Setting Up a Basic Home Network

Sharing media will be much easier once you establish a home network.

Apr. 23, 2009 — by Graig Stephens

Network file sharing between computers is a much faster and convenient way to gather information, music, movies, and photos. Once a home network is installed, sharing one printer is much easier. No longer will you need to load files onto a USB drive to print. Also, multiple family members will be able to access the Internet simultaneously without needing to pay for multiple ISP (Internet Service Provider) accounts.

As there are pros and cons of any system, home networks are no different. A completely hardwired network gives you a faster more reliable setup, but limits mobility and (in a retrofit solution) may not allow you to have network locations where you need them.

A completely wireless solution gives you maximum mobility but is not as fast or reliable as a hardwired set-up. You might have areas where signal strength drops off which will restrict speed and likely prevent laptop use in that area. Most home networks are a combination of both wired and wireless solutions and this is what we will focus on here.

Things to Consider
When you are first considering installing a home network, there are some questions you should ask yourself.

• How many PCs will be connected to the network?
• Where will laptops be used in the home?
• Which computers will share a printer?
• Can I get the proper cable to the fixed locations?
• Where will my network live?

For most homes, a 4 port wireless router will be more than sufficient. This type of router allows you to have 4 hardwired locations, i.e. home office, kitchen message center, kids’ homework area, and a printer, but it also allows wireless access for laptops, game systems, and home entertainment devices such as DVRs (digital video recorders).

Getting Started
Once you have decided on which locations will be wired and all cabling is done, the wiring of the router is next. All your data (Internet) cabling should be brought to one location in the home. This is typically the home office or the mechanical room low voltage panel.

Most routers have easy to use wizards that will guide you through plugging in, setting up and connecting to your ISPs modem. Once you have completed the router setup, check your network and make sure every device is online. You can do this by going to the start menu and clicking on “Network.” (We’ll be using terminology from Microsoft’s Windows Vista for the sake of this article) This will bring up a window that will display all the network connected devices. Please note that devices need to be powered on in order to view them.

Next you need to create a network for your home by following these steps:

• Go to Start Menu
• Select Networking and Sharing Center
• Select a Network

Next you need to select or add a network. A very user friendly wizard will walk you through the steps of setting up a private home network. At the end of the wizard you’ll be asked you to create a disc that you will need to run on each device on the network.

Choosing the Files
Once you have completed the networking set up, you’ll need to decide which files on each device you would like to share on the network. Any file can be shared on the network simply by right clicking on the file and then choose “Share.”  If password protection is on, you will need to choose which users you would like to allow access. If you do not want to limit access - turn off this feature by adjusting the settings in your “Networking and Sharing Center.”

Accessing the Shared Files
In order to access the files go to “Network” and select the device you want to access. All the shared files will appear and you are free to listen to music or work on files that are stored somewhere else.

Setting up Home Networked Media Basics
There are many choices for storing and playing media content. Almost every edition of Windows comes with a program called Windows Media Center or MCE. This program allows users to store and locate all their media content in one easy-to-use location even if it is stored on other devices on the network. There are also a number of other great features in MCE, too numerous to list for this article.

Tips
If you’ll be storing and playing media, I highly recommend using a 1GB router. This will allow faster downloads and streaming between the networked devices without the content constantly buffering.

You should also consider a 1GB managed switch. This allows you to set up which “packets” take priority. When information is sent from one location to another it is divided up into packets so that information can be sent quickly. If someone is online downloading and you are watching a movie from a networked device without a managed switch in line, you may see interruptions in the movie.

The most efficient way of designing this type of system is by having all you media stored on a server. This can be your office PC with a partitioned hard drive or a dedicated machine located in your family room.

For those with extensive collections of music CDs, loading all your music will take some time but once the system is set up - it is worth it. Before you start loading all your media onto your machine, create a folder that will be the designation for you music. This will make finding your media much easier when you set up your system.

Click here for more information about cabling, structured wiring systems, IP-enabled networks and mesh networks.

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