The demand of wireless networking in homes grows rapidly today. This is due to variety and the availability of the wireless routers or the all-in-one modem routers you can choose in the marketplace and mostly are affordable routers. The manufacturers ship new products introduction each year, more stylist model, more powerful, and easier to use. For home users with lack of technical skills, which computer network solution is suitable to meet your need?
Identify Your Needs
Typically the requirements of home networking can be categorized into three groups based on the needs. These categories are grouped to fit what types of (wireless) router to use to meet the needs.
- For Work
- For Work and Play
- High Performance
Even though these computer network solutions use different types of wireless routers, basically the concept is the same. Different types of routers will perform differently and typically the better the performance of the router, the more money you need to pay. The idea is simple, why you should spend lots of money for high performance router if you would just use it for sharing the broadband internet?
As general, the diagram of computer network which typically deployed in homes can be shown in the figure 1. The wireless router connects to the broadband modem either xDSL modem or Cable modem. In addition of multiple home theater devices you can install such kind of wireless bridge device with multiple Ethernet ports ready to connect them to network / internet.
In some regions / countries when you sign-up for broadband internet services, generally the ISP provides you a modem which is connected to a single computer.
Computer Network Solution for Work
Working from homes for moms or retirements becomes a trend today in this Internet era. The demand of home computer networking rises as well. This type of computer network solution for work only, you need a standard wireless router that is suitable for simple networking tasks including sharing the internet and printer, email and sharing documents with multiple computers within the household.
In this category, you need a standard wireless router that can support the simple tasks such as Actiontec GT724WGR ADSL Wireless Gateway. This modem router includes 4×10/100Mbps Ethernet ports for wired connection. For wireless connection, the modem is powered by the legacy wireless G standard. Unfortunately, it doesn’t support a USB port for hosting a shared printer.
For cable services, you can consider the all-in-one device Surfboard SBG6580. It is a selectable dual band wireless modem with built-in DOCSIS 3.0 cable modem and 4xgigabit ports. It’s an ideal solution for computer network solution for work in home with cable services.
Both Actiontec GT724WGR and SBG6580 are all-in-one device that integrate the function of modem, router and wireless access point in a single box. They include all the networking requirements including DHCP server, NAT and SPI threat protection etc.
Another option you can use is D-Link DIR-632 but you need to connect it to the modem. This router includes the wireless 802.11n technology delivering wireless speed up to 300Mbps ideally. The router includes 8×10/100Mbps Ethernet ports – ideal solution for wired connection up to eight computers using the network cable. And at the same time, the router provides wireless network for mobile devices in 2.4GHz band. And the good thing is that the router includes one USB port you can use to host a share printer.
Computer Network Solution for Work and Play
Mostly people love playing games in the computer or playing online games with their game consoles. For you that require a wireless network for both work and play, you should choose the wireless routers that can support gaming and streaming video while at the same time can also support for work. To support smooth gaming and streaming, your router should be powered by the wireless 802.11n with dual-band technology. As an addition, the router should support the USB port that can host a shared printer.
You can consider the Trendnet TEW-673GRU – a wireless n simultaneous dual band router with two USB ports to let you host both shared storage and printer concurrently. See also best value wireless router you can use for play and work.
High Performance Network
For larger home, and you require a wireless router for play particularly, you need to choose a high performance wireless router which is powered by wireless N simultaneous dual band technology with multi spatial data stream capability. There are some types of wireless routers that support three spatial data streaming for high bandwidth. For example new Linksys E4200 wireless n simultaneous dual band gigabit router. The router supports wireless N750 (450Mbps + 300Mbps) technology, meaning it can deliver the high speeds up to 450Mbps for 5GHz band, and up to 300Mbps for 2.4GHz band. Or you can also consider new WNDR4000 by Netgear which is, like Linksys E4200, powered by the N750 wireless technology.
Both routers are ideal solution for wireless computer network for high performance environment for smooth gaming and fast steaming high definition video and larger network coverage.
The other computer network solution for multi-floor building, you can consider using the power-line adapters. Powerline adapters allow you create building wide network using the existing electrical wiring – through power outlets. With powerline adapters, you can eliminate the hassle of running network cable between the floors.
By Ki Grinsing
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