How to set-up a home network

In the case of a notebook computer, you will need a wireless PC Card (Wireless Home Network Equipment) which costs about $100 to $150 US or $150 to $200 Canadian. If you want a wireless connection for a desktop computer, then you need to buy a wireless PCI card (Wireless Home Network Equipment) that is installed into a desktop computer. Belkin also offers a network card that uses a USB connector (here is a picture of a USB Connector).

The wireless networking technology uses a few standards called 802.11a, 802.11b, 802.11g & in development 802.11n. These provide varying connection speeds to the network of at least 10 MBps, although real world connections can drop to about 6 or 7 Mbps.

The 802.11 standards provide wireless connections at a range of up to 300 feet. When there are walls and floor between your wireless computer and the wireless router, however, this diminishes to about 100 feet or less depending on how much wood, brick, and metal is between the computer and the router.

In urban areas, interference from other radio transmissions can interfere with this wireless connection. In suburban or rural areas this is generally not a problem.

Note, though, that interference can be generated by things you might not think of -- wireless baby monitors, 2.4 GHz cordless phones, microwaves, and garage door openers, to name some.

Wireless networking can be a great boon to the home computer user because you can roam the house with a wireless laptop and work from anywhere that is in range of the wireless router - including your deck.

Note that a wireless connection does make your network less secure. It is advisable to turn on wireless encryption on the network, which will make sure the data moving through the airwaves is scrambled, so no one snooping within range of your network can see it or log-on to your network.

Enabling encryption it is a matter of changing a few settings on both the router and wireless computers that access the network. Most wireless router manuals outline the procedure in fairly straightforward steps.

This Wikipedia entry provides additional information on the different variations of 802.11.

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