Wireless Network Tutorial

Tips on setting up your own wireless home network.

These days, more and more people are subscribing to broadband internet and have a modem that they would like to share between several computers.

Routing cables around your house to bedrooms from the modem in the lounge can be tricky and look unsightly, wireless connections are the answer.

With WiFi giving speeds of up to 108Mbps across the link, speed is not usually a problem. Interference from other devices and appliances can be a problem in some cases.

Also, since your signal can be picked up in the street outside your home, security is an issue that cannot be overlooked.

If you have a laptop with a wireless adaptor, now you can connect to the network wherever you are around the home, maybe even in the garden!

Fun things to do include streaming video over your network from a file serving PC or a webcam.

Wireless Network Configuration

Here is a basic home network including a Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) and a wired LAN. The modem may be connected to a Cable or use ADSL with your phone line.

The Router connects everything together and provides a Hardware Firewall beteen the home network and the Internet.

Some Router's also incorporate an ADSL Modem to reduce the number of boxes required.

A Wireless Router will provide a Wireless Access Point to produce your Wireless HotSpot. Also it will include connections for wired PCs or say a Networked Printer.

You can leave the Router and Modem powered up continuously since they are silent and don't consume much power. The connected devices can be powered off without disturbing the Network.

Here is a typical Wireless Router:

Here you can see the connection to the Modem and 4 wired LAN Ports. This compact unit has the Wireless Antenna built into the side of the case.

The LEDs indicate network activity for the wired connections, the wireless LAN and the Internet.

Setting up Windows XP

The first thing to do is check all the Computers in the Network can talk to each other. We do this by "pinging" each computer and them see if we can connect to the "shared" folder of each computer.

Things that may stop this working are bad wiring of the cables or software Firewalls blocking access.

The first step is to power up all the PC's and make a note of their names and IP addresses. More on this in a moment...

Note that my way is different to some tutorials you will find that say things like "I switched on and it just worked!". With my approach, at least you stand a chance of knowing what is wrong before you start rebuilding your PC, reformatting drives and re-installing operating systems after you switched on and it didn't work ;-)

Since we are using a Router and they have a built-in hardware firewall. You don't actually need a Software Firewall running on your PC. But you may like to use it to block access from other PC's on your Network. To confirm your Hardware Firewall is working as intended you can check it for free at GRC.com using their Shields-Up Tool.

Now let's make a note of the PC name and IP address of each computer in the Network.

Getting the PC Name and IP Address

Each PC in your Network should have a different Name and IP Address. Also, if you want to share files between computers, they need to belong to the same Workgroup.

Click on MyComputer (on your Desktop or in the Start Menu) and then click on View system information

Now click on the Computer Name tag. This will reveal the computer name and Workgroup. Make a note of these. You can also change the computer name here or join a workgroup. Close this window when you are done.

To find the IP Address of the PC, click on the Start menu. Click on Run and enter cmd into the text box and click OK. This will pop up a Command line console box.

Type ipconfig and the return key. Now, if you are connected to your Router in the Network, you should see the IP Address.

You can see if you are connected to the Network by the state of the icons in your Task Bar.

The Default Gateway is the IP Address of your Router. Make a note of this too.

Next we will test the Network to see if all the computers can talk to each other.

Testing a Windows XP Workgroup

Let's see if all our computers are on speaking terms. In the previous part we made a note of all the PC Names, IP Addresses and Workgroup.

We will use the ping command from the command line console window. We open this window by clicking on run in the start menu and entering cmd followed by the return key.

To test the connection of the PC to the Router we type in ping 192.168.0.1 followed by the return key. Change the IP Address in the example to that of your Router.

If all is working, you should see 4 packets of data sent and 4 replies with none lost.

Next you can ping the other computers in your Network by their IP Addresses.

If the request times out, it means either the IP Address for that computer has changed, there is a problem with the connection or the computer is busy and unable to communicate.

When you power up devices on a Network, they request an IP Address from the Router so the values can change depending on the order in which things are powered on.

Once you can ping all the computers in your network, you can be satisfied that you have a working Network infrastructure :-)

Next we will see if we can Share Files between computers in the same Workgroup.

Sharing Files in a Windows XP Workgroup

After testing the connectivity of our network we can then start sharing files between computers in the same Workgroup.

A folder called Shared Docs contains all the files and folders you are sharing. You can find it by clicking on My Computer.

To share a folder, right click on it. Click on Sharing and Security... and follow the instructions under Network sharing and security.

Items can also be copied to the Shared Docs folder to be shared.

To see what is being shared amongst your Workgroup you can click on My Network Places.

Unfortunately, Windows seems to be unreliable as regards displaying the Network Places so it is often empty.

It may correctly be empty though due to Software Firewalls running on networked PCs. So turn these off on PCs where you want to view the files. The Router will provide the Firewall for the Network to the outside world.

If your PC accesses the Internet directly, then you must leave the Software Firewall turned on.

To allow other computers full access to your PC through your Firewall, you can add a trusted IP address range to your Firewall configuration.

To access shared files on a computer called WANDA from Windows Explorer enter \\WANDA into the address bar. Please use back slashes to avoid it trying to connect to the Internet.

In case you were wondering how to password protect shared files in Windows, the answer is "you can't". You have to use other software such as WinZip.

Wireless Network Setup

Your Wireless Access Point will form a Wireless Hotspot of many meters diameter so any devices within range can pick up the signal.

If you are connecting with a Laptop, make sure the internal wireless adaptor is switched on since by default, it may well be powered down. It probably has an LED to indicate the power on/off status.

You should see a wireless connection icon in the taskbar showing the connection status. Click on this icon to bring up the status window.

If you don't see any wireless networks listed, click on the Refresh Network List link. You should see your own network and possibly some others listed that are within range.

Next, click the connect button to connect to your Network. Now you need to secure the network to keep it safe from unwanted intrusions from other computers.

If you want to leave your network open to share with others in the spirit of Community Networking or maybe in a Cafe to attract customers, then you must have a software Firewall running on each PC to protect them from intrusions.