Setting Up Your Home or Office Wireless Network

Here’s an article about setting up your own home wireless network, it is easy to do and the steps are easy to follow.

Setting Up Your Home or Office Wireless Network
By Crystal Schubert

The world has gone wireless. It’s no surprise that with steady advances in technology, many home and business internet users have decided to toss out the cabled connections of yore in favor of the flexibility of a wireless connection. Setting up a wireless connection in your home or office is quick and painless. Using this guide, you should be up and running in no time.

What You Will Need

- Broadband internet connection
- Wireless-enabled device or a wireless network adapter
- Wireless router

The Steps

1. First you will need to connect your wireless router to your modem. A network cable will typically be provided with your router; insert one end into the modem and the other end into the router’s Internet/WAN/WLAN port. After the devices have been connected, plug them in and give your modem a short amount of time to re-connect to the internet. You will want to set up your router in a central location, which will allow for better signal strength around your home or office. Avoid placing the router near walls or metal objects as these can obstruct the signal. For businesses, you will want to determine the number of people who will access the wireless network in order to ascertain the number of access points you will need to set up.
2. To connect to your wireless signal, ensure that all of your devices wireless settings are enabled. For PCs you will need to navigate to your network settings (Click the Start button, then Control Panel > Network and Internet > Network and Sharing Center). Once there, you can click ‘Set up a connection or network’ in the left pane, then ‘Set up a wireless router or access point’ to launch the install wizard. For Macs, install AirPort Utility then open the application. This application will also bring up an install wizard to help you through the process.
3. The programs will walk you through setting up a name for your network, to identify it from other wireless networks, as well as setting up a password, or security key, to ensure that others can not access your wireless network.
4. Before launching the internet, make sure that you set up some security on your network. This is especially important for businesses, as company and employee data is often sensitive and private. There are several security measures you can use, including MAC addressing and WEP encryption. MAC addressing restricts unauthorized devices from accessing your network, and WEP encryption jumbles up data when you send it over the internet, which ensures the data’s safety while in transport.
5. Make sure your firewall is activated. Firewalls are your first line of defense against the malicious content and users that sometimes lurk in the shadows of the internet. Your firewall will monitor all incoming information and either block it or allow it. Also, firewalls protect you from any unauthorized users who may try to use your internet connection to access your computer.
6. For another user to access your wireless connection, they will need to know your password/security key. PC users will need to open the Start menu, and then click on ‘Connect to’ which will pull up a list of networks. Click on your desired network, input the password, and just like that you are connected to the network. For Mac users, you can simply click the AirPort icon and it will allow you to select a network. Once you select your network you can enter the password and connect.

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