A Simple Computer Network at Home to Share Broadband Internet Connection, Files and documents, Printer with Several Computers
Building a simple computer network at home to share a single broadband internet connection with multiple computers within the house is quite easy, whether wired LAN network or wireless network connection. There are lots of portable network appliances available at the market today that you can purchase and an easy step-by-step configuration guide.
Basically the devices that you need to prepare are as follows:
- A broadband internet services that you can subscribe from the ISP, either broadband DSL or Cable connection.
- A DSL or Cable modem which is commonly provided by the ISP in some regions, or you can purchase by yourself from the market.
- A router / firewall function device that will protect your private network from the internet threats
- A Switch and or Wireless access point to share the connection with multiple computers at the household.
Fortunately, you do not need to purchase separate devices, instead you can purchase a single multi-functions device that combines the function of modem (Cable or DSL), a firewall / router, and a Switch function (or sometimes plus a wireless access point) such as DSL-2500B D-Link (an ADSL2 plus modem-router); DSL-2740B D-Link (an ADSL2 plus RangeBooster wireless N Modem router); or DGN2000 Netgear Wireless Modem-router.
How to connect
The following example is a simple network diagram that use multi-function device – a combination of DSL modem, Router / firewall, a four port Switch such as DSL-2540 from D-Link. Connect the Phone line direct to the RJ-11 port on the modem and then you can connect up to 4 computers with wired connection to the 4 port RJ-45 Switch. With one phone call to the ISP where you subscribe the DSL service, they will guide you to setup the IP address of the modem. By the factory default configuration, you can use the modem-router to share the Internet connection with some computers at home (after the Telco setup your modem-router IP address).The modem-router supports the DHCP server (that is enabled by default) to supply the IP configuration to the computers on the network. If you don’t understand something about the DHCP server, you don’t need to worry. What you need to do is to make sure that the TCP/IP property of the computers on the network is configured automatically. How do you check them?
Simple Computer Network - Configuration
Basically when you purchase the computers or laptops with fresh installation, they have default TCP/IP configuration that allow obtaining the IP address automatically. The table below will guide you how to configure the computer to obtain the IP address automatically.
| 1. Locate the ‘lan connection’ icon at the right side of the bottom corner of your screen. 2. If you cannot find the icon click Start => Select Control Panel => locate ‘Network Connection’ icon and double click it => jump to step 4 |
 Lan Connection Ico |
| 3. Right click this ‘lan connection icon’ and then select the ‘Open Network Connection’ or just click the icon. |
 Right Click Lan Icon |
| 4. Right click the ‘lan connection’ icon and then select ‘Property’ => then select Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) => click ‘Property’ |
 Lan Connection Property |
| 5. Make sure in this ‘General’ tab both radio button are selected to ‘obtain an IP address automatically’ and ‘obtain DNS server address automatically’ |
 TCP/IP Property |
What about the wireless network environment?
To build a wireless network environment, you just need to add a wireless access point from the above configuration. With an easy step-by-step installation wizard from the installation CD, you can extend the network wirelessly. You just need to connect the wireless access point LAN port to one of the LAN port of the modem-router as described in the diagram below.
Wireless Access Point - Simple Computer Network
The diagram above uses the wireless r-N outer from Netgear WNR854, and the cable modem (assume the cable Internet connection).
That’s all, then you have a wireless network environment at home with default configuration. With default configuration your wireless network is not safe from eavesdropping, you need to configure the environment using the latest wireless security encryption.
To completely protect the environment from any threats including viruses, spyware, hackers and other threats – you can trust to the internet security software such as BitDefender. BitDefender will proactively protect from viruses, spyware, hackers and other threats.
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See also:
- networking tutorial – brief discussion
- Wireless router with built-in Cable modem
- Basic knowledge about router connections
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