Wireless Networks - You Don't Have To Be A Geek To Set One Up Anymore
The first thing you'll need to set up your own wireless network is a computer that will receive the wireless signal. Almost every laptop sold today comes with a wireless card as standard equipment. If you have an older laptop, you can buy a wireless adapter that will plug into either a USB slot or a PC card slot. Many desktop computers do not come with wireless access preinstalled, however, so you may need to get either a USB wireless adapter or a wireless PCI card if your network includes a desktop.
Next, you'll need to get a wireless router. Wireless routers usually provide for a wired ethernet connection in addition to transmitting wireless signals. The signals are transmitted at either 2.4 GHz or the newer 5.0 GHz. While a rare occurence, there is a possiblility of interference if you have a cordless phone and a wireless router that both operate at 2.4 GHz.
The way a wireless network operates is that the router initially receives data in digital form through a wired connection to the Internet. Digital means the information is encoded in a binary state, or as a series of pulses representing either the number 1 or 0. The router then converts the digital data into radio waves and broadcasts it out over an area of approximately one hundred feet in all directions. If your computer is within the broadcast area and is equipped with a wireless adapter, it receives the radio signals and converts them back to digital form so the computer can process the information.
Wireless devices have to be built to a 'standard', to insure that they can communicate with each other. Wi-Fi is by far the most popular technology for setting up wireless networks at this time, and the Wi-Fi standard is called 802.11. When improvements are made, the letter on the end of the standard is changed. The first version was 802.11b, followed by 802.11g. The latest is 802.11a, and 802.11n is in development at the time of this writing. Usually, any new devices will be compatible with older ones, so if you have a wireless network that uses all 802.11b equipment, and decide to upgrade the devices individually, your new 802.11a wireless router should work with the older wireless adapters in your computers. However, be sure to confirm that when purchasing the new device. It's important to secure your wireless network. Otherwise, anyone within the range of your router, possibly someone driving by your house or in the next apartment, can log onto your network and, with the right software, intercept sensitive or private information. There are a number of different standards for wireless security. The first one to be developed was called WEP. This is ok, but a more secure standard is named WPA. WPA is probably the best balance of ease of setup and security right now. If you don't mind getting into a more involved and difficult setup process, you can set your wireless router up to only accept connections from specific MAC addresses. Every computer has their own MAC address. This can be a little complicated for someone that's never worked with MAC addresses before, and it will require that you reconfigure the router every time you want to allow any new computers into your network, such as if your friend brings his laptop over. While we don't have room in this article to completely cover wireless networks, this should be enough information to give you a basic idea of how they work and what you'll need to do in order to get yours up and running successfully.
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