Building a Home Network
Almost everybody has a personal computer at home these days. Small home networks which mainly provide a simple platform to share an internet connection among multiple PC's at home have become very common. Let's see how we can put together one and look at what else we can do with it in addition to sharing an internet connection.
Why build a home network?
Networking means connectivity. By setting up a network, one can connect multiple IT equipment such as personal computers, printers, scanners, mobile phones, game consoles and even devices such as TV’s and share their resources.
There are many reasons why one would put together a small home network of which the most common is to share an internet connection with multiple PC’s at home. Quite often people use a network with a wireless connection to avoid cable clutter even if there is only one PC at home.
The first apparent benefit of having a home network is the ability of sharing content on various PC’s at home. Family members can share pictures, multimedia content such as music files, video files, documents, etc. By going one step further and dedicating a (potentially old) PC to content sharing, all previously mentioned content can be stored and accessed centrally.
Sharing computer peripherals is another common reason to have a home network. One printer and/or scanner can be used by multiple PC’s.
Recent mobile phones such as iPhone and game consoles such as Soy PS3 or Microsoft XBOX can make use of an internet connection for basic surfing, software or firmware updates, multiple user gaming and other services that exist on the internet. Game consoles can also play music and video stored elsewhere on the network. Phone devices that work through the internet (VOIP) also require an internet connection to function.
And finally, if you enjoy working with computers, setting up a network is a lot of fun.
And How?
Without going too much into technicality, you need a central point of connection to which all devices on the network are connected as in today’s basic way of networking you cannot connect one device to another. These connections might be wired or wireless or a combination of both. A wired connection point is called a switch and a wireless connection point is called an access point. You can extend your network by adding more switches and access points as needed in the future.
Second basic component is called a router and again without getting into too much technicality, it connects your home network to the Internet thus shares your internet connection.
Finally you need a modem which handles the physical connection with your internet service provider. This connection is typically through phone lines (ADSL) or through the cable TV connection.
Luckily, you can buy one box in which you have all the above functionalities. Go for a wireless 802.11n modem/router with four gigabyte switching ports which will cost around $100. Follow manufacturer’s instruction and set it up.
Set up your laptop’s wireless connection to connect to your new wireless network. If your desktop PC is in close proximity to the router/switch box, use a network cable to connect the PC to one of the available switch ports. Otherwise buy a wireless network card for the desktop PC and configure it to use the wireless network.
Connect your printer to a PC or directly to the router/switch if your printer supports it and share it over the network. Now you can print from any PC at home.
Go to your mobile phone’s wi-fi settings and configure it to use your wireless network by following instructions. You may have to use the CD/DVD provided by your phone’s manufacturer for its configuration. Repeat the same with your gaming console.
Put a few hard drives in an old PC, use external USB drives if you don’t like to use a screwdriver. Make sure that the PC has connected to the switch with a network cable or it has a wireless network card to connect to your wireless network. Make a new folder on the new hard drive and share it on Windows by giving read only access to everyone. Move all your music and video files here. Now you can play all your favorite songs and movies on your laptop in the garden, in the bathroom or even in your bedroom. Using your gaming console, both music and videos can be played on your TV or stereo.
Finally get yourself a Skype (or your favorite VOIP) compatible box which can be plugged directly to a router. Set it up by following the instructions. Now your calls are much cheaper or even free.
If you need more shared storage space, a NAS box which contain hard drives inside and which can be connected to the network directly without a PC might be very practical. If you run out of wired switch ports, you can buy another switch and connect it to the first one.
Once you have the basics, you will find many different ways of utilizing your network. For the moment, if you liked the idea, make sure you do some more reading on network basics before you start buying things. Although setting up a network is not difficult, it is not as easy as it sounds above.