MAKING IT EASY # 3 - Wireless networking at home Written by Andy May.

Last updated December 2011

When I first came across wireless networking it was very much the preserve of large corporate concerns who had both the IT budgets and the specific technical expertise required to set up and maintain a wireless LAN, and even then it typically would only be in limited areas at Head Office . The advent of cheap and (dare one say) reliable wireless equipment to provide the network and the almost ubiquitous availability of wireless adapters in everything from laptops to games consoles to mobile phones to make use of it has meant that running a home wireless LAN is within everyone s capability. That said, however, it s still not quite as simple and straightforward as it ought to be there are still some things you need to know and some big heffalump traps that it is easy to fall into, so this guide was written after many email exchanges, phone calls and evenings spent in the houses of friends and family trying to get their networks set up. It is, by definition, incomplete and it will equally start to become dated almost from the point of publication. Like almost everything else in the IT world the ideas, standards and capabilities are continually evolving. By sticking to the basics however, I have tried to ensure that the ideas and processes I ve described here will remain meaningful and helpful for at least a few years.

Some basic terminology To get DEVICES (desktops/laptops/phones/tablets/consoles) to talk to each other they are connected together using some kind of NETWORK. There are many, many different types of these and they vary hugely in size and scope. The devices within a relatively small area (eg a room or a building) will be connected together using a LOCAL AREA NETWORK or LAN. Before the arrival of the wireless technologies mentioned above this would have been a WIRED network that is to say that the machines would have been connected together by physical cables. A cable would have run from each to device to a central connection point known usually as a HUB or a SWITCH and the information being exchanged between those devices would have travelled back and forth along the cables. These wired networks still exist but have now been supplemented by WIRELESS networks which use radio waves to carry the signals instead of cables. In a typical home network you are likely to have some or all of the following items. A ROUTER. This is the box usually supplied as part of the contract you have with your INTERNET SERVICE PROVIDER (ISP) which makes the connection between your home and the Internet. At the time of writing this connection will either be over the telephone lines using something called ASYMETTRIC DIGITAL SUBSCRIBER LINE (ADSL) or via your CABLE TELEVISION/TELEPHONE company. Either way you may find it just referred to as your BROADBAND connection. This router routes (sends and receives) information between the devices in your house and other places on the internet (for things like EMAIL, WEB BROWSING, SOCIAL NETWORKING, ONLINE GAMING, MESSAGING etc)

Almost certainly, these days, that router will be what is known as a WIRELESS ROUTER that is to say that it supports both wired and wireless connections. So you will have a number of PORTS (sockets) into which you can plug cables to connect your devices and also buried within the box somewhere will be an ACCESS POINT (AP) which is the gadget which allows you to connect to it wirelessly. This gives you something like the following setup.
Figure 1: Typical home network components

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