How to Setup a Small Home Network — Part 1

Have you ever wanted to print and share files at home? Ever wanted to know how to setup a wireless router?

It’s really not that hard. Let’s talk about how to setup a home network and what equipment you might need.

Home networks can vary drastically, so you can design yours according to your needs. In this example we will setup a Linksys wireless router, a network printer, and file sharing between 2 computers.

 

Home Networking Equipment

Basic equipment we will need to setup our home network:

• Wireless Router
• Wireless/Wired Network Printer
• Laptop computer (with XP/Vista)
• Desktop computer (with XP/Vista)
• Network Cables
• NAS Drive (Optional)

Some equipment can be personal preference such as the brand of printer or router you purchase. We will use a Linksys wireless router for this example.

 

Home Network Setup — First Things First

We are going to start with the setup of the wireless router because it will create the framework of our network.

1. First, you will need to physically connect the router to power and to your Internet connection using the instructions provided with the router. To do this, connect a network cable to your DSL/Cable modem.

 

2. Connect the other end to the WAN/Internet port on the back of the router.

 

3. You can now plug in your Desktop PC to one of the 4 switch ports on the back of the router using a network cable. You can use any of the 4 switch ports; there isn’t a magical port that is better than the others.

 

4. Now you need to verify that your Desktop PC has an IP address and is properly connected to the router.

• To do this in Vista, click Start, type “cmd“, and press Enter
• To do this in XP click Start, Run, and type “cmd“.

5. A command prompt window will appear. Type “ipconfig” and press Enter. This will display the IP configuration for all of your network adapters on your computer.

 

6. The default IP address range for Linksys routers is usually 192.168.1.1-192.168.1.255. If your computer shows an IP address in this range and a default gateway of 192.168.1.1, then you should be good to go.

Note: These settings are usually the default on Linksys routers. Check the documentation for your router for the correct IP address ranges.

 

 

Securing Your Home Network

When you take a wireless router out of the box and hook it up, there is absolutely no security or encryption setup on the wireless network.

You want to secure your wireless network and change the default admin password for the router as soon as you can. This will prevent unauthorized access to your Internet connection and your home network.

Most routers come with a setup disk and they can be helpful but are not always needed. I will show you how to setup the router without running the CD included with the router.

1. Open your web browser and type http://192.168.1.1 and press Enter.

 

2. This will take you to a logon prompt. The typical default username/password combination for Linksys routers is no username and “admin” as the password.

Note: Again, check your documentation that came with the router for the correct username and password for your router.

 

3. Now you should be at the setup screen for your router. You can modify just about any settings of your router by clicking through the different configuration tabs.

We want to focus mostly on securing the wireless network and changing the default admin password. To change the wireless settings click on the Wireless tab.

 

4. Now click on Wireless Security. Here you can select the type of encryption you want to use, and also set the key or passphrase.

WPA2 is the latest and greatest wireless security at the moment so I recommend using it when possible. Make sure to write down your wireless key or passphrase and save your settings when you are done.

 

5. Now let’s change the default password for the router. Click on the Administration tab, and make sure you are under the Management section.

Here you can change the default password for your router.

Note: You will need to log in with the new password after you save your settings.

 

 

But Wait … There’s More!

That’s all for today! Congratulations! You’re successfully setup your home network and secured it.

In my next article I’ll show you the steps to setup printing on your home network and setup file sharing between your desktop and laptop computers. Stay tuned!

 

 

Related Posts:

• How to Setup a Small Home Network — Part 2
• How to Setup Your Own FTP Server
• How to Connect Your Xbox 360 to Your Home Server
• A Security Primer: Do You Leave Your Front Door Open?
• Achieve Network Redundancy with a “Hot” Little Protocol
• Server 2008: How to Setup a Remote Desktop on Windows Vista
• 5 No-Brainer Tricks To Avoid Network Nightmares

 

12 Responses to “How to Setup a Small Home Network — Part 1”

• eduardo Says:

  April 2nd, 2009 at 8:00 pm

  Very good… thank you

• olajide, nigeria Says:

  April 3rd, 2009 at 4:17 am

  good and brief training,infact,its a kind of training i’ve been looking for,thanks.

• Reb Says:

  April 6th, 2009 at 12:39 pm

  Excellent….
  Very Good Thank you for you time.

• mel Says:

  April 8th, 2009 at 2:07 pm

  wow! I cannot wait until the next part posted. great

• Eric English Says:

  April 8th, 2009 at 3:02 pm

  Thanks everyone for reading! Part 2 is comming soon…

  Eric English

• Steve Says:

  April 9th, 2009 at 6:10 pm

  I have always had to clone the MAC address to the router from the PC originally attached to the cable modem to achieve internet access.. for DSL there is other considerations too.. is this to be in your later posts? so far you should have local access working..

• arnie Says:

  April 16th, 2009 at 5:39 pm

  wow thank u trainsignal!! tour the best i.t. store in the world!!
  man from manila. arnie. peace!!

• adria Says:

  April 18th, 2009 at 8:06 am

  Hi,
  I am an amateur and i am trying to figure out how to get my wireless printer back on my network. i changed the name and passcode of my router after i had difficulties with my router and now the printer is not attached anymore. should i go through the whole process again? for some reason when i ask “bluetooth” to recognize any devices in ranger it is not seeing my printer. do i have to to delete it from before and do the whole thing again?
  thanks,
  adria

• Perveez Bhatti Says:

  May 6th, 2009 at 10:26 am

  Hi,

  I really liked those nuggets and I want to order for those. Please let me know how I can do that..

  Perveez

• Oworu Gbemisola Says:

  June 8th, 2009 at 11:40 am

  So strait and forward, i really enjoyed the short lesson . Great job

• ikramullah khan Says:

  June 27th, 2009 at 3:22 am

  very helpful which is step by step,really i enjoyed it very much

• Nasher Says:

  July 22nd, 2009 at 8:09 pm

  Thanks! i am happy with this small job.

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