Home networking over wifi

A key benefit of both wireless routers and access points is scalability. A router's robust, built-in transceivers can spread a wireless signal throughout a home.

A home WLAN with a router or access point can better reach corner rooms and backyards, for example, than one without. Likewise, home wireless networks with a router or access point support more computers than those without one.

If your wireless LAN design includes a router or access point, run all network adapters in infrastructure mode ; otherwise, adapters must run in ad-hoc mode. Wireless routers are a good choice when building your first home network. It's essential to choose the proper hardware when you're setting up. Wireless network adapters, access points, and routers use an antenna to receive signals on the WLAN. Some wireless antennas, like those on adapters, are internal to the unit. Other antennas, like those on many access points, are externally visible.

The normal antennas shipped with wireless products provide sufficient reception in most cases. Still, you can install an optional, add-on antenna to improve reception. You generally won't know whether you'll need this piece of equipment until after you finish the basic network setup.

Some manufacturers of wireless access points and routers sell signal boosters. A signal booster increases the strength of the base station transmitter. It's possible to use signal boosters and add-on antennas to improve wireless network transmission and reception simultaneously. Both antennas and signal boosters can be a valuable addition to some home networks after the basics are in place. They can bring out-of-range computers into the WLAN range, and they also improve network performance in some cases.

To maximize your network's functionality, have your answers ready for the following questions:. One wireless router supports one WLAN. Use a wireless router on your network if:. Install the wireless router in a central location within the home. The way Wi-Fi networking works, computers closer to the router generally in the same room or in line of sight get better network speed than computers farther away.

Connect the wireless router to a power outlet and optionally to a source of internet connectivity. All modern wireless routers support broadband modems.

Additionally, because wireless routers contain a built-in access point, you can also connect a wired router, switch , or hub. Choose your network name. Although routers ship with a default name, it's best to change it for security reasons.

Consult product documentation to find the network name for your wireless router. Follow the router documentation to enable WEP security, turn on firewall features, and set any other recommended parameters.

One wireless access point supports one WLAN. Use a wireless access point on your home network if:. Install your access point in a central location, if possible. Connect power and cable the access point to your LAN router, switch, or hub. You won't have a firewall to configure, but you still must set a network name and enable WEP on the access point at this stage.

Configure the adapters after setting up the wireless router or access point if you have one. Insert the adapters into your computers as explained in the product documentation. Manufacturers provide configuration utilities for their adapters. For example, on the Windows operating system, adapters generally have a graphic user interface GUI accessible from the Start Menu or taskbar after you install the hardware.

You can also set a few other parameters. Every Wi-Fi adapter requires you to choose between infrastructure mode called access point mode in some configuration tools and ad-hoc wireless peer-to-peer mode. Set every wireless adapter for infrastructure mode. In this mode, wireless adapters automatically detect and set their WLAN channel number to match the access point router.

Alternatively, set all wireless adapters to use ad hoc mode. When you enable this mode, you see a separate setting for channel number.

Ad-hoc home WLAN configurations work fine in homes with only a few computers situated fairly close to each other. You can also use this configuration as a fallback option if your access point or router breaks. You can share an internet connection across an ad hoc wireless network.

To do this, designate one of your computers as the host effectively a substitute for a router. That computer keeps the modem connection and must be on when you use the network. When installing a Wi-Fi router or access point, beware of signal interference from other home appliances. In particular, do not install the unit within 3 to 10 feet about 1 to 3 m from a microwave oven. How is this possible?

Think of the wiring like the radio spectrum. Once you have the terms down and you know what you need to realize the network setup you desire, the whole process is as simple as plugging in a lamp. You can cut through a lot of the marketing fluff by getting a solid handle on the formal designations used by the industry.

Powerline product manufacturers almost universally belong to the Homeplug Alliance group. Powerline products are clearly delineated into four primary categories. While the categories are technically known as HomePlug XXX like HomePlug AV, most companies leave that in the fine print and put only the AV designation or the like on the their product packaging and ad copy.

HomePlug 1. It maxed out at 14 Mbps and has been well superseded by newer specifications. Because of the significant changes between HomePlug 1. That said, you can use older HomePlug 1. There are several proprietary chipset configurations produced by various home networking vendors that have boosted the capability of HomePlug AV into the Mbps range.

These enhanced homeplug units are marketed with label AV The new specification is the first iteration of the standard that supports gigabit class data transfer. Recent advances in the AV2 standard have introduced MIMO multiple-in multiple-out technology and AV2 specification products are slowly hitting the market with further enhanced speed. For most applications AV-level speeds are more than sufficient and as long as consumers avoid purchasing significantly outdated technology Homeplug 1.

In theory different HomePlug devices should play nice with other HomePlug devices. In practice, yes any HomePlug certified device manufactured after or so should handle communicating with a device from another vendor just fine. At that point the standards for HomePlug devices were adopted internationally via the IEEE standard and everyone is on the same page now. In reality a powerline network is significantly more secure than a Wi-Fi network simply because a potential attacker would need to physically connect into your electrical network using similar or identical hardware and then attempt to defeat the encryption.

You can place your powerline product just about anywhere without a problem. The only two primary considerations are that the base plug be located near the router for ease of access to the main network and the secondary plug s be located where they are not sharing an electrical outlet with a high-load appliance like space heater or washing machine and not plugged into a power strip or surge protector as these devices can block the frequency used by the HomePlug standard.

Ideally, if you have the circuits in your home mapped or are willing to do so, you want to place both the base plug and the remote plug on the same circuit. Jumping from one circuit to another decreases signal strength. Powerline network hardware is pretty simple stuff in terms of setup and selection. To ensure a smooth experience you should first sit down and plan out what exactly you want to accomplish with your powerline system.

Do you want to connected a desktop in a home office to your router via hardline cable? Do you want to put a new wireless access point in your garage or workshop? Ethernet bridging was the original powerline networking tool and it remains the most common and widely purchased. For our tests initial tests we used the D-Link AV2 , a simple pair of plugs that require next to no configuration.

To use the plugs you simply insert one into an outlet near your router as seen in the lovely basement photo above at left and then link the unit to your router via Ethernet cable. Insert the other plug in an outlet somewhere in the same home or nearby outbuilding on the same power system and link the second plug to whatever Ethernet-enabled device you want to link to the router.

The entire setup process is simply plugging everything in and then pressing a little black button on the bottom of the two units to initiate a handshake. You can put whatever you want on the other end: a single device like a computer or game console, a network switch, or even a whole Wi-Fi access point. A natural extension of the simple setup we just highlighted is to add in a Wi-Fi node at the end of the powerline system.

While there are Wi-Fi only models it makes little sense to limit yourself in such a fashion. At some point, your media libraries may start filling up your computer's hard drive, in which case, move your movies, photos and music to an external hard drive. The external drive can be discovered on the network when connected to a computer running media-server software or by creating a shared file folder that points to the media folder on your hard drive. An external hard drive can also be connected to a home router that has the capability of sharing a connected drive.

For example, the Netgear router is DLNA certified, which means it can stream media files from a connected USB hard drive to media players on your home network. If each of your family members wants to save their media libraries in a centralized location, get a NAS drive, which can store from 1 to 12 terabytes TB of files.

Designed to be used as media servers, they can be set up to easily share your movies, music, and photos with media players and computers on your home network 2. Media-server software: Media-server software is loaded onto a computer to find your photos, music, and movies and make them available to stream to media players.

While Windows 7 computers use a standard called Universal Plug 'n' Play UPnP , Mac computers and other PCs may require third-party media-server software to make your files playable on a media player. A media player will search your network for computers, drives, and media servers that speak the same language technically called a "standard" or "protocol". DLNA Digital Living Network Alliance is a standard that certifies devices and software to insure that a media player can find and play the files from a media server.

This is just a fancy way of saying, when you turn on your media-playing device, the media files on the Windows computer will be found and listed as media that is available to play. Some media players, so-called "Smart TVs," and other devices have paired up with media-server software developers to ensure that files will be found and can be organized in a way that is simple to use. Plex, PlayOn, and Boxee Media Server are examples of dedicated media-server and media-player software.

The router connects to a cable or DSL modem so that all of the devices in your home network can access the Internet. While most routers can stream media, if you want to stream high definition, or even multiple HD streams to more than one TV at a time, be sure to choose a router that is designated as an "HD" or "AV" router. You don't want to have your high-definition movie pause when your kids are doing homework or playing games online.

A connection to the router: The most reliable way to connect a media player to the router is with an Ethernet cable, which can be run over hundreds of feet with no problem. Most routers are capable of connecting to devices wirelessly using WiFi.

Of course, if you want to use WiFi to stream media over your network, the media player must have WiFi built-in or an external adaptor. Another way to connect a device in one room with a router in another room is to use powerline adapters. Connect your media player to one adapter using an Ethernet cable. The adapter is plugged into a nearby electrical outlet and uses your household electrical wiring to connect to a second adapter plugged into an outlet near your router.

The second adaptor is then connected to your router using an Ethernet cable. Powerline adapters are an effective way to connect a device that doesn't have WiFi capabilities to your router for streaming video. If you are not receiving high-definition video, or if your video is stalling and buffering or otherwise not playing smoothly via WiFi, it could be that the environment is less than ideal for this type of connection.

In this case, consider connecting with powerline adapters if you can't use an Ethernet cable. It can be a standalone media player that connects to your TV or a built-in feature of a Smart TV, Blu-ray player, game console, or other device.