We have reached an era that a home has more than one computer. Now the PC has its “little brother” which is none other than the laptop and there are many people who use a second PC. This guide will show you in simple steps how to build your own home network so you can give internet access for all computers but also to share files and data between them.

Step 1: “Materials needed”

The most basic component in a network is the router. This is the device which will be sharing internet access for all computers, and it has also the “primary responsibility” to connect them together and make possible the sharing of files between them. Regarding the kind of router to buy, now the choice of a wireless device is almost mandatory, since computers can be located far away from each other in the house, and if there is a laptop, this may not have a fixed location. The price for a wireless router depends on its quality but also on other characteristics such as the wireless coverage range. Prices start from $50 and can reach up to $200 and there are highly professional solutions for over $1000.

The second component needed in a home network is called a “network card”. Usually, in modern computers it is not necessary to buy a network card since their motherboards have built-in wireless network cards that make it possible to interface at no additional charge. However, older (and economical) systems do not have these cards embedded with the result that you need to buy one. These cards are making it possible for wireless communications between computer and router.

Step 2: Connectivity

After you got everything you need and you have correctly installed the router and network cards, all that remains is to connect them together. For starters, you should go to router settings and find the option that enables the wireless network (WLAN which means Wireless LAN). These settings have to be configured on the router from a “central” computer, which should be connected to the router with a cable instead of wirelessly. Depending on the router you buy, this option may be in a different place, but will always have the same name, ie WLAN. After you switch on the WLAN, you should make sure the network cards of the other computers are turned on.

If all goes smoothly, then all computers will have to “find” your connection to the router and automatically connect to it. If this does not happen then make sure you have activated the wireless network to other computers, especially if you have a laptop, since in these there is usually a small button that activates or deactivates the wireless. Also, many firewalls will not allow the connection and it would be best-at least for a start-to disable it to see if all goes well.

Step 3: Security

If you connect all your computers successfully, there is a significant factor that should receive serious consideration. This is the security of your network. You see, your wireless router does not distinguish your own computers from the rest in the building (or even the neighborhood …!) And they may all use your own network and “steal” bandwidth. To avoid this you should get into the router settings and find the option «encryption» (usually located in the tab WLAN). There select the «WPA-PSK» or «WPA2» and immediately you will be asked a password. After entering your password, then automatically the other computers you will be asked the same keyword that you must enter to gain access to your network.

Step 4: File Sharing

Now logically all computers must have internet access and all that remains is for you to share the files you want. To do this, all you have to do is go to the folder you want to give access to all your computers and right-click with the mouse. Select “Properties” and the window that appears select the tab “sharing”. Now all you have to do is check the box that says “share the folder on the network” (the middle option). That’s it! You can do the same for your entire hard disk with the same procedure.

For Detailed information about setting up a home network CLICK HERE.

There are a few vendors out there that manufacture All-in-One NAS devices, but the best ones I found from my research is Synology and QNAP. To be honest I had a very hard time to decide which one is the best but finally I chose a QNAP NAS product (QNAP TS-209 II) mainly because of its hardware specifications (CPU and memory).

The QNAP TS-209 II is comparable with the Synology DS207+ unit (both support two hard-drives in RAID configuration) and they both have an extensive list of excellent features (File Server, access of all your stored files from the Internet, video and audio media streaming, BitTorrent/HTTP/FTP download engine, MySQL and PHP support to host websites, Linux OS etc). However, what made me choose the QNAP TS-209 II over the DS207+ NAS product was the amount and type of its memory. The QNAP carries 256MB DDR2 memory while the Synology carries half of it (128MB). This type of memory together with its 500MHz Marvell processor makes the QNAP TS-209 II unit a powerful Linux all-in-one NAS station that has all the required hardware capabilities for customization and expansion.

I bought my QNAP NAS from the trusted Amazon which had the best overall price (including shipping) from other sources.

The NETGEAR XE103 85 Mbps Powerline Network Adapter provides such a solution. This is an excellent product for extending your home network by using standard electrical outlets. The diagram below shows you a simple home network setup using the Netgear XE103.

One possible scenario as shown on the diagram above is to extend your Internet access from your office room to your living room. You just need to plug in two XE103 adapters one in each room (on the electrical outlets) and then use the office room adapter’s 10/100 Ethernet port to connect to your Internet router, and the other adapter to connect any Ethernet-ready device (laptop, PC, XBOX, PS3, DVR etc). If you connect also a third powerline adapter on a different room, then it will participate in the same network segment as the rest of your devices and you will be able to connect another device in your home network.

There is no software to install and works with all Windows versions, or any Game Console types (Xbox,PS3, Wii etc).

The cheapest price I found for this product is from Amazon.

Update: Another similar great product from Netgear is the NETGEAR XAVB101 Powerline AV Ethernet Adapter Kit which includes 2 adapters delivering 200 Mbps throughput and also supports 128-bit encryption for secure data communication. This model earned also an “EDITOR CHOICE” award from PC Magazine, so its worth it to check it out.

The PCTV device can serve as your central TV management station. Just plug the PCTV to any TV source (Video, Satellite, or Cable TV receiver), run the setup wizard and you are ready to watch your favorite TV programs from your PC, no matter if your are at home or from anywhere in the world via the internet.

As shown on the Home Network diagram above, the Pinnacle PCTV device connects with an A/V cable (included) with any TV source device (DVD, TV Set-top Box, Cable TV receiver, Satellite Receiver etc) and at the same time it sends the TV signal to your TV box. On the network interfaces of PCTV, you can connect either a wireless Wi-Fi device (e.g Laptop) or a wired LAN device (e.g your Home PC) to receive and enjoy the highest quality remote TV experience on your PC with full resolution DVD-like quality in MPEG-2. When away from home, Pinnacle PCTV streams your home TV across the Internet to your PC in  MPEG-4 format so you can watch all your favorite TV programs from anywhere in the world.

With the included Pinnacle Player Software, you can schedule recordings, Pause, Rewind and Play Live TV directly on your PC. Pinnacle PCTV integrates also with Windows Media Center as a TV source and its an excellent companion with Windows Vista Media Center software to unleash a powerful suite of functions. The Listed price of this product from Pinnacle website (as of August 2008) is $79.99

The PLAYSTATION®Network can be used to play Online Games with other PS3 users, shop from the Playstation Store, use messaging features and communicate with friends, browse the Internet etc. The Security features and embedded firewall functionality of the Home Internet Router may block communication of the PS3 with the Playstation Internet Servers.

To enable full communication of your PS3 system with the PLAYSTATION®Network you must manually open the following ports on your Home Internet Router:

• TCP: 80, 443, 5223
• UDP: 3478, 3479, 3658

The easiest way to open all necessary ports is to use the UPnP feature of the PS3, provided that your Home Router is UPnP compatible. With the UPnP feature, the PS3 system dynamically requests all necessary ports from the Home Router to be opened when needed. Therefore, no manual port configuration is necessary on the firewall of your Home Gateway Router.

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Xbox 360 Home Network Setup

A home wired network can be used to connect your Xbox game console (or any other network-ready game device, such as Playstation or Wii) with your personal home computer, and with your Internet Router for accessing Xbox Live resources.

Setting up a home network doesn’t have to be a scary task. The network diagram below shows a simple home network setup with an Xbox device and a personal computer.

You will need a Cable/DSL Modem and a Cable/DSL Router (these two devices can be the same device if you buy an integrated Cable/DSL Router-Modem). As you can see above, the Modem device connects to your Wall Jack ( which can be a Telephone Jack if its a DSL modem or a Cable Jack if its a Cable modem) in order to get connected to your Internet Service Provider. Then, the modem connects to your Cable/DSL Router, which has many Ethernet RJ-45 ports, in order for you to connect your network home devices (XBOX, PC, Printer etc). You will need a network cable (Ethernet cable), which comes with the Xbox 360 device, to connect it to your Router, as shown in the pictures below:

First turn off your Xbox 360 and connect one end of the Ethernet Network Cable to the I/O port on the back of the Xbox, and the other end of the cable to the Internet Router. Then, start your Xbox 360 and create your gamer profile to get started with both the Xbox 360 system and Xbox Live.

If you want a suggestion for a great Internet Sharing router model, then the Linksys WRT160N Ultra RangePlus Wireless-N Broadband Router is an excellent choice. This device offers both wired and wireless Internet-sharing and 4-port Switch, with a built in speed and range enhanced Wireless Access Point.

After connecting your Xbox console you will want to start playing games right? Before doing that though, I suggest you make a backup copy of each game CD you have. You don’t want to have your expensive video game CD scratched and destroyed. Just make a backup copy for it to have it for ever. I recommend an excellent software with which you can copy virtually ANY video game CD. This is Game Copy Pro which makes copies for your video game CDs with just a few clicks. Works with XBOX, PS3, PSP, Wii etc.

An Internet accelerator has been designed to speed up the process of downloading images and media over a dialup connection. It does this with a compression technology. The accelerator will actually compress all data and files, which means that your websites will now load a faster rate. This is particularly useful when you visit the same sites repeatedly, because most accelerators have a save feature that allows you to keep something similar to a copy of the website to download faster the very next time you need to access the website.

Below are some of the major benefits that you can have just by using Internet accelerators.

Faster Than Standard Dialup

Due to the compression feature, pc accelerators have the capabilities of pushing your dialup connection to reach its full capacity. Giving you the fastest possible connection over dialup, faster than you ever imagined possible. Some rural areas still don’t have broadband or faster types of Internet connection available therefore, they have no other option than to use dialup. If you must use dialup, why not use get the fastest dialup possible with a web accelerator.

Cheaper Than Other Options

Even if you live in an area with DSL, Cable, or wireless is available, these options can really start to get quite expensive. If you are on a budget and simply cannot afford these broadband connections, dial up with an web accelerator may be the best alternative for you. You can still surf the net for less money than those using cable or DSL and still faster than those using standard dial up without any type of Internet accelerator.

Has Now Become A Standard Dial-Up Feature:

Internet accelerators have become so popoular that many dial up companies are now offering Internet accelerators as part of their standard packages. In some cases, it may be the same price as the dialup package or you may have to pay a small additional fee to get the accelerator, but it definately worth the small fees charged by dial up companies. You can get the most out of your dial up modem, without having to spend an arm and a leg to do it. You can even buy an Internet accelerator seperately and still use your current ISP.

It just makes sense to use web accelerators with your dial up Internet connection. You will love the added speed, the added support, and the added time it gives you. Generally, you have to wait forever for your dial up connection to load your favorite websites, now you can load them in half the time, which mean have the wait. Get started with faster dial up right now.

A typical WiFi wireless home network is shown below:

The heart of the wireless network is the WiFi wireless router, which controls all wireless devices (Laptops, PCs, PDAs etc) and routes the traffic to the wired (Ethernet) connection. All wireless devices have to be equipped with a compliant 802.11 WiFi wireless adapter card. These adapters can be embedded in the device, or can be externally attached (USB, PCMCIA).

Equipment Checklist

Wireless Router:
This is the gateway between the wired and wireless world. It takes the wired ethernet data coming on its ethernet port and translates that data to radio signals for transmitting to the attached wifi devices, and vica-versa. It also assigns IP addresses to the attached wireless devices and routes traffic between them, and between the wireless and wired interfaces. This router also facilitates Internet Connection Sharing by connecting its wired Ethernet port to the ADSL/Cable modem of the Internet Service Provider (ISP). The wireless router controls also the security of the wireless home network. You can configure SSID, WEP, WAP, MAC Filtering etc to secure and control which devices can be attached on the wireless network (more info below).

Wireless Adapter:
Each wifi device must be equipped with a wireless network adapter. Almost all modern laptop computers come with an embedded wireless adapter, but you can also connect external devices (USB, PCMCIA) as shown below. Once you install the drivers of the wireless adapter and configure it properly, it should start searching for available wifi routers in the area in order to attach on the network. By default, if you didn’t do any configuration on the wifi router (i.e you left it with its default configuration and turned it on), the wireless adapter should automatically attach to the wireless router, get an IP address, and should be fully connected to the wireless network. However, leaving your wifi network configured with its default (out of the box) settings is not secure at all. Some basic security must be applied, as we will see below.

Typical Configuration

SSID:
The Service Set Identifier (SSID) is the name of each particular wireless network. All wireless devices of the same network must have the same SSID in order to communicate with each other. The SSID is configured first on the wireless router, and then on each client device. If the SSID is left unspecified, then any wireless device can connect on the wireless network, which is not a good security practice. The image below shows a typical SSID configuration on a wireless router.

The SSID name “mywifinetwork” must be configured on all wireless devices of this particular wifi home network in order to communicate with each other. Another important security enhancement is to Disable the Wireless SSID Broadcast, so that the router does not transmit out on free air the SSID name.

The image below shows the SSID configuration settings on a WinXP laptop computer with wireless network adapter. You configure the SSID under

“Network Connections> right click on Wireless Network Connection> Properties> Wireless Networks> Add “. As you can see, the SSID name configured on the laptop is the same as the SSID on the wireless router.

Security:
One of the disadvantages of wireless networks is weak security. If you connect your wireless equipment with default settings, then you will manage to provide your neighbor with free internet access as well!!

Fortunately, the WiFi alliance has developed several security techniques to provide encryption and access control to the wireless network. One of these security techniques is WiFi Protected Access (WPA) with Preshared Key (PSK). To configure WPA with PSK, you need to enable it on both the router and the client, and also configure a common pre-shared key between them. The settings on the router are shown below:

The Pre-shared key “wirelesskey” (together with enabling WPA-PSK) must be configured also on the laptop wireless adapter, as shown below:

TCP/IP Network Settings:
As far as tcp/ip network settings are concerned, by default the wireless router works also as a DHCP server, which means that it assigns IP addresses dynamically to the wireless clients. Basically you don’t need to configure anything for the tcp/ip network settings, since each client will automatically receive an IP address from the wireless router.

Use your Wireless Home Network to Monitor your Home
One of the benefits of having a wireless network in your home is that you can install wireless security cameras for monitoring the inside of your home from anywhere in the world. This is discussed in more detail in this post. Linksys has several products for home camera security such as the one shown below:

The Linksys Wireless-G Pan/Tilt/Zoom Video Camera sends live video through the Internet to a web browser anywhere in the world! The Pan/Tilt/Zoom feature gives also flexible control remotely from a Web Browser. If you enable the security mode of the camera, you can also use it as a motion detection sensor, which can send you email alerts with video clips upon motion detection.

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Setting up the TCP/IP settings of the firewire ports

The 1394 firewire port is fully supported in Win 2000/XP and newer operating systems. In windows, the port appears as a normal Network Connection (called “1394 Connection”) under “Network Connections” settings as shown below.

• On Host A, right click on 1394 Connection, click on Properties and double click on Internet Protocol (TCP/IP).

• Enter the following IP settings as shown below:

Click on “Use the following IP address:” button and configure the IP address and subnet mask (192.168.0.1 , 255.255.255.0). Then click OK.

• Similarly, on Host B right click on 1394 Connection, click on Properties and double click on Internet Protocol (TCP/IP).
• For Host B, the IP settings should be
  • IP address: 192.168.0.2
  • Subnet mask: 255.255.255.0

You are done!! Now you have IP connectivity between the two Hosts (PC and Laptop in our example), and you can either use FTP (File Transfer Protocol) or Windows File Sharing to transfer files and share data between the two computers.

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• HomePlug 1.0 — Older Specification for connecting devices via power lines in the home. Theoretical speed of 14 Mbit/s.
• HomePlug AV — Current Specification which allows for speeds up to 200 Mbps half-duplex. This HomePlug version can be suitable for transmitting High Definition TV (HDTV) and Voice over IP (VoIP) in the home network.

The big advantage of PowerLine networks is the ease of installation. Since you will always have a power outlet near a computer, you can connect your computers to one another through the power outlets and the electrical wiring. Another advantage is that you don’t need a network card to be installed in the computer, since the network adapter plugs directly to the power outlet, as shown on the diagrams below.

As shown on the diagrams, all you need to set up a PowerLine Network is a “Power to Ethernet” or a “Power to Wireless” adapter. Using these adapters, you can interconnect any Ethernet or WiFi equipped computer to your PowerLine Home Network. A normal Ethernet Gateway or Router can also be used to provide Internet connectivity.