JP/17/ITSH
Wireless router for your home network
We still do not know how these electromagnetic waves bouncing around us everywhere we go will affect us.
We have cellular phone networks. We use cordless phones, Bluetooth devices, hotspots, satellite radio, terrestrial TV broadcasts, Global Positioning System (GPS), Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) and the list keeps growing each day.
And we do not seem to have enough of them. Today, we cannot open our car doors without the remote control. In the near future, our supermarket attendants will not scan the content of our shopping carts. Instead, the RFID chips on each of the products will feed the information directly to the Point of Sales Terminals (POSTs).
Schools in several countries are sticking an RFID chip on each of the students in a bid to increase their safety and to curb truancy. When they pass through the school's gate, the system will register it and they will then have some explaining to do to their teachers and parents if they are late or do not show up.
Elsewhere, there are WLANs, the wireless local area networks that people are installing at their homes and in conference venues. Using the high 2.4 GHz frequency band, the signals can sometimes be strong enough to reach 100 meters. The fact is that wireless hotspots are no longer the monopoly of upscale coffee shops in malls.
It does not take much to set up a wireless network nowadays. You will need a cable or DSL broadband Internet connection, as sharing an Internet access is normally the reason for building a home network in the first place.
Such a network will allow members of the family to access the Internet, use the same printer and exchange files among themselves.
You will need a wireless router if you are not planning to run UTP cables all over the place. It is your access point to the network. We have plenty of choice from the top guns in the networking gears, especially D-Link, Netgear and Linksys.
The wireless routers are usually all-in-one devices, as well. They contain a Wi-Fi transmitter and receiver, a switch with a couple of ports, and a router to connect the two.
One thing to remember is that, just like our prisons, a wireless network is never 100 percent secure. Because the signals are omnidirectional, other people -- including your next-door neighbors -- can tap into your network and break into your computers. At least, they can steal your bandwidth and access the Internet for free.
Therefore, you will need to implement the more technically involved steps to maximize the security, which include setting up the Wireless Equivalent Privacy (WEP). Suffice it to say that, when choosing a wireless router, you should at least find one with a built-in and powerful firewall, a high security Wi-Fi Protection Access (WPA), wireless MAC address filtering. Also make sure that the software comes with a lot of Wizards to guide you as you configure the router.
There are several different flavors of the Wi-Fi standard.
These include the 802.11a, 802.11b, 802.11g and the more secure 802.11i. It is recommended that one go for the 802.11g, which is compatible with the already widespread 802.11b.
True, buying the necessary equipment and installing a wireless network is easy, but making it secure requires a lot of homework. At least your task will be easier if you have bought the right gears to start with. And, once the network is up and running and secured, the flexibility of being able to work on the porch may be worth all the trouble.
--Zatni Arbi