_%283%29.JPG)

A typical wireless router with LAN ports for Ethernet-ready devices and antennas for Wi-Fi clients.
 (Credit: Dong Ngo)

  As the guy who reviews networking products I generally receive a  couple of e-mails from readers a day, and most of them, in one way or  another, are asking about the basics of networking (as in computer to  computer, I am not talking about social networks here.)

 Don't get me wrong, I appreciate e-mails because, at the very least,  it gives me the impression that there are real people out there amid the  sea of spam. But I'd rather not keep repeating myself. So instead of  saying the same thing over and over again in individual e-mails, I'll  talk all about home networking basics, in layman's terms, in this post.
Related stories

 
'""'
 
 Advanced and experienced users won't need this, but for the rest, I'd  recommend reading the whole thing, and if you want to quickly find out  what a networking term means, you can search for it here.

 1. Wired Networking
 A wired local network is basically a  group of devices connected to one another using network cables, more  often than not, with the help of a router, which brings us to the very first networking term.

 Router: This is the central device of a home network that you can plug one end of a network cable into. The other end of the cable goes into a networking device that has a network port.  If you want to add more network devices to a router, you'll need more  cables and more ports on the router. These ports, both on the router and  on the end devices, are called Local Area Network (LAN) ports. They are also known as RJ45  ports. The moment you plug a device into a router, you have yourself a  wired network. Networking devices that come with an RJ45 network port  are called Ethernet-ready devices. More on this below.

Note: Technically, you can skip a router and  connect two computers together using one network cable to form a network  of two. However, this requires manually configuring the IP addresses,  or using a special crossover cable, for the connection to work. You don't really want to do that.


 (https://www.abibitumikasa.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fasset2.cbsistatic.com%2Fcnwk.1d%2Fi%2Ftim%2F2012%2F08%2F03%2FDSC_0020_610x404.JPG&hash=7960271cf1627a8de6697fdfed2b479f2c42a45e)  (http://i.i.com.com/cnwk.1d/i/tim/2012/08/03/DSC_0020.JPG)

The back of a typical router; the WAN port is clearly distinguished from the LANs.
 (Credit: Dong Ngo)

LAN ports: A home router usually has four LAN ports, meaning  out of the box it can host a network of up to four wired networking  devices. If you want to have a larger network, you will need to resort  to a switch (or a hub), which adds more LAN ports to the  router. Generally a home router can handle up to about 250 networking  devices, and the majority of homes and even small businesses don't need  more than that. There are currently two main speed standards for LAN  ports: Ethernet, which caps at 100Mbps (or about 13MBps), and Gigabit  Ethernet, which caps at 1Gbps (or about 125MBps). In other words, it  takes about a minute to transfer a CD's worth of data (some 700MB or  about 250 digital songs) over an Ethernet connection. With Gigabit  Ethernet, the same job takes just about 5 seconds. In real life, the  average speed of an Ethernet connection is about 8MBps, and of a Gigabit  Ethernet connection is somewhere between 45 and 80MBps. The actual  speed of a network connection depends on many factors, such as the end  devices, the quality of the cable, the amount of traffic, and so on.

Rule of thumb: The speed of a network connection is determined by the slowest speed of any party involved.  For example, in order to have a wired Gigabit Ethernet connection  between two computers, both computers, the router they are connected to,  and the cables used to link them together all need to support Gigabit  Ethernet. If you plug a Gigabit Ethernet device and an Ethernet device  to a router, the connection between the two will cap at the speed of  Ethernet, which is 100Mbps.


In short, LAN ports on a router allow Ethernet-ready devices to  connect to one another and share data. In order for them to also access  the Internet, the router needs to also have a Wide Area Network (WAN) port.

   (https://www.abibitumikasa.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fasset1.cbsistatic.com%2Fcnwk.1d%2Fi%2Ftim%2F2012%2F08%2F03%2FDSC_0023_610x404.JPG&hash=e8fbe5e93ad2a6bcdb9c36347f6898187d2d9033)  (http://i.i.com.com/cnwk.1d/i/tim/2012/08/03/DSC_0023.JPG)

A typical CAT5e network cable.
 (Credit: Dong Ngo)

  WAN port: Generally, a router has just one WAN port. (Some  business routers come with dual WAN ports, so that one could use two  separate Internet services at a time). On any router, the WAN port is  always separate from the LAN ports, and often comes in a different color  to distinguish itself. A WAN port is exactly the same as a LAN port,  just with a different united snakesge: to connect to an Internet source, such as a  broadband modem. The WAN allows the router to connect to the  Internet and share that connection with all the Ethernet-ready devices  connected to it.

Note: Since most Internet connections are  slower than 100Mbps (a fast cable connection, for example, is about  50Mbps down and about 6Mbps up), an Ethernet-rated WAN port is  sufficient in most cases. However, Gigabit Ethernet routers tend to also  come with a Gigabit WAN port. That said, switching from an Ethernet  router to a Gigabit Ethernet router generally doesn't translate into  faster Internet speeds, but only helps devices within your local network  (LAN) to connect to one another faster.


Broadband modem: Often called a DSL modem or cable modem,  a broadband modem is a device that bridges the Internet connection from  a service provider to a computer or to a router, making the Internet  available to consumers. Some providers offer a combo device that's a  combination of a modem and a router, or wireless router, all in one.

 Network cables: These are the cables used to connect network devices to a router or a switch. They are also known as Category 5 cables, or CAT5 cables. Currently, most, if not all, CAT5 cables on the market are actually CAT5e,  which is capable of delivering Gigabit Ethernet data speeds. The latest  network cabling standard currently in use is CAT6, which is designed to  be faster and more reliable than CAT5e. The difference between the two  is the wiring inside the cable and at both ends of it. CAT5e and CAT6  cables can be used interchangeably and in my personal experience are  basically the same, except CAT6 is more expensive. For most home united snakesge,  what CAT5e has to offer is more than enough. In fact, you probably won't  notice any difference if you switch to CAT6, but it doesn't hurt to use  CAT6, either, if you can afford it.

 Now that we're clear on a wired network let's move on to a wireless network.

 2. Wireless networking: Standards and devices
A wireless network is very similar to a wired network with one big  difference: devices don't use cables to connect to the router and one  another. Instead, they use wireless connections, known as Wireless  Fidelity, or Wi-Fi, which is a friendly name for the 802.11 networking  standard supported by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Institute_of_Electrical_and_Electronics_Engineers)  (IEEE). This means wireless networking devices don't need to have  ports, but just antennas, which sometimes are hidden inside the device  itself. In a typical home network, there are generally both wired and  wireless devices, and they can all talk to one another. In order to have  a Wi-Fi connection, there needs to be an access point and a Wi-Fi client.

   (https://www.abibitumikasa.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fasset3.cbsistatic.com%2Fcnwk.1d%2Fi%2Ftim%2F2012%2F08%2F03%2Fphoto1_270x405.PNG&hash=354e400664a688117489d362ae2331da2a46c528)

  (http://i.i.com.com/cnwk.1d/i/tim/2012/08/03/photo1.PNG) Each of the Wi-Fi networks that a client, such as an iPhone, detects generally belongs to one access point.
 (Credit: Dong Ngo)

  Access point: An Access point (AP) is a central device that  broadcasts the Wi-Fi signal for Wi-Fi clients to connect to. Generally,  each wireless network, like those you see popping up on your  smartphone's screen as you walk around a big city, belongs to one access  point. You can buy an AP separately and connect it to a router or a  switch to add Wi-Fi support to a wired network, but generally, you want  to buy a wireless router, which is a regular router (one WAN  port, four LAN ports, and so on) with a built-in access point. Some  routers even come with more than one access point (see dual-band router,  below).

 Wi-Fi client: A Wi-Fi client or WLAN client is a device  that can detect the signal broadcast by an access point, connect to it,  and maintain the connection. (This type of Wi-Fi connection is  established in the Infrastructure mode, but you don't have to remember this.) Most, if not all, laptops, smartphones, and tablets (http://reviews.cnet.com/tablets/)  on the market come with built-in Wi-Fi capability. Those that don't can  be upgraded to that via a USB or PCIe Wi-Fi adapter. Think of a Wi-Fi  client as a device that has an invisible network port and an invisible  network cable. This metaphorical cable is as long as the range of a Wi-Fi signal.

Note: Technically, you can skip an access point and make two Wi-Fi clients connect directly to each other, in the Ad hoc mode.  However, similar to the case of the crossover network cable, this is  rather complicated and inefficient, and is far less used than the  Infrastructure mode.


Wi-Fi range: This is the radius distance an access point's  Wi-Fi signal can reach. Typically, a Wi-Fi network is most viable within  about 150 feet from the access point. This distance, however, changes  based on the power of the devices involved, the environment, and, most  importantly, the Wi-Fi standard. A good Wireless-N access point can  offer a range of up to 300 feet or even farther. The Wi-Fi standard also  determines how fast a wireless connection can be and is the reason  Wi-Fi gets complicated and confusing, especially when the Wi-Fi  frequency bands are mentioned, which I just did.

 Frequency bands: These bands are the radio frequencies used by the Wi-Fi standards: 2.4GHz and 5GHz.  The 2.4GHz band is currently the most popular, meaning, it's used by  most existing network devices. That plus the fact that home appliances,  such as cordless phones, also use this band, makes its signal quality  generally worse than that of the 5GHz band due to oversaturation and  interference.

 (https://www.abibitumikasa.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fasset2.cbsistatic.com%2Fcnwk.1d%2Fi%2Ftim%2F2012%2F08%2F03%2FUntitled_270x200.png&hash=7c31fb60ed456fc847a9b08099755c9f8be1824b)  (http://i.i.com.com/cnwk.1d/i/tim/2012/08/03/Untitled.png)

A typical Web interface of a D-Link wireless router that allows users to customize their Wi-Fi network.
 (Credit: Dong Ngo)

  Depending on the standard, some Wi-Fi devices use one of the two  bands, while others use both. Following are the existing Wi-Fi  standards, starting with the oldest:

 802.11b: This was the first commercialized wireless standard.  It offers a top speed of 11Mbps and operates only on the 2.4GHz  frequency band. The standard was first available in 1999 and is now  totally obsolete. 802.11b clients, however, are still supported by  access points of later Wi-Fi standards.

 802.11a: Similar to 802.11b in terms of age, 802.11a offers a  cap speed of 54Mbps at the expense of much shorter range, and uses the  5GHz band. It's also now obsolete though still supported by access  points of later standards.

 802.11g: Introduced in 2003, the 802.11g standard marked the  first time wireless networking was called Wi-Fi. The standard offers the  top speed of 54Mbps but operates on the 2.4GHz band, hence offering  better range than the 802.11a standard. It's still used in many mobile  devices, such as the iPhone (http://reviews.cnet.com/iphone/) 3G or the iPhone 3Gs (http://reviews.cnet.com/iphone-3gs-review/). This standard is supported by access points of later standards.

 802.11n or Wireless-N:  Available starting in 2009, 802.11n has been the most popular Wi-Fi  standard, with lots of improvements over the previous ones, such as  making range of the 5GHz band compaAmwle to that of the 2.4GHz band. The  standard operates on both 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands and started a new era  of dual-band routers, those that come with two access points, one for  each band. There are two types of dual-band routers: selectable dual-band routers that can operate in one band at a time, and true dual-band routers that simultaneously offer Wi-Fi signals on both bands.

 On each band, the Wireless-N standard is available in three setups: single-stream, dual-stream, and three-stream,  which offer cap speeds of 150Mbps, 300Mbps, and 450Mbps, respectively.  This in turns creates three types of true dual-band routers. N600  (each of the two bands offers a 300Mbps speed cap), N750 (one band has a  300Mbps speed cap while the other caps at 450Mbps), and N900 (each of  the two bands offers up to 450Mbps cap speed).

Note:  In order to have a Wi-Fi connection, both the access point (router) and  the client need to operate on the same band, either 2.4GHz or 5GHz. For  example, a 2.4GHz client, such as an iPhone 4, won't be able to connect  to a 5GHz access point. In case a client supports both bands, it will  only use one of the bands to connect to an access point, and when  applicable it tends to "prefer" the 5GHz band to the 2.4GHz band, for  better performance.


802.11ac or 5G Wi-Fi:  This latest Wi-Fi standard operates only on the 5GHz frequency band and  offers Wi-Fi speeds of up to 1.3Gbps (or 1,300Mbps) when used in the  three-stream setup. The standard also comes with dual-stream and  single-stream setups that cap at 900Mbps and 450Mbps, respectively.  (Note that the single-stream setup of 802.11ac is as fast as the top  three-stream setup of 802.11n.)

 Currently, there are just a few 802.11ac routers on the market, such as the Netgear R6300 (http://reviews.cnet.com/routers/netgear-r6300-wifi-router/4505-3319_7-35315201.html), the Asus RT-AC66U (http://reviews.cnet.com/routers/asus-rt-ac66u-802/4505-3319_7-35406080.html), and the Buffalo WZR-D1800H (http://reviews.cnet.com/routers/buffalo-airstation-ac1300-n900/4505-3319_7-35307573.html),  but it's predicted that the standard will be more popular by the end of  2012, when hardware devices such as laptops, tablets, and smartphones  with built-in 802.11ac become available.

 Technically, the  802.11ac standard is about three times faster than then 802.11n (or  Wireless-N) standard and therefore is much better for battery life  (since it has to work less to deliver the same amount of data). In  real-world testing so far, I've found that 802.11ac is about twice the  speed of Wireless-N, which is very good. (Note that the real-world  sustained speeds of wireless standards are always much lower than the  theoretical speed cap. This is partly because the cap speed is  determined in controlled, interference-free environments.) The fastest  real-world speed of a 802.11ac connection I've seen so far is 42MBps,  provided by the Asus RT-AC66U, which is close to that of a Gigabit  Ethernet wired connection.

 On the same 5GHz band, 802.11ac  devices are backward-compatible with Wireless-N and 802.11a devices.  While 802.11ac is not available on the 2.4GHz band, for compatibility  purposes, a 802.11ac router will also come with a three-stream (450Mbps)  Wireless-N access point. In short, a 802.11ac router is basically an  N900 router plus support for 802.11ac on the 5GHz band.

 That said, let me restate the rule of thumb one more time: The speed of a network connection is determined by the slowest speed of any of the parties involved.  That means if you use a 802.11ac router with a 802.11a client, the  connection will cap at 54Mbps. In order to get the top 802.11ac speed,  you will need to use a device that's also 802.11ac-capable.

 (https://www.abibitumikasa.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fasset3.cbsistatic.com%2Fcnwk.1d%2Fi%2Ftim%2F2012%2F08%2F03%2FDSC_0021_610x404.JPG&hash=b1d64b8400f99a240d16e45e652cc5aa6012825f)

  (http://i.i.com.com/cnwk.1d/i/tim/2012/08/03/DSC_0021.JPG) A wireless router and USB client, both with their Wi-Fi Protected Setup (WPS) button.
 (Credit: Dong Ngo)

  3. More on wireless networking
In wired networking, a connection is established the moment you plug the  ends of a network cable into the two respective devices. In wireless  networking it's more complicated than that.

 Since the Wi-Fi  signal, broadcast by the access point, is literally in the air, anybody  with a Wi-Fi client can connect to it, and that might pose a serious  security risk. To prevent this from happening, and only let approved  clients connect, the Wi-Fi network needs to be password-protected (or in  more serious terms: encrypted). Currently, there are a few  methods used to protect a Wi-Fi network (called "authentication  methods"): WEP, WPA, and WPA 2, with the WPA 2 being the most secure,  while WEP is getting obsolete. WPA 2 (as well as WPA) offers two ways to  encrypt the signal, which are Temporal Key Integrity Protocol (TKIP)  and Advanced Encryption Standard (AES). The former is for compatibility  (allowing legacy clients to connect) while the latter allows for faster  connection speeds, is more secure but only works with newer clients.  From the side of the access point or router, the owner can set the  password (or encryption key) that clients can use to connect to the  Wi-Fi network.

 If the above paragraph seems complicated, that's  because Wi-Fi encryption is very complicated. To help make life easier,  the Wi-Fi Alliance offers an easier method called Wi-Fi Protected Setup.

 (https://www.abibitumikasa.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fasset2.cbsistatic.com%2Fcnwk.1d%2Fi%2Ftim%2F2012%2F08%2F03%2Fphoto_270x405.PNG&hash=56b480e55153a8afc5378cafd5a1de570dae469b)  (http://i.i.com.com/cnwk.1d/i/tim/2012/08/03/photo.PNG)

Personal Hotspot is a feature made available by  the Wi-Fi Direct standard. It temporarily turns the Wi-Fi client, an  iPhone in this case, into a "soft" access point.
 (Credit: Dong Ngo)

  Wi-Fi Protected Setup or WPS: Introduced  in 2007, Wi-Fi Protected Setup is a standard that makes it easy to  establish a secure Wi-Fi network. The most popular implementation of WPS  is the push button. Here's how it works: On the router (access point)  side, you press the WPS button. Now, within 2 minutes, you press the WPS  button on the Wi-Fi clients, and that's all you need for them to  connect to the access point. This way you don't have to remember the  password (encryption key) or type it in. Note that this method only  works with devices that support WPS. Most networking devices released in  the last few years do, however.

 Wi-Fi Direct: This is a  standard that enables Wi-Fi clients to connect to one another without a  physical access point. Basically, this allows one Wi-Fi client, such as a  smartphone, turn itself into a "soft" access point and broadcast Wi-Fi  signals that other Wi-Fi clients can connect to. This standard is very  useful when you want to share an Internet connection. For example, you  can connect your laptop's LAN port to an Internet source, such as in a  hotel, and turn its Wi-Fi client into a soft AP. Now other Wi-Fi clients  can also access that Internet connection. Wi-Fi Direct is actually most  popularly used in smartphones and tablets, where the mobile device  shares its cellular Internet connection with other Wi-Fi devices, in a  feature called Personal Hotspot.

 4. Power line networking:
When it comes to networking, you probably don't want to run network  cables all over the place, making Wi-Fi a great alternative.  Unfortunately, in some places, such as that corner in the basement, a  Wi-Fi signal can't reach, either because it's too far away or because  there are thick concrete walls in between. In this case, the best  solution is a pair of power line adapters.

 Power line adapters  basically turn the electrical wiring of a home into network cables for a  computer network. You need at least two power line adapters to form the  first power line connection. The first adapter is connected to the  router and the second to the Ethernet-ready device at the far corner.  There are some routers on the market, such as the D-Link DHP-1320 (http://reviews.cnet.com/routers/d-link-dhp-1320/4505-3319_7-34580201.html), that have built-in support for power line, meaning you can skip the first adapter. More on power line devices can be found here (http://reviews.cnet.com/2733-3243_7-568-4.html).

 Currently there are two main standard sfor power line networking, HomePlug AV and Powerline AV+ 500. They offer cap speeds of 200Mbps and 500Mbps, respectively.

 That's  it. Now if you haven't found your questions answered, it's probably  time to send them to me, or just post those in the comment section  below.
Title: Home networking explained: Here's the URL for you-gctid54533
Post by: Ajamu on Aug 19, 2012, 11:28 PM
Home networking explained, part 2: Optimizing your Wi-Fi network | Crave - CNET (http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-57493114-1/home-networking-explained-part-2-optimizing-your-wi-fi-network/)

 CNET editor Dong Ngo answers questions about how to optimize a home Wi-Fi network.
  (https://www.abibitumikasa.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fasset3.cbsistatic.com%2Fcnwk.1d%2Fi%2Ftim%2F2011%2F11%2F02%2Fheadshots_Dong_Ngo_140x100_60x43.jpg&hash=fe9c13589eda1cb8818e162a8e76601e9b85c876) (http://www.cnet.com/profile/ngodong/)    by Dong Ngo (http://www.cnet.com/profile/ngodong/)
    August 17, 2012 4:33 PM PDT

'"').'")."n[/list]"'
     (https://www.abibitumikasa.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fasset2.cbsistatic.com%2Fcnwk.1d%2Fi%2Ftim%2F2012%2F08%2F17%2FDSC_0945_610x407.JPG&hash=f69903caaba2bab9d83ea1bd32a663fd01846402)

  (http://i.i.com.com/cnwk.1d/i/tim/2012/08/17/DSC_0945.JPG) The top of the fireplace in the living room is a good spot to leave your Wi-Fi router for best coverage.
 (Credit: Dong Ngo/CNET)

  Since my last post on the basics of home networking (http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-57485724-1/home-networking-explained-heres-the-url-for-you/), which is the part 1 of this series (http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-57485724-1/home-networking-explained-heres-the-url-for-you/),  I've been flooded with even more e-mails than I had been before (which  explains why some of you haven't heard back from me). The good news is  that nobody is asking about what a router is anymore. I guess I did an  OK job explaining that in my previous post.
 Related stories


'""'
 
 Most of the e-mails this time asked about how to have the best Wi-Fi  coverage at home and avoid "dead zones." A reader even asked me how to  make his Wi-Fi network better than his neighbor's because the other  network's Wi-Fi signal and Internet speed were "so much faster than  mine." Well, I am not a fan of rat races, and you're not supposed to tap  into your neighbor's Wi-Fi network unless you both explicitly share an  Internet connection, in which case you shouldn't be complaining that the  network is so good.

 Also it's not exactly a good thing that your Wi-Fi's range goes so far  away from your home, either; that only increases the unnecessary  interference for your neighborhood (and your network's chance of getting  tapped into). In short, you should just focus on yours.

 And along those lines, there are a few ways to make sure you get the  best out of your Wi-Fi network. With some, you just need to do a little  bit of tweaking; with others, depending on your home, you might need to  get extra equipment.

 Let's start with the ways that probably won't cost you anything, other than a little bit of time.

 1. Placement
Location: A wireless router (from here on in this post, it will  be addressed as "router" for short) broadcasts Wi-Fi signals away from  it in all directions. Think of the signal coverage as a globe with the  router being right in the center. Outside of this globe, clients won't  get a signal. This globe, however, is not exactly spherical; one of the  reasons is because the signals are generally turned to go out more  horizontally than vertically, and like all radio signals, they tend to  spread laterally and downward the farther they are from the broadcaster.  That said, the best place to place your wireless router or access point  is in the center of your home and elevated.

 To take advantage of this, use the telephone jack (or coax cable outlet)  at or near the center of the house, preferably on the upper floor when  applicable, to connect to your modem and then your router. If need be,  hire an electrician to create a new outlet in the right place. If it's  not possible to move the phone jack or run coax cable to where you want,  use a long network cable to connect the router to the modem, leaving  the modem where the jack is and the router/access point at the center of  the house. (In my experience, it's actually quite easy to run cables  above the ceiling, or under the house).

 Surroundings: A wireless signal works best outdoors in an open  environment. Since it's not possible to have that indoors, you can  improve the signal a great deal by making sure the immediate  surroundings of the router/modem are clear, especially in the directions  you want the signals to reach. This means you don't want to leave the  router in a closet, or put it between a big TV and a wall. The best  place to leave the router is in midair, but since that's quite hard to  do, the second best thing is to put it on the surface of a desk, or  mount it on the wall when applicable. Generally, all physical objects,  such as walls, glass doors, and so on, weaken Wi-Fi signals, some moreso  than others.

 (https://www.abibitumikasa.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fasset0.cbsistatic.com%2Fcnwk.1d%2Fi%2Ftim%2F2012%2F08%2F17%2FDSC_0950_610x407.JPG&hash=b1669b197aef97a8c61a2e7cfe04ff0b280ff916)  (http://i.i.com.com/cnwk.1d/i/tim/2012/08/17/DSC_0950.JPG)

Though this might be common, stashing your router/access point in a close corner like this reduces its range a great deal.
 (Credit: Dong Ngo/CNET)

  Antenna positioning: With a router that comes with external  antennae, you can slightly tweak the above-mentioned globe of coverage.  Generally you want the antennae to stay vertical if you want the signal  to go wide (which is the most popular united snakesge). If want the signal to go  deep into the basement and up to the top floor, set the antennae to stay  horizontal. Note that this only works relatively, and with some  routers, you might not experience any difference at all whichever way  you set its antennae. If the antennae are detachable, it's likely that  you can replace them with high-gain antennae (most of the time this  means bigger ones), which noticeably helps increase coverage. (You might  also be able to increase the power of the antenna, hence the range, by  attaching a piece of aluminum foil curled up into a paAmwolic shape, to  it.)

 For routers with an internal antenna design, there's nothing you can do.  Modern routers, especially N750, N900, and 802.11ac routers, however,  generally come with very powerful and smart antennae that essentially  increase their power toward the direction of connected clients  automatically, using a technology called beam-forming.

 2. Equipment
Now that you have placed your router properly and still don't find  enough improvement, it's time to check the equipments. Get ready to  spend some money.

 Router: Ideally you just want to have one wireless broadcaster at  home and for most homes, a single router is good enough. That said, if  you have a small house and the router (put in the middle) can't cover  every corner, it's time to consider replacing it. I'd recommend at least  an N600 router (check out this list (http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-3132_7-57493316-98/top-five-n600-routers-advanced-home-wi-fi-doesnt-have-to-be-expensive/)) or if you're not on a budget, get one of the best routers on the market on this recently updated top five (http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-3132_7-57382096-98/top-5-wireless-routers-home-networking-evolved/).

 (https://www.abibitumikasa.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fasset0.cbsistatic.com%2Fcnwk.1d%2Fi%2Ftim%2F2012%2F08%2F17%2FUntitled_610x511.png&hash=2887830460921cd8b95220cdc3964ca324bbe834)

  (http://i.i.com.com/cnwk.1d/i/tim/2012/08/17/Untitled.png) Many wireless router can also work as an access point. In this case its WAN port is used like a LAN port.
 (Credit: Dong Ngo/CNET)

  Access point: A separate access point is an ideal solution for a  large and sprawling home, one that you can't put the router in the  center, or one with a deep basement, with an existing router.   Basically, you want to put the second access point at the location where  the signal of the existing router can't reach or gets really week.  Typical example of this setup is you have the main router in the living  room and the the second access point in the basement.

 Now the trick is to connect the access point to the router. Ideally, you  want to run network cable from the router to the access point (you want  to connect the access point's LAN port to one of the router's LAN  port). If this is too much of a job, you can resort to powerline  networking.

Note: Many routers can also work as an access  point and will indicate this in its list of features. In this case the  router's WAN port will work as a LAN port. In fact, for the secondary  access point scenario, it's best to use two identical routers, one as  the main, and the second as an access point for the far side of the  house. This way you don't have to learn about two different devices.



Power line: A power line adapter basically turns your home's electrical wiring into network cables; this is more clearly explained in part 1 (http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-57485724-1/home-networking-explained-heres-the-url-for-you/). In the case of the separate access point scenario above, you can use a pair of power line adapters, such as the D-Link DHP-510AV (http://reviews.cnet.com/bridges/d-link-dhp-501av/4505-3304_7-34668774.html).  Connect one of the adapters to the router and the other to the access  point, using network cables. After that, if you want to make your home  network seamless, name the Wi-Fi network (or SSID) of the access point  the same as that of the existing router. In this case, make sure you use  the same security settings (encryption key, method, and so on). Or you  can also keep them as two separate Wi-Fi networks for easy management.

 There are also power line adapter kits with a built-in access point, called power line range extenders, such as the Netgear XAVNB2001 (http://reviews.cnet.com/bridges/netgear-powerline-av-200/4505-3304_7-34223940.html). In this case, you don't need to get the second access point/router anymore.

 In addition to power line you can also opt for a pair of MoCA adapters.  MoCA stands for Multimedia over Coax Alliance, and similar to power  line, turns coax cables (those used by cable TV) into network cables.  MoCA adapters are great solutions for homes with multiple cable outlets  in different rooms. I don't have a lot of experience with MoCA, however,  since it's not possible to test those at my office.

 Range extender/repeater: These are wireless devices that can  connect to an existing Wi-Fi network and then rebroadcast that same  network's signal farther. Most of these devices support Wi-Fi Protected  Setup and can connect to the existing router with the push of a button;  after that, you can just put one at the edge of the existing network's  Wi-Fi range and have that range increased.

 Personally, I am not a fan of this type of device because of a few reasons.

 First, it's hard to gauge their effectiveness; you need to put a range  extender/repeater relatively close to the existing router for it to have  a good connection with the main network, but at the same time far  enough for it to really extend the range. It's very hard to find the  sweet spot for it to be effective both in terms of range and connection  quality.

 Secondly, the repeater basically duplicates the existing Wi-Fi network  with one of its own, and as mentioned above, Wi-Fi signals are broadcast  in all directions. This means devices in the area where the two  networks overlap have to deal with interference and signal saturation.  This is especially bad for the 2.4Ghz band.

 That said, a range extender/repeater is still the fastest way to relatively extend a Wi-Fi network's coverage.

 (https://www.abibitumikasa.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fasset0.cbsistatic.com%2Fcnwk.1d%2Fi%2Ftim%2F2012%2F08%2F17%2FUntitled_11.png&hash=9238fc3e910d3560f14c13a73e29c6d16cb65078)

 (http://i.i.com.com/cnwk.1d/i/tim/2012/08/17/Untitled_11.png) You can easily find out a home network router's IP address by running the ipconfig command from any connected computer.
 (Credit: Dong Ngo/CNET)

  3. Settings
One of the problems with Wi-Fi networks is the risk of losing your  bandwidth to unauthorized users. This part helps you secure your network  and optimize it for speed. Note that it's slightly more advanced and  might seem intimidating to novice users. But you will be a novice no  more if you can go through with it. This part is only recommended for  those interested in learning more about networking.

Rule of thumb: Make sure you back up the router's configuration settings before making changes. This allows you to restore it to previous settings in case something goes wrong.



With the exception of networking products from Apple, most, if not  all, other routers and access points on the market comes with a Web  interface. This means that from a connected computer, you can open up  the router's management Web page by going to its IP address. Unless you  have changed it, the default IP address is generally printed on the  bottom of the router, or on its user guide, and tends to be in this  format: 192.168.x.1.

 It's easy to find out your router's IP address; here are the common steps to get to any home network's router's Web interface:

 Step 1: From a connected computer (running Windows Vista (http://www.cnet.com/windows-vista.html)  or 7), click on Start button, type "cmd" in the search area, then press  Enter. (If you use Windows XP, you can navigate the Start Menu and run  the Command Prompt item.)

 Step 2: Now in the black command prompt window, type in  "ipconfig," then press Enter. You will see lots of information displayed  in the window. Find the string of number after Default Gateway, that's the router's IP address.
 
Step 3: Type that IP address in the address bar of a browser, such as Firefox (http://www.cnet.com/firefox-3/)  and press Enter; now you are at the router's Web interface. You will  have to log in with an account. The username is almost always admin; for  the password, check the router's manual or ask the person who first set  up the network for you.

 (https://www.abibitumikasa.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fasset0.cbsistatic.com%2Fcnwk.1d%2Fi%2Ftim%2F2012%2F08%2F17%2FUntitled_10_610x344.png&hash=ef7dadd5642b3f794793861351582771ab0a3f6e)  (http://i.i.com.com/cnwk.1d/i/tim/2012/08/17/Untitled_10.png)

The Web interface offers a convenient and extensive way to manage a router's or access point's settings.
 (Credit: Dong Ngo/CNET)

  On the Web interface, the following wireless settings will help your network stay safe:

 Network name and password: Most if not all routers come with a  default Wi-Fi network name (or SSID) and password; you won't want to use  those. This is mostly because that reveals to advanced users which  router you have and that, well, you don't know much about networking.  Changing the SSID and password to your liking also helps you remember  them better.

 Hide your SSID: By default all routers broadcast the Wi-Fi  network name. This makes it convenient since clients can "see" them.  Hiding the SSID makes your Wi-Fi network invisible to others. The only  drawback is that you have to manually type it in when you want to  connect a new client to it. There's a trick for it: turn the SSID on  briefly when you want to connect a new client, once that's done, hide it  again.

 Use WPA 2: Using the WPA 2 encryption method helps both increase  the security and the speed of the Wi-Fi signal. The only catch is that  WPA 2 might not be compatible with older clients. Most new clients  released in the past few years support WPA 2, however.  You can try  using WPA 2 first and if some of your clients are unable to connect,  switch it back to WPA.

 In addition, once you have accessed the router's Web interface, there  are many other settings that you can try. For safety, there are also MAC  address filters, Internet filtering, and so on. Note that a router  generally takes about a minute to restart to apply new settings.

 That's it for now; if you have more questions, put them in the comment section below or send it my way via e-mail or at my Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/DongVNgo?sk=wall).
Text only | Text with Images