This article explains how to setup a wireless network at home. The step by step procedure to setup, and the equipment’s required to setup a wireless network is suggested. There are 3 laptops and 2 desktops and a wireless printer which needs to be setup at home.
Step 1
1. Purchase a wireless router. Based on your budget and need, you can purchase the wireless router from Amazon here – Wireless router
2. Log into the wireless router and configure the following parameters for setup.
a. SSID – This is the name of the wireless network. By default every router would have an SSID. This can be changed to any name.
b. Setup DHCP server on the wireless router for the network. The DHCP server would assign dynamic IP address to users on the network. All routers comes with the DHCP server pre-configured and enabled by default.
c. Configure the encryption protocol and key. Select WPA as the encryption algorithm as it is more secure than WEP. Configure the security key.
The above 3 steps ensures that the router is configured appropriately for wireless setup at home.
2. Step 2
a. Configure the laptops with WPA parameters along with the security key.
b. The desktops would not normally have wireless cards for connection. Purchase USB wireless adapters to make the desktops connect to the home wireless router. USB wireless cards can be purchased from Amazon here –
Wireless USB adapter
Step 3
a. Based on budget and need, a wireless printer can be purchased from amazon here – Wireless printer
b. Configure the wireless printer for WPA protocol and the security key. Connect the wireless printer to the wireless router.
c. The network is setup for DHCP server. Ensure that the printer is configured with a static IP address and not a dynamic IP . This is because dynamic IP addresses would change after a certain time. The IP address of the printer is configured on the desktops and laptops. So the IP address has to be fixed.
The above steps would ensure that you would have successfully configured and setup wireless network at home.