Setting up your home network, but don’t know where to start? Start here, with “Connected: Your Complete Guide To Home Networking”. By MakeUseOf author Matt Smith, this guide outlines everything you need to know to manage your own home network.
Just five years ago the home network was rare. Most people had only one or two network capable devices and wireless connectivity was just starting to find a footing with the widespread adoption of the fast and reliable 802.11g standard.
Today a home network might consist of many devices including computers, smartphones and set-top boxes. Wireless routers are common and many support the newest 802.11n standard. Some Internet Service Providers now distribute wireless routers to customers of wired modems.
The proliferation of home networking is great for consumers, but it comes with some downsides. Home networking doesn’t always work as simply as it should, and while every company is making efforts to simplify it, not all attempts have been successful. This guide will help de-mystify home networking for you.
This guide outlines:
- The difference between modems, routers and adapters
- Choosing between wired and wireless networking
- The basics of Windows 7 file sharing
- Sharing between Windows 7 and iOS
- Sharing between Windows 7 and Android
- Setting up your printer for networked printing
- Why you should buy a Network Attached Storage (NAS) device
- The basics of home network security
Guide Published: July 2012
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Great Stuff!
Thanks! You guys publish the best guides. Easy to understand and easy to follow.
I so don’t understand about all of the new networking things so I am hoping this download will give me clarity
yep, check it out and let us know your thoughts
Thank you…
Reading….
I’m trying to expand my home network by using an extra wireless router as a wireless repeater. Both wireless routers are netgear, which forces me to use wep if I want to set up a wireless repeater. Is there a way around this? Could I just set up the second router with the same SSID, wpa2 key, etc.?
Hey Danny,
I had to do the same not so long ago but in my case both routers were from different companies. After reading some articles online I realized that it doesn’t work for all routers. In my case it worked but with some issues.
Here is what I did. I went ahead and setup two routers with the same SSID and wireless security settings. Things to keep in mind:
1) Secondary router should have DHCP disabled (it shouldn’t be distributing IP addresses to connected devices). that will be done only by the primary router that’s connected to a modem. That also means that main router should have DHCP enabled.
2) Both routers should run on a different channels. Best to choose 1, 6 or 11. In my test I set channel 1 for the primary and channel 6 for the secondary one.
3) Change the access IP address for the second router if they are both set on the defaults. Usually the default is 192.168.0.1 OR 192.168.1.1. Just make sure they are both different so that you’re able to access both when routers are online. In other words if the first router has an IP 192.168.1.1 then change the second one to something like 192.168.2.1. It doesn’t have to be exactly like above, just make sure they are different.
So, when everything was done, I restarted both routers. In my case only primary router was accessible via it’s IP address although the wireless signals from both routers (appearing under same SSID) were available. Things were working (i was getting wireless signal for the second router) but I couldn’t figure out how to access the admin panel for the secondary router. It just didn’t resolve for it’s IP address. I spent a few hours trying to figure out but no luck. At the end I just setup the secondary router under it’s own SSID and everything was running as it should.
I talked to an expert and he told me that to get both routers under same SSID without any conflicts both routers should be from the same company. Check documentation for your routers and see if such information is available.
That’s about it, i think. Give it try and see if it works for you. If not just do what I did. I used a 10 meter cable to connect the secondary router to a primary one and created another wireless network for the part of the house where primary one wasn’t reachable.
Aibek
To set this up, it would require a cable from the LAN port on primary router (the router connected to ISP) to 2nd router. All else remains (dhcp on primary.ssid matches, channels inmaterial unless crowded). Otherwise it requires routers that have wireless repeater options (newer netgear routers). Compatability is a gamble
Nice guide! Now to apply this without destroying all the walls on the two floors of the house LOL
Thanks for the guide, I been looking for easy and practical information it’s just great.
I’m so happy we could help in some small way. Thanks for leaving a note.
Thanks – this is awesome!
The one I’ve been looking for. thanks
Happy to provide!
The guide to home networking is a good ebook even if you work in the network field, thanks for making it downloadable.
Great review! Do you work in the network field?
Thanks. Always great to have on hand.
These books are fantastic … I tell all my friends about your website because I have found some of the best information here.
Thank you – please keep up the great work ..
Thanks for reading, and for spreading the word: it’s the reason we can do this.
Now maybe I can get rid of all those $#%?@&! wires the cats love to futz with.
They’ll just find something else to futz with, but that doesn’t mean there’s no use in trying!
While the guide may be good, I have downloaded it but have yet not fully read it, I find one very important aspect missing. Peer to Peer networking using crossover ethernet cable to simply connect 2 PCs.
This is the situation that I am facing. I have 2 PCs running x86 Win 7 Ultimate, both with 10/100/1000 mbps ethernet ports on board. ! GBPS routers are unreasonably expensive and the run of the mill 100 mbps simply reduce the bandwidth. Both PCs also have WIFI connection for connecting to the internet. At Present I use BOTH interfaces to connect to 2 separate ISPs and am able to aggregate the internet bandwidth. Try as I may I am simply unable to manage a simple P-2-P connection a la XP. I have no problem whatsoever in sharing the resources via the 100 mbps router.
Just wondering why this aspect was not covered. Could not find the terms “crossover” or “peer” in the entire guide !!!!
Yeah, this guide is more for setting up a basic home network. What you’re trying to do is in the “power user” category, and outside the scope of our little manual. I hope you find information for doing this somewhere, but if not I recommend asking on MakeUseOf Answers.
makeuseof.com/answers
strangley enough was only just looking for something like this the other day, look forward to reading.
infirmative ….
thanks & regards
saroj
Just downloaded the file. Looks great. Thank you.
Thanks for the guide.
Being a reciently converted linux user I would appreciate any guides to linux network sharing
We’ll keep that in mind. Thanks for reading!
Very useful! Thanks!
Kudos! guys
Keep it up
Kudos! guys
I appreciate your effort and contributions towards benefiting the people with sound knowlegde.
Keep it up.!!!
The problem is the pdf download URL links don’t work on a Mac, not because of Apple but because of Adobe and lacking, zero support for Apple.
The URL links require a plugin, really pathetic, seriously. So I switched over to my VMware Win7 and I can access the URLs in the document. We know that Adobe has a poor attitude WRT Apple one the iPod, we all know that.
So why must you support Adobe, when Adobe doesn’t support Apple. Your followers meaning add revenue are supporting you.
You could easily produce your document in a format that doesn’t require Adobe at all and still do a bang up job.
You should support the people that support you. What has Adobe done for you lately. Now I know full well people have complained about this already.
Do something different for a change.
I’m sorry you’re having these problems. What happens when you try to download the files? Have you tried CMD-clicking the download and clicking “Save As”?
I make these manuals using a Mac, and always test the downloads on a Mac; they work fine for me. No plugin is required to download or read them on a Mac, though occasionally broken files interfere.
PDF is an open file format, and plenty of non-Adobe programs for the Mac can open PDF files – including Preview, which is part of OS X. If you don’t want a PDF, however, you can download the EPUB file; the link is right below the PDF one. Adobe has nothing to do with that file format, and there are plenty of free EPUB readers for the Mac. I recommend Calibre. If you’re okay with paying we also offer an Amazon download. We’d offer it for free but Amazon doesn’t make that easy.
Is there a different format you’d prefer? Let us know.
Oops: it’s “Option” click, not “CMD”. Sorry about that.
This is terrific. Thanks.
Windows is a failure… You should have made the manual much more cross platform.
We hope to do Mac and Linux networking guides in the future, but a complete cross-platform networking guide gets very complex very quickly. We wanted to reach the majority of users to start with.
I LOVE YOUR MANUALS AND HAVE DOWNLOADED MANY OF THEM. I FIND THEM VERY HELPFUL AND EASY TO USE. HOWEVER THIS ONE I CANNOT DOWNLOAD FOR SOME REASON. I THINK IT MAY BE THE WAY IT WAS SENT . WOULD YOU PLEASE RESEND IT AGAIN I WOULD LOVE TO HAVE IT AS I HAVE TRIED VERY HARD TO DO A HOME NETWORK WITH MY WIFES AND MINE. THANK YOU SO VERY MUCH, RJ LOUIS
Whoa! Try to use the caps more sparingly; we’re all friends here, there’s no need to yell.
Anyway: the download should work fine with the same password as always. Alternatively you can sign up for an account and get all downloads without a password:
http://www.makeuseof.com/game
Hmm… Something appears to be wrong with MUO website. My download is crawling along at 10kb/s! ???
Might have been all the people downloading the manual. Luckily it’s not huge.
really helpful!
Why have I not heard of MUO until today???
I don’t know, but welcome!
Well intentioned article, but what about “Mac” users – We do exist !!
We know you exist! I swear, we’ll do a Mac networking guide in the future. Don’t worry!
Nice! Thanks!
thanks ..
very useful topic ..
i must be missing something .. i am logged in .. using Firefox .. and while i previous had a download links available .. i am no longer seeing one ..
If you are like me, you know enough to get by on your home network, Microsoft is not the greatest help, but along comes a very simply laid out guide that simplifies a lot of the process in plain English!
These free guides are awesome for everyone. These are worth the time to download and read.
Great. Thanks…
Thanks you…