Home networking explained


  1. Posts : 71,960
    64-bit Windows 11 Pro for Workstations
       #1

    Home networking explained


    Home networking explained, Part 1: Here's the URL for you

    As the guy who reviews networking products, I generally receive a couple of e-mails from readers a day, and most of them, in one way or another, are asking about the basics of networking (as in computer to computer, I am not talking about social networks here.)

    Don't get me wrong, I appreciate e-mails because, at the very least, it gives me the impression that there are real people out there amid the sea of spam. But I'd rather not keep repeating myself. So instead of saying the same thing over and over again in individual e-mails, I'll talk all about home networking basics, in layman's terms, in this post.

    Advanced and experienced users won't need this, but for the rest, I'd recommend reading the whole thing, and if you want to quickly find out what a networking term means, you can search for it here.



    Home networking explained, Part 2: Optimizing your Wi-Fi network

    Since my last post on the basics of home networking, which is Part 1 of this series, I've been flooded with even more e-mails than I had been before (which explains why some of you haven't heard back from me). The good news is that nobody is asking about what a router is anymore. I guess I did an OK job explaining that in my previous post.

    Most of the e-mails this time asked about how to have the best Wi-Fi coverage at home and avoid "dead zones." A reader even asked me how to make his Wi-Fi network better than his neighbor's because the other network's Wi-Fi signal and Internet speed were "so much faster than mine." Well, I am not a fan of rat races, and you're not supposed to tap into your neighbor's Wi-Fi network unless you both explicitly share an Internet connection, in which case you shouldn't be complaining that the network is so good.

    Also it's not exactly a good thing that your Wi-Fi's range goes so far away from your home, either; that only increases the unnecessary interference for your neighborhood (and your network's chance of getting tapped into). In short, you should just focus on yours.

    And along those lines, there are a few ways to make sure you get the best out of your Wi-Fi network. With some, you just need to do a little bit of tweaking; with others, depending on your home, you might need to get extra equipment.

    Let's start with the ways that probably won't cost you anything, other than a little bit of time.


    Home networking explained, Part 3: Taking control of your wires

    Now that you have learned about the basics of home networking in part 1, and how to optimize your Wi-Fi in part 2, in part 3, it's time to get your hands dirty and learn how to take control of your network completely.

    All home networks start with a network cable. Even if you plan on using all wireless clients, in most cases you will still need at least one cable to connect the wireless router and the broadband modem. A typical home network needs more than that because chances are you also want to connect a few Ethernet-ready devices to the router.

    Knowing how to make your own networking cable is an important, handy skill for a few reasons. First, network cables that you buy at the store are generally grossly overpriced: a 7-foot-long cable can run you $20, almost $3 per foot. Secondly, it's hard to find a ready-made cable that's just the perfect length; most of the time it's either too long or too short. When you make your own, the cable will be exactly the length you want, and if it's not, well, you can make another one or adjust it.

    You can also make other hardware parts for the network, including network wall ports and patch panels. As you will see after reading this post, this is a skill that's not only easy to learn, it doesn't cost much, either. All the tools you need cost less than $40. Parts, such as patch cable and connectors are also very affordable.

    The biggest return on this investment, however, is that you may find making and wiring your own network hardware actually fun, and it gives you complete control of your home network. A well-designed wired home network is also the best in terms of performance, since --for right now, anyway -- cabling is much faster and more reliable than a Wi-Fi signal. If you want to do serious streaming and data sharing within the local network, running network cables is the way to go.
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  2. Posts : 24,479
    Windows 7 Ultimate X64 SP1
       #2

    Thanks Shawn! I need some help with Home Group printer sharing and maybe this will help.
      My Computer


  3. Posts : 2,240
    Windows 7 Ultimate 64 bit
       #3

    Hey Britton30...its really easy once you set it up...fairly straight forward. Once the homegroup is setup and printer is installed on main PC....then on the rest of the homegroup, in windows 7 and vista, just click devices and printers, then click add printer, then click add network , wireless or bluetooth printer and it should pop up in the list being populated....select the printer and click next and it will install the driver/software for you....then you should get "print test page" if that works you've just successfully added a printer to the network. Then repeat for the rest of PC's on the network.

    My home network consists of 3 desktops, 2 laptops, 1 tablet, 2 iopd touch all running different versions of windows and they all print just fine.

    Note; for window xp it's just a tad bit different...not hard to figure out.
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  4. Posts : 24,479
    Windows 7 Ultimate X64 SP1
       #4

    bassfisher6522 said:
    Hey Britton30...its really easy once you set it up...fairly straight forward. Once the homegroup is setup and printer is installed on main PC....then on the rest of the homegroup, in windows 7 and vista, just click devices and printers, then click add printer, then click add network , wireless or bluetooth printer and it should pop up in the list being populated....select the printer and click next and it will install the driver/software for you....then you should get "print test page" if that works you've just successfully added a printer to the network. Then repeat for the rest of PC's on the network.

    My home network consists of 3 desktops, 2 laptops, 1 tablet, 2 iopd touch all running different versions of windows and they all print just fine.

    Note; for window xp it's just a tad bit different...not hard to figure out.
    I've tried that Jimbo and the second PC will never find the network attached printer nor can I browse to it manually. It worked last week though. w7 gremlins methinks.
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  5. Posts : 99
    windows 7 64 bit home premium
       #5

    in the first point of read more at source : ( my doubts )

    "There are currently two main speed standards for LAN ports: Ethernet, which caps at 100Mbps (or about 13MBps), and Gigabit Ethernet, which caps at 1Gbps (or about 125MBps)."

    Can we assume this point as a characteristic a router has which users can prefer one upon another based on it ? if so , where to find the speed standards , where is it shown in the body of router ?
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    "Rule of thumb: The speed of a network connection is determined by the slowest speed of any party involved. For example, in order to have a wired Gigabit Ethernet connection between two computers, both computers, the router they are connected to, and the cables used to link them together all need to support Gigabit Ethernet. If you plug a Gigabit Ethernet device and an Ethernet device to a router, the connection between the two will cap at the speed of Ethernet, which is 100Mbps."

    That means if two friends use a router wiredly with each having a different- in speed – wire , the faster –wire-speed guy would be forced to use net in the lower-speed-wire guy's speed ?
    Think wirelessley , a group of friends are sharing a connection wirelessly , one of them has a slow device .. would the rest be prone to loose their devices' high speed performance because of the low-speed – device guy ?
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    "Note: Technically, you can skip an access point and make two Wi-Fi clients connect directly to each other, in the Ad hoc mode. However, similar to the case of the crossover network cable, this is rather complicated and inefficient, and is far less used than the Infrastructure mode."
    What is cross over n/w cable ?
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    Can router be considered as WIFI APs ?

    **********************************************************

    "The Wi-Fi standard also determines how fast a wireless connection can be"

    That means the wifi standard is a characteristic in routers ? where to find it in the body of router , or how to determine it ?

    ***********************************************************

    "Frequency bands: These bands are the radio frequencies used by the Wi-Fi standards: 2.4GHz and 5GHz. The 2.4GHz band is currently the most popular, meaning, it's used by most existing network devices. That plus the fact that home appliances, such as cordless phones, also use this band, makes its signal quality generally worse than that of the 5GHz band due to oversaturation and interference."


    What is the relation b/w frequency bands and wifi range in routers?
    ***********************************************************

    "802.11n or Wireless-N: Available starting in 2009, 802.11n has been the most popular Wi-Fi standard, with lots of improvements over the previous ones, such as making range of the 5GHz band comparable to that of the 2.4GHz band. The standard operates on both 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands and started a new era of dual-band routers, those that come with two access points, one for each band. There are two types of dual-band routers: selectable dual-band routers that can operate in one band at a time, and true dual-band routers that simultaneously offer Wi-Fi signals on both bands."

    If I bought a dual band router , does that mean ISP will provide to subscribe lines for net ? that is I will be like 2 customers ? like if some one has 2 phone lines ?
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    "Note: In order to have a Wi-Fi connection, both the access point (router) and the client need to operate on the same band, either 2.4GHz or 5GHz. For example, a 2.4GHz client, such as aniPhone 4, won't be able to connect to a 5GHz access point. In case a client supports both bands, it will only use one of the bands to connect to an access point, and when applicable it tends to "prefer" the 5GHz band to the 2.4GHz band, for better performance."

    I never tried to match a laptop bought frequency band to an existing router's one or vise versa ( before buying a router , check the laptop's frequency band first ) .
    How to interpret my not having any problems till now with changes in laptops and routers took place ?
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    "That said, let me restate the rule of thumb one more time: The speed of a network connection is determined by the slowest speed of any of the parties involved. That means if you use an 802.11ac router with an 802.11a client, the connection will cap at 54Mbps. In order to get the top 802.11ac speed, you will need to use a device that's also 802.11ac-capable."

    So the device's configuration – abilities- play a significant rule in speed of browsing ,, not only connection's speed . why It is said that connection is most important ? not devices regarding to the speed of browsing ?
    *****************************************************************

    "Wi-Fi Direct: This is a standard that enables Wi-Fi clients to connect to one another without a physical access point. Basically, this allows one Wi-Fi client, such as a smartphone, to turn itself into a "soft" access point and broadcast Wi-Fi signals that other Wi-Fi clients can connect to. This standard is very useful when you want to share an Internet connection. For example, you can connect your laptop's LAN port to an Internet source, such as in a hotel, and turn its Wi-Fi client into a soft AP. Now other Wi-Fi clients can also access that Internet connection. Wi-Fi Direct is actually most popularly used in smartphones and tablets, where the mobile device shares its cellular Internet connection with other Wi-Fi devices, in a feature called personal hot spot."

    For a laptop tending to be an AP at same time it is a client , no doubts . but do all laptops support this feature , are all laptops capable of doing this work ?
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  6. Posts : 24,479
    Windows 7 Ultimate X64 SP1
       #6

    techno di, maybe a read in your devices documentation would be in order?
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