Newk's
Nook: This is a long article. There is a link to the complete article
at the end.
Building a home network? First question: Why would you want to? Only ten years ago that question would have been answered only with 'you're an incurable geek.' But nowadays there are so many products and services being offered for home networks that it's really a question of 'why wouldn't you want to?'
A home network will let you share high-speed Internet access with any computer in the house – the spouse's, the kids', even visiting Grandma's MacBook is within reach. A network lets you control what the kids are doing on the Web, share data and multimedia files across all your computers, automate backups for all those computers and even use Webcams to see what that new puppy is doing in the living room while you're at work. With a network, the bedroom computer upstairs can print to the color printer in the downstairs study and the media PC in the living room can show a movie on the PC-connected TV in the master bedroom.
Step 1: High-Speed Internet
You can run a home network without high-speed Internet, but
that's a
little like building a boat and then parking it in your backyard. The
Web makes home networking
worthwhile, and starting there means you'll begin at the right place:
the home internet router. But first, you'll need to choose a high-speed Internet
provider,
generally from cable TV providers, the phone company (DSL lines) or
your satellite TV operator. Pick the one with the most throughput
(that's megabytes per second) for the lowest monthly cost, and you're
good to go. Setting up high-speed Internet service is much, much simpler
than
it used to be. As a first option, you can make an at-home service
appointment with the phone or cable company, then wait for that highly
precise anywhere-between-8am-and-4pm arrival time. Your other option is
to purchase a DSL or cable modem kit at your local electronics
store—which usually include a name brand router as part of the package,
a definite plus. You can find these packages at stores like Best Buy,
Circuit City, WalMart and more. They'll include the modem/Internet
router, setup instructions and automatically register your new service
with the provider. Again, these kits used to be a nightmare of bad
instructions and non-functioning automation. Today's packages, however,
are easy peasy.
Stick the Quick Start CD into your computer and follow the
on-screen instructions. Typically, it'll ask you to plug your router
into the phone or cable TV line first; then it'll take a minute or so
to find itself on the provider's network (the Internet) and register.
After that, you'll plug your computer into the other side of the
router, fill out some identification and billing information, make sure
all your computer's network settings are set to "Automatically get an
IP address", and that's it. You'll be on the Internet. Any other
computers you plug into the back of that router will not only see the
Web, they'll also see each other (after you run Microsoft's home
networking wizard)—and hey, you've got a basic network.
Step 2: Smartening Up Your Computers
Once your router is functioning and your computers are plugged
in,
you've got to make sure all the computers can see not just the
Internet, but each other as well. For Vista machines, you're not going
to have to do much besides wait. This version of Windows is much
smarter about networking. Vista PCs will simply find each other on the
network as long as they're all in the same IP subnet (see below). If
they don't, Vista has a couple of network fixit wizards as well as the
"Setup a home network" wizard for you to fall back upon. Windows XP
machines, on the other hand, are a mixed bag. Those in the same IP
subnet should see each other, but there's a chance they won't. You're
best off running the "Set up a home network" wizard right away for XP,
which available off the Network Neighborhood screen. Just run this
wizard on every XP machine individually. The most thinking you'll do
there is picking a workgroup name for your network. —next: Steps 3-4 >