The ability to access the Internet from just about anywhere in your home is one of the unique benefits of wireless networking that makes it so appealing. While you’re not longer tethered by wires, the steps behind setting up your wireless network can be discouraging and disheartening without a little guidance.
The aim of this guide is to teach you the basics of how to setup a home wireless network in just a few steps.
Choose Your Router
There are a few things to consider when you’re choosing your first wireless router. If your ISP supplies you with one, then you may want to consider these things to see if that router is inadequate for your needs.
the things you need to consider are the following:
- Does it support enough throughput for everyone who plans to use your router?
- What kind of encryption does it support (WEP, WPA or WPA2)?
- Does it have a built-in firewall?
- Does it support advanced features like Quality of Service (QoS) configuration?
- Is the router meant for small networks or does it have a routing table capable of handling thousands of simultaneous connections?
Plugging in Your Router
When plugging in your router for the first time, make sure that you have both a power adapter and a cable to connect to your router’s WAN port.
Plug in your router, then go ahead.
If you’re connecting your router directly to your Internet connection, then your router will connect to the Internet in one or two ways:
You’ll plug-in an Ethernet cable to the WAN port from your ISP’s Internet box or modem.
You’ll screw on a coaxial cable from your cable Internet provided.
You can choose to connect it to another router, but this type of setup is outside of the scope of this guide. It’s worth mentioning that achieving this kind of setup isn’t impossible and it may be necessary to bridge your connection with an ISP router if your service includes Internet and television.
Set Your Wireless Encryption Key
After you’ve connected to your router from a device, it’s time to secure it.
Since this article is all about the basics, all that you’ll need to do is the following:
- Set your router’s SSID to something other than the default.
- Change your administrator username and password to something unique.
- Change the encryption key (WEP, WPA or WPA2) to something different. Default keys are easy to guess and can leave you vulnerable.
Secure Your Devices
While most people stop at the point of having a working network, it’s important to realize that your wireless network is only as secure as the devices accessing it. That stays true even when your devices are on an exclusive VIP list.
You can ensure that your devices don’t betray the security of your wireless network by installing the latest system updates, a firewall program and an anti-malware security suite.
If you’ve followed these steps, then you have the basics of constructing your own secure wireless network for use at home completed. There’s still more that you can do to troubleshoot connectivity issues and to combat security threats.