Networking Hardware Requirements

Although setting up a home network is not necessarily an expensive or difficult

project, you just need to have few basic pieces of hardware to connect your computers,
printers, gaming consoles, and assorted gadgets to each other — and to the Internet.

Need Purpose
DSL(Digital A DSL or cable modem connects your computer to a high-
Subscriber Line) or speed DSL or cable Internet connection. Although dial-up
Cable Modem modems are still available for slower dial-up Internet
connections, the connection speeds are far too slow for a
home network.
Wired or wireless A wired or wireless router connects your DSL or cable
router modem to your home network. Many DSL/cable modems
now have built-in routers that allow you to connect your
network directly to your Internet connection.
Wired or wireless A wired or wireless network adapter is the device in your
network adapters computer (or printers, gaming consoles, and other
networking equipment) that connects your computer to
your network.
Ethernet cabling Ethernet cabling is used to connect your wired network
adapters to a router or network switch. Even if you are
using a wireless router, you will need at least one Ethernet
cable to connect your wireless router to your DSL or cable
modem.

In a network, computers and other devices are connected to share resources. Network
connections vary in many ways depending on the setup the user would want to, availability
of the network devices and the location or map area of links. One may either use wireless
throughput or wired throughput. The next lesson will guide you on how to setup these
connections.

Router Basics

Your router is the glue that holds your home network together. It connects all your
computers to one another, either through Ethernet cables or a wireless connection. A router
is different than a modem: your modem connects you to the internet, while your router
connects your computers to one another. When you hook up your router to the modem,

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however, you are then able to share that internet connection with all of the computers on
your network. Sometimes modems come with built-in routers.

Devices that connect to your router—that is, the computers, tablets, smartphones,
DVRs, game systems, and so on—are called clients. Each client on the network is given an
IP address, which helps your router direct traffic. Clients within the network get a local IP
address, while your modem gets a global IP address. Global IP addresses are like street
addresses, while local IP addresses are like apartment numbers: one lets you find the
building in relation to the rest of the world, while the other lets you find the specific location
within the complex. These addresses make sure the right information from the outside world
gets to the right computer on your network.

Routers have a number of different features, so we'll go through some of the most
common router specs and how they affect your home network.

Most people have a mix of wired and wireless devices on their network, so most of
the discussion will focused on wireless routers. Since wireless routers allow for both wired
and wireless connections, you can wire up when necessary, and connect over Wi-Fi
everywhere else.

Wireless Throughput

Throughput is the speed at which a router can transfer data. The transfer speed of
your wireless connection is dependent on the wireless standard it uses. The most common
standards today are 802.11g and 802.11n (also known as "wireless G" and "wireless N",
respectively). Wireless N is faster than wireless G, though routers that support wireless N are
also more expensive. Most new devices—like smartphones and laptops—support the faster
wireless N.

Figure 144. Wireless Throughput

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Wired Throughput

The wired half of your router will come in one of two speeds: 10/100 Mbps and
10/100/1000 Mbps (also known as "gigabit"). 10/100 routers are cheaper, but will not
transfer data between computers as quickly as gigabit routers will. If you are only using your
router to connect to the internet, 10/100 is fine, since your internet connection is probably
slower than 100Mbps, meaning you will not be able to actually take advantage of the router's
full speed. If you are transferring data between computers, however, you may want to go
with a gigabit router, since it will transfer that data much faster than a 10/100 model.

Range

Wireless routers can only reach a limited area of distance. If you have a big house
and have the router on one side, you might not be able to access the network from the other
side of the house. Your range, like your speed, is determined by the wireless standard you
use. Wireless N has a longer range than wireless G, so if range is important you will want to
use wireless N.

That said, there are many other ways to connect to your network from afar. Wireless
extenders (also called wireless repeaters) are products you can buy that do exactly what the
manuals say to extend your network further. Alternatively, you can buy a powerline adapter,
which lets you use your home's electrical wiring to hook a distant device up to your router
with an Ethernet cable (and thus get a faster connection than wireless would allow for).

Wireless G - 802.11g offers wireless transmission over distances of 150 feet and speeds up
to 54Mbps compared with the 11Mbps of the 802.11b standard. Like 802.11b, 802.11g
operates in the 2.4GHz range and therefore is compatible with it.

Wireless N - A typical wireless router in an indoor point-to-multipoint arrangement using

802.11n and a stock antenna might have a range of 50 metres (160 ft) or less. Outdoor point-
to-point arrangements, through use of directional antennas, can be extended with many
kilometers between stations.

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Number of Ports

Routers have two types of ports in the back: LAN ports and WAN ports. Your WAN
port hooks up to your modem (which, again, is what connects to the internet), while the LAN
ports hook up to your computers and other clients. Most routers have one WAN port, but you
will need as many LAN ports as the wired devices you have. If you have more wired devices
than can fit on a router, you can plug them all in using a wired switch. A switch is like a
power strip for your router: it lets you plug in more devices than the router originally
allowed.

Wireless Security

Unless you do not mind strangers eating your bandwidth and potentially accessing
your networked files, you should always protect your wireless network with a password.
WPA2 is currently the most secure type of wireless encryption, so make sure you use WPA2
if you can. Some old wireless devices do not support WPA, in which case you will have to
use the less secure WEP instead. Basically, every devices made in the

Types of Wireless Security

1. WEP

WEP (Wired Equivalent Privacy), the grandfather of wireless security types,  is a
security algorithm for IEEE 802.11 wireless networks. Introduced as part of the original
802.11 standard ratified in 1997, its intention was to provide data confidentiality comparable
to that of a traditional wired network. When a client (like a laptop or iPad) connects to a
WEP-protected network, the WEP key is added to some data to create an “initialization
vector”, or “IV” for short. Because RC4 is a stream cipher, the same traffic key must never
be used twice. The purpose of an IV, which is transmitted as plain text, is to prevent any

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repetition, but a 24-bit IV is not long enough to ensure this on a busy network. The way the
IV was used also opened WEP to a related key attack. For a 24-bit IV, there is a 50%
probability the same IV will repeat after 5000 packets.

WEP is not the correct choice for securing your network, and in light of this, other types of
wireless security were created.

2. WPA

WPA(WiFI Protected Access) was ratified by the WiFi Alliance in 2003 as a response to
the insecurities that were discovered in WEP. This new security standard, the Temporal Key
Integrity Protocol (TKIP), included several enhancements over WEP, including a new
message integrity check nicknamed “Michael.”

While Michael offered a great deal of improvement over the old way of securing networks,
there was still some worry about some security issues with using a similar (though much
stronger) implementation.

3. WPA2

WPA2 (Wi-Fi Protected Access 2) was introduced in 2002 due to the concerns about
Michael. At the center of WPA2 is its use of a security protocol based on Advanced
Encryption Standard (AES), the U.S. Government’s preferred choice of encryption. As it
stands now, the only people who should still be using TKIP on a wireless network are those
who are dealing with hardware that is rated for 802.11g only.

4. WPS

WPS (WiFi Protected Setup) was introduced in 2006. the goal of the protocol is to allow
home users who know little of wireless security and may be intimidated by the available
security options to set up Wi-Fi Protected Access, as well as making it easy to add new
devices to an existing network without entering long passphrases.

With this type of security, a user is able to add new devices to their network by simply
pushing a button (within administration software or physically on the router) and then typing
in an 8-digit PIN number on the client device. The eighth and final digit of the PIN number
is a checksum, which is used to make sure the 7 digits that matter don’t get corrupted. But
When a PIN is being examined by the AP, the first 4 digits (10,000 possibilities) are checked
separately from the last 3 digits (1,000 possibilities). This translates into a malicious user
only needing to make at most 11,000 guesses, which a computer can handle in a matter of
hours!

last four years supports WPA2 encryption.

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Sample Network Components Specifications

Item Minimum Requirements Recommended

Modems
Cable Cat-5 UTP Cat-5 UTP
network adapters Ethernet 100Base-TX Ethernet 1000Base-T
Hub/Switch 100 Megabit Hub 1.0 Gigabit Switch
Power Surge Protector Surge Protector & UPS

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