Home networks are becoming more common. If you have never heard network terminology device names like router, hub, etc may seem confusing. This article explains what makes up a home network.
Home networks are becoming more common. People want to be able to share a single broadband Internet connection to several computers in the house. There are many different devices that you can use to make up your home network. If you have never heard network terminology device names like router, hub, etc may seem confusing.
The purpose of most of these devices are to control how the network passes around information. This information is sent in the form of “packets”. I will refer to the term packet several times in this article. It simply means the data that the network is transporting. I will now explain the purpose of the major components of a home network.
What is a Hub
A hub is a device that has several Ethernet ports on the back of the device. One of these ports will likely be labeled “Uplink”. This port allows you to connect multiple hubs together, if you run out of ports on your hub. If you do not have an uplink port on your hub, the hub can not be easily extended if you run out of ports.
A hub is a device that attaches multiple computers on an Ethernet network. If you have a number different computers that you want to connect together, you could connect each to the hub. Any packet that is sent out by any computer on the network will immediately be transmitted to the other computers. Each computer will determine if the packet was really intended for it, and filter out packets that were intended for other computers.
You really should not use a hub in a modern home network. You should always use a switch in place of a hub. Switches will be discussed in the next section.
What is a Switch
A switch is a device that has several Ethernet ports on the back of the device. One of these ports will likely be labeled “Uplink”. This port allows you to connect multiple switches together, if you run out of ports on your switch. If you do not have an uplink port on your switch, the switch can not be easily extended if you run out of ports.
A switch serves the same function as a hub. It allows you to connect multiple computers together, so that they can exchange packets. However, a switch is much more efficient than a hub. A switch will only send Ethernet packets to the computer that the packet was intended for. Because of this you should always use a switch in place of a hub.
What is a Router
A router is a device that has several Ethernet ports on the back of the device. One of the connectors will be labeled WAN. You should connect the WAN port to the Ethernet connection on a broadband source, such as a cable or DSL modem. The other ports on the router can be connected other computers or switches/hubs that will share the WAN connection.
Routers allow you to share your broadband connection with multiple computers in your house. Rather than connecting your computer directly into your cable or DSL modem you connect the router to the cable or DSL modem. Now any computer that you connect to the router will have access to the Internet.
If you run out of ports on your router you can always connect an additional switch to the router. To connect a switch to a router simply connect the switch’s “uplink” port to one of the routers Ethernet ports. Of course, don’t connect to the router’s WAN port. The WAN port should only be connected to something such as a cable or DSL router.
Some routers come with additional features installed. Most routers also include a firewall. Firewalls are discussed in the next section. Some routers will also include a wireless access point (WAP). The WAP allows you to use wireless devices, such as wireless laptops, with the Internet.
What is a Firewall
A firewall controls traffic flow between your network and the Internet. A firewall can be either hardware or software. Windows XP SP2 or higher includes a software firewall. A hardware firewall is included with most routers.
A firewall is a very good idea. It can protect you from inbound virus attempts. By inbound virus attempt I mean other computers that will connect to your computer and attempt to infect your computer. You do not want to run a computer directly connected to the Internet, without a firewall. There are just too many other computers out there that can connect and infect you without you even noticing.
What is a Network Attached Storage (NAS)
A network attached storage device is s device that allows a hard drive to be shared across the network. This hard drive is NOT attached to any of your computers. It is simply made available by the NAS. This can be a convent way to add a hard drive that can be accessed by several computers on your network. The other common way to add a network hard drive is to simply share a folder on one of your computers. However, with the NAS, you do not need to keep one of your computers on at all times.
There are two types of NAS commonly available. The first type comes with a build in hard drive. The second accepts a USB or Firewire external hard drive. The advantage to using a USB or Firewire hard drive is that you can upgrade the hard drive if it ever were to become too small.
What is a Print Server
Just like you can buy a device to allow you to share a hard drive, you can do the same with a printer. A print server connects directly to your printer. Your printer is then shared to all of your computers on the network. This is convent because you do not need to leave the printer hooked to a computer, which must be turned on to print.
Conclusions
As you can see there are many different components. Perhaps the final component that I have yet to mention is the cable. These components are connected together with CAT5 Ethernet cable.
You are now ready to pick out the components for your home network!

Although Wi-Fi is becoming a popular way of connecting to
the internet, not everyone has caught on with this type of
technology yet.

It is therefore not surprising that a task such as
connecting to a wireless network, which is a routine task
for those already familiar with it, can be quite confusing
for those doing it for the first time.

Below is a list of things that one needs to have or do to
connect to a wireless network.

1. Have a Wi-Fi enabled computer, mobile phone or PDA. This
is the primary requirement in being able to connect to a
wireless network.

If you’re planning to buy those items and wish to use them
in wirelessly browsing the internet, check first if they
are capable of doing that.

Most laptops are already Wi-Fi ready, however, mobile phone
manufacturers have yet to make this a standard feature in
their products.

2. When prompted, choose which wireless network you want to
connect to. Newer computers automatically detect wireless
networks that are within range.

They also indicate whether or not a particular network is
secure or not. Just choose your preferred network and
you’ll be online in no time at all.

3. Have security software installed on your computer. This
is important because most public Wi-Fi networks are
unsecure thus exposing your computer to risks such as
viruses and Trojans.

So make sure that you have an antivirus program and
firewall software before joining a public network.

If you have two or more computers in the house that are wired with each other to share sources, after that you have a personal computer network. Anybody who uses a computer system, which includes almost every person, need to be conscious of the should back up important information. There are alternatives readily available for network data storage that may not be readily available for the solitary computer. The initial step in making a decision how to conform your network information storage space is to figure out the kind of back-up you need to use. Generally a back-up is done by making a copy of all the existing data, like a picture in time, and after that adding backups of the adjustments as they happen. The other decision making is the location of where to maintain the backups.

Right here, There and also All over

If you do not keep quite on your personal computer network, you could be able to handle your house network information storage task on DVD’s. With a small quantity of info needing back-up, you might just use rewritable DVD’s and make a full duplicate of chosen documents as needed. If there is several computer systems on your network that is mostly made use of for web use, email, internet surfing and video games, after that the demand for data backup is restricted. The advantage of this kind of residence network information storage space is that you have control over whether to support a data and you choose just how frequently to do the back-ups. The drawback that several individuals do not update their backups commonly sufficient as well as regularly the discs come to be lost or harmed as a result of insufficient storage methods.

The next action up is to produce a web server to store backup apply for all the computer systems on the network. A server is merely a disk drive, and also software is readily available for little home networks. There are likewise network-attached storage (NAS) devices which act as a committed back-up server. The benefit below is that the software program could be set to immediately execute back-up treatments at regular intervals. The drawback is that the back-ups are in the very same location as the computer systems, as well as might succumb whatever sort of calamity makes it needed to make use of the back-ups.

Lastly, there are remote services that will automatically use the Net for residence network information storage. Once joined, the customer is billed according to the quantity of storage is required. The advantage is that data is stored remotely as well as the updates are automatic. Downsides are that large amounts of information could be pricey which it’s only as trusted as the firm. The choice on the kind of house network information storage space to make use of is based upon the needs as well as resources of the network users.

Any client computer, laptop or wireless device with a compatible wireless client adapter allows connectivity with an access point. The client adapter is a radio transmitter with firmware that supports any of 802.11a/b/g signaling. That is needed before the device can associate and authenticate with the access point. Some access points have a no client mode that doesn’t allow any association from clients extending network distance. Client wireless software included with the adapter must be implemented with specific Windows platforms. The client adapter will be integrated with the laptop, PCMCIA slot or desktop PCI bus slot. They will support specific wireless standards, antenna characteristics, WiFi certification, WDS, network range and security. The wireless manufacturer software must be implemented for all available features. The following is a list of some client adapter configured settings.

Access Point

As the name suggests an access point allows connectivity between the wireless client or wireless device and the wired network. The access point takes wireless data packets from a client and translates them to standard Ethernet data frames before transmitting across the wired network. Standard category 5 twisted pair cabling will connect the access point Ethernet port with a catalyst switch Ethernet port. The maximum distance between access point and network switch is 100 meters standard with Ethernet design.

WLAN Controllers

Wireless designs with hundreds of root access points on an enterprise network will sometimes deploy wireless LAN controllers. The design specifies lightweight access points connecting to a network switch. The 4404 WLAN controller device acts as a hub connecting 4 network switches supporting 100 access points. Cisco wireless control system (WCS) wireless network management software is sometimes deployed with WLAN controller design for planning, configuring and optimizing the network.

Power Injector

Cisco access points have a variety of power options such as AC adapters, power over Ethernet and power injectors. The placement of access points is such that in some situations an AC power outlet isn’t available. Should your Ethernet switch not support power over Ethernet, an option such as power injectors extends the distance from an AC outlet. Distances of 1.24 miles are available with a fiber optic media converter.

Power over Ethernet

Cisco access points can be deployed with power over Ethernet (PoE) should the network switch modules support that feature. The distance of 300 feet is the same with Cisco prestandard and 802.3af. The Cisco prestandard use Cat 5 cabling pins 1, 2, 3, 6 for powering devices while 802.3af uses 1, 2, 3, 6 with 10/100/1000BaseT signaling and 4, 5, 7, 8 with 10/100BaseT. Select a network switch module with the power over Ethernet standard your access point has implemented and has a power wattage rating per port for your specific devices. The network switch power supply should be upgraded to support additional power draw from multiple devices. Deploying power over Ethernet will decrease implementation costs with deployment of IPT, wireless and Gigabit. See network switch documents at Cisco web site for information on what network switching modules support PoE and wattage ratings. 802.3af defines powered device class 2 at 3.84W – 6.49W and class 3 at 6.49W – 12.95W.

Power Patch Panel

Cisco inline power patch panels can be deployed where Ethernet switches don’t support power over Ethernet and power injectors aren’t an option. The patch panel does no switching. It powers the devices through a Cat 5 cable that is a maximum 300 feet at a specific rated wattage per port. The patch panel connects the access point to the wired switch with a patch cable.

The book Cisco Wireless Network Design Guide is available at amazon.com