Chapter 5

Setting Up Your Own Network or Wi-Fi Hotspot

In This Chapter

Setting up a network at home

Creating your own Wi-Fi hotspot

These days, lots of families have more than one computer — perhaps one in the office, one in the family room, and one in their teenager’s bedroom. Hey, one of us has one in the kitchen for our family’s calendar and address book. And that’s not to mention the road warrior laptop.

Luckily, you don’t need a separate Internet connection for every computer. Instead, you can connect the computers into a network — with cables or through thin air with wireless Wi-Fi connections — and then set them up to share one Internet connection. This chapter shows you to set up both types of networks.

Just One Computer for Internet Access? Naah

Many years ago, back when computers were large, hulking things found only in glass-walled computer rooms, a wild-eyed visionary friend of ours claimed (to great skepticism) that computers would be everywhere, and would be so small and cheap that they would show up as prizes in cereal boxes. We’re not sure about the cereal boxes, but it’s certainly true that the last time we went to put an old computer in the closet, we didn’t have room because of all the other old computers in there. Rather than let them rust in your closet, you may as well get some use out of them by connecting them all to the Internet.

With a broadband connection, it turns out to be pretty easy. No more arguing about who uses the phone line next! No more pouting from the computer users who didn’t get the cable or DSL hookup! Everyone can send email, receive email, chat, and browse the web — all at the same time.

To share an Internet connection, you connect your computers to each other in a local-area network and then you connect the LAN (rather than an individual computer) to the Internet. A local-area network (or LAN) is — drumroll, please! — a network entirely contained in one local area, such as one building, and is connected by way of wires or wireless connections, with no phone lines within the LAN. Once the exclusive tool of businesses, LANs have become so cheap that they’re showing up in homes. As long as your home is in one building, if you have some computers connected to each other, you have a LAN.

Figure 5-1 shows a typical home network: A cable or DSL modem connects to a hardware router, a device that connects your LAN to your Internet connection. Normally, you would connect your computer to a network hub (for a wired network) or an access point (for wireless) — but a hardware router has a hub or an access point built in. Then you connect the LAN to the rest of the computers around the house.

Not all computers on your LAN all have to be running the same version of Windows — or even running Windows. You can connect PCs, Macs, and Linux computers as well as tablet computers, smartphones, and even devices like printers on the same LAN because they all speak the same networking protocol, the same protocol that the Internet itself uses (TCP/IP, if you were wondering).

First, Make a LAN

LANs come in two basic varieties: wired and wireless. In a wired network, a cable runs from each computer to a central box, whereas a wireless network uses radio signals rather than wires. Either way, you need a central box, which we talk about in a minute. If all your computers are in one room and you don’t move them (or you’re good at playing home electrician), a wired network is for you; otherwise, wireless is far easier to set up, although the resulting network runs slower. Combos are also possible; most wireless equipment has a few jacks for wires to connect to the computers that are close enough to run cables.

The box in the middle — a hub, switch, or router

For any variety of current LAN, you need a special box that connects everything. Here are the main kinds of boxes you have to choose from:

• A hub or switch is a book-size box with a bunch of jacks for network cables. It serves as a wired connection point that links all your computers into a LAN. A switch has a little extra circuitry to speed things up.
• An access point is the wireless equivalent of a hub, with a radio antenna or two and only one jack to connect to a wired network.
• A router is similar to a hub or an access point (or both) with the addition of Internet-connection smarts, like a firewall (as described in Chapter 4, in the section about walling out the bad guys).
• Some providers give you a combined modem and router. If they do, you’re all set, no more equipment needed.

Our advice is to go for a router if your provider didn’t give you one; it’s cheap ($40 to $80), and it saves you days of hair-tearing grief because it keeps most worms out of your network. With a router, none of your computers needs to worry about connecting to the Internet — the router handles it.

Routers come in both wired and wireless versions. The wired versions have varying numbers of jacks, the wireless ones have one jack for the cable to the modem, an antenna for the wireless network, and usually a few jacks for running wires to computers in the same room. For some perverse reason, wireless routers are usually cheaper than wired, even though the wireless ones include everything the wired ones do plus the wireless radio. So get a wireless router. If you need more jacks than your router has, also get a cheap switch; run a cable from one of its jacks to one of the jacks on your router and it’ll all be one big happy network.

Setting up a Router

A router invariably comes with a short Ethernet cable to connect the router to the cable or DSL modem, so connect your router to your modem, plug in both devices, and turn them on. An Ethernet cable (also known as Category 5, or Cat 5) looks like a fat phone cable, with little plastic connectors that look just like phone plugs but a little larger. (Even their technical names are a little larger; a phone connector is an RJ-11 jack, whereas an Ethernet connector is an RJ-45 jack.) Some DSL ISPs provide a combined router and DSL modem, which has an RJ-11 jack for the DSL phone line rather than an incoming Ethernet jack.

Configuring routers for DSL connections that require a username and password

For the most part, routers take care of themselves, but if you have the kind of DSL connection that requires a username and password, you need to put those into the router. If your DSL connection doesn’t require a username and password, you can probably just skip this section, although you can come back later if a program you’re installing requires you to change the router’s configuration. Setup instructions for routers are all the same in concept, but they differ in detail from one router to another — so you may have to (gaack!) glance at the instructions that came with the router.

Because the router has no screen or keyboard that would enable you to configure it, you use a computer connected to the router instead, by way of a web browser. The router has its own web address, accessible only from the computers on your LAN; the address is usually a strange-looking, all-numeric creation. Even if you plan to have an entirely wireless LAN, the initial setup is a lot easier if you connect a computer to the router by using an Ethernet cable, at least for now, so that the router can figure out which computer it’s supposed to be talking to. (“Hey, there it is, at the other end of that wire!”) Follow these steps:

1. Turn off the router and the computer.

   Computers are usually happier if you plug and unplug stuff while they’re turned off.

2. Plug an Ethernet cable into the network adapter on your computer and plug the other end into one of the jacks on the router.
3. Turn on the router and then turn on the computer.
4. Fire up your web browser and type the address of the router’s control page — its home page, with configuration settings.

   Usually, this page is at 192.168.0.1 or 192.168.0.254 or maybe 10.0.0.1 (special web addresses reserved by the Internet powers that be for private networks such as yours). If those web addresses don’t work, check the router’s instructions.

5. If your router’s configuration page requires a username and password, check your router’s manual to find out what it is and then type it.

   If you lost the manual, don’t panic: Often, the username and password are printed on the bottom of the router. You see the configuration page for your router, similar to Figure 5-2.

6. If you have a broadband connection that uses a login and password, find the text box or field to enter your login name and password for your broadband connection.

   Either follow the instructions in your router manual or try clicking the tabs or links on the page until you find boxes with names such as Username and Password. Connections that use passwords may be named PPPoE (Point-to-Point over Ethernet, if you must know). Type them in.

7. If you see a button or link named Save, Done, or OK, click it to make sure that the router saves your changes.

   If you see no such button or link, don’t worry.

   

Now your router knows how to log in to your DSL account. (If you will use the router as a Wi-Fi access point, you have more configuring to do, including setting a password. See the section “Forget the Wires — Go Wi-Fi!” later in this chapter.)

Connecting your LAN to the modem

Plug the router into your DSL or cable modem, turn on the modem (if it isn’t on yet), restart the router (by unplugging the power cord and plugging it back in), and verify that you can connect to the outside Internet. If you have a combined DSL modem and router, plug the phone line into its DSL jack. (Try a visit to our home page at net.gurus.org.) If that doesn’t work, check the modem cable and ensure that both the username and password setup are correct if your Internet connection needs them. Most routers have reset switches that you can use to return them to their factory settings. It can take a long time, several minutes, for a DSL or cable modem to start the connection, so you might check the little lights to see whether the one that says WAN (for wide-area network) is lit yet.

You can configure a bunch of other router settings that you shouldn’t need to worry about unless you’re planning to do something exotic. The firewall part of the router watches the Internet traffic as it passes through and blocks the traffic it doesn’t like. Routers let through web pages, email, instant messages, and other standard types of Internet communication, but if you’re doing something special, like playing certain types of online games, you may need to tell your router to allow additional types of data. If an online game or another program indicates that you need to “open a port” on your router, you need to return to this router configuration web page to make some changes.

Wiring Your Computers into a LAN

After you have the router set up, if you want to create a wired LAN, you need wires. (Okay, you already knew that.) Specifically, LANs use Cat 5 Ethernet cable with RJ-45 connectors — it looks the same as the cable you use to connect your router to your modem. Cat 5 cables are available at any office supply store, electrical supply store, computer store, or even the occasional drugstore or supermarket, and you can find them in varying lengths, from 3 feet to 50 feet or more. You need one cable to run from the router to each computer. It doesn’t hurt to use a longer cable than you need, but it looks messy.

For every computer, plug one end of a Cat 5 cable into the computer’s network adapter jack. (See the section in Chapter 4 about your computer connecting to the modem.) Plug the other end of the cable into the router.

After your computers are connected to the router and, indirectly, to each other, tell every computer about the LAN. Windows 8, 7, and Vista make it easy — as soon as you plug in your network cable, Windows contacts the router and sets up your connection. (The most common problem: The cable isn’t plugged in all the way at one end or the other.)

If your computer doesn’t connect automatically, try these steps in Windows 8.1:

1. Open the Charms bar and click Search.
2. Enter network in the Search box.
3. Choose Network and Sharing Center to see which networks Windows thinks you’re connected to.
4. Click Troubleshoot Problems.

   Clicking this option usually walks you through the solution.

In Windows 7, try this:

1. Choose Start⇒Computer⇒Network.

   You see a window showing the computers and networks that Windows thinks you’re connected to.

2. Click Network and Sharing Center.

   You see the window shown in Figure 4-4, over in Chapter 4.

3. Click Set Up a New Connection or Network if this is the first time, or Connect to a Network to connect to a network that already exists (such as someone else’s LAN).

In Windows Vista, try this:

1. Choose Start⇒Network.
2. Click Network and Sharing Center.
3. Click the Diagnose and Repair link to help fix the most common problems.

If you connect a Mac to your LAN, it can probably see the LAN and work without your lifting a finger as soon as you connect the cable. If you want (or need) to configure your network connection, try this:

1. Choose System Preferences from the Apple menu and click Network.

   You see the Network window, which is shown in Figure 4-3 in Chapter 4. Either the Ethernet or USB Ethernet entry should have a green light to indicate that a cable of that type is connected.

2. Click the Ethernet or USB Ethernet entry (whichever has the green light) to see the details of that connection.

For more details on setting up your LAN, see Home Networking Do-It-Yourself For Dummies or Home Networking All-in-One Desk Reference For Dummies.

Forget the Wires — Go Wi-Fi!

If you have computers in more than one room in the house, using Wi-Fi is easier than snaking wires through the walls or basement. And Wi-Fi is absolutely required if you want to get online from a tablet or book-reader.

All recent laptops have Wi-Fi built in. For computers that don’t, you can get Wi-Fi doozits with USB connectors and (less often) Wi-Fi add-in cards for desktop computers or older laptops. Wi-Fi makers do a remarkably good job of adhering to industry standards, so you can expect anyone’s 11b or 11g or 11n Wi-Fi equipment to work with anyone else’s.

The main practical difference among Wi-Fi equipment is range. Wi-Fi components have one standard feature in common: laughably optimistic estimates of how far away they can be from other Wi-Fi equipment and still work. Bigger antennas bring you more range — as does more expensive equipment. Wi-Fi radio waves use the same band as 2.4GHz cordless phones, so you can expect roughly the same range — like a cordless phone, your Wi-Fi connection will probably work in most parts of your house but not down to the end of your driveway. If your house is a normal size, normal Wi-Fi works fine. If you live in a $900,000 mansion, you might have to spring for the $100 Wi-Fi card rather than the $30 one.

Set a password, for Pete’s sake!

You would probably notice if a random stranger walked into your house and plugged into your wired network. (At least, we like to think we would notice.) However, if you have a Wi-Fi network and a stranger is out on the street with a laptop scanning the area for unprotected wireless access points (a practice known as wardriving), he can connect to your Wi-Fi network and you can’t easily tell. Some people don’t care — at least until they realize that wardrivers can see all the shared files and printers on your LAN, and can send spam (and worse) over your network connection. You may well be able to hop on to your neighbors’ Wi-Fi networks, and they on yours, which may or may not be okay, depending on how much you like your neighbors.

Fortunately, all Wi-Fi systems have optional passwords. Cryptographers laugh derisively at the poor security of Wi-Fi passwords, but they’re adequate to make wardrivers and nosy neighbors go bother someone else. (If you have serious secrets on your network, don’t depend on Wi-Fi passwords. A bad guy using a laptop and one of the widely available Wi-Fi password-cracker programs can gather enough data from your network to break any password in less than a week. If you need better cryptographic protection, it’s available, but it isn’t exactly a do-it-yourself project to set up.)

Those creative Wi-Fi engineers created several flavors of passwords, too. Most new Wi-Fi equipment uses the secure password scheme Wireless Privacy Access (WPA). If all your Wi-Fi equipment can handle it, use WPA. WPA passwords can be almost any length, so you can pick something you can remember. (Don’t use your last name or your address, which is likely to be the only information that a passerby might know about your house.) Some Wi-Fi equipment arrives configured with a network name and a random password, which you might as well use. It usually includes a card with the network name and password printed on it to help you set up your computer.

Older Wi-Fi equipment can’t do WPA, and you may be stuck using the system named WEP, a term that allegedly means Wired Equivalent Privacy (which it’s not). WEP passwords come in two sizes: 64 and 128 bits. Use 128 unless you have old equipment that can do only 64, in which case, 64 will do. (Your entire network has to use the same size.) The password can be represented as either a text string or a hexadecimal (base-16, also called hex) number — we leave it to you to choose which would be easier for you to type and remember. If you use 64-bit WEP, your password (in text format) must be exactly 7 characters long. For 128-bit WEP, you need a 13-character password. If you want to use a shorter password, pad it out with digits or punctuation.

The easiest way to set the password is to set it up at the same time you set up your network, as described in the next section.

Making the Wi-Fi connection

To create a Wi-Fi system, follow these steps:

1. Get your router set up, and then set up your computers to connect to it.

   See the section “Setting up a router,” earlier in this chapter. Even if you plan to use an all-Wi-Fi network, to do the setup process, plug in one computer with a cable and use it to set up the Wi-Fi.

2. Use your web browser to display the router’s control page (usually at 192.168.0.1) so that you can configure the router.
3. Find the page where you can configure the router’s Wi-Fi settings.

   What you click depends on your router. On our D-Link router, we clicked Setup and then Wireless Settings to open the page shown in Figure 5-3. Look for a page with settings about wireless, a network name, and wireless security.

   

4. Give your network a name.

   Every Wi-Fi network has a name. With typical machine imagination, your router suggests a name similar to linksys (a router manufacturer) or dlink (another manufacturer) or default. We suggest a name similar to FredsHouse so that any neighbors who happen on it know that it’s you.

5. Turn on Wi-Fi passwords and set one, as described in the preceding section.

   Your router probably has lots of other options — such as MAC cloning (less pomological than it sounds, and nothing to do with Macintosh computers), all of which you can ignore.

6. When your router is up and running and your computer can see the Internet (that is, you can display web pages), you’re done configuring the router for your Wi-Fi network.

Now, at last, you can cut the cord and go wireless. You need to tell every computer which Wi-Fi network to use and what the password is. The setup is quick.

For computers running Windows 8.1, 7, or Vista, try this:

1. In Windows 8.1, look for the Network Connection icon near the right end of the Taskbar; click to make the Networks “charm” slide out from the right side of the screen. In Windows 7, click the Networking icon in the lower right corner of the screen, to the left of the digital clock. In Windows Vista, choose Start⇒Connect To.

   You see a window with a list of available networks, one of which is yours. If you have neighbors with Wi-Fi networks, it may show them, too, but don’t use your neighbors’ networks unless they give you permission.

2. Double-click your network.

   In a moment, you see a dialog box that asks for the security key or pass phrase.

3. Enter the network password, exactly as you did on the router, and click Connect.

   Windows retrieves network settings from the router, and in a few seconds you’re online. If you have trouble typing the password, click the box to display the characters of the password (unless, we suppose, someone you don’t trust is looking over your shoulder.)

4. Answer one more question.

   If you see a question like “Do you want to find PCs, devices, and content on this network and automatically connect to devices like printers and TVs?”, follow Windows’ recommendation and click Yes if you are on your own home network or No if you are on a public network that includes devices you don’t trust.

Mac users can click the Wi-Fi icon at the top of the screen toward the right; it looks like concentric curves. The message “Wi-Fi: Looking for Networks” appears and the networks your computer finds appear on a list. Click one to connect. If it requires a password, your Mac will ask for it.

For more on wireless networking, check out Wireless Home Networking For Dummies.

Shortcut setup with WPS

Most tablets and some smartphones can use Wi-Fi Protected Setup (WPS) to connect to a WPA router without using a password. Look at the back of the router to see if it has a button marked with two curved arrows that sort of make a circle. If so, it can use WPS. To connect your tablet or phone, open the Wi-Fi menu on the device and look for the same two-arrow symbol. Click the symbol on the tablet, press the WPS button on the router, and in a few seconds, the two devices should find each other and connect, no password needed.

In some cases, a WPS device will want you to enter an eight-digit security code into the other WPS device. We find that’s more trouble than it’s worth, so if it tells you to do that, configure the network the usual way, by entering the router’s network password on the device.

Home and Office Setup

Lots of people have laptops or tablets they carry back and forth between home and the office. Many variables are involved in doing this successfully, depending on not only your particular device but also the networks you use at home and at the office. In general, however, this is how the various setups should work:

• If both home and the office have wired networks, your computer should work when it’s plugged into either network. If your computer doesn’t connect at work, talk to your network administrator.
• If your office has local shared files and printers and your house doesn’t, or vice versa, Windows complains and sulks if it can’t find them. As long as you don’t try to print to a printer that’s at the other place, though, you can go online just fine.
• If both the home and office networks are wireless, or one is wireless and the other is wired, set up each one as described earlier in this chapter and your computer should automatically recognize whichever is available — that is, the network where you are.