Set up a wireless home network

Some 50 percent of U.S. households have broadband today. Once you have fast, easy access, the logical question is how to share it. Wi-Fi came of age at just the right time, offering a solution that is easy to install, convenient, and inexpensive, and it provides the bandwidth to handle Web browsing, e-mail, instant messaging, and streaming audio and video for the entire family.

Exactly what you need will depend on how many systems you want to connect and where they are located. You may prefer to buy a kit that includes all of the basic networking gear, but you can also buy the components separately and connect them. A basic wireless home network requires a broadband router, which connects your cable or DSL service to your network, a wireless access point (often integrated in the router), and a wireless adapter for each PC that you plan to connect to the network. Most notebooks now include Wi-Fi adapters.

The ABG's of wireless

One of the toughest parts of setting up a home network is choosing the flavor. The standard you choose influences everything, including the speed, the features, the reach, and the cost of your network. Even the slowest wireless gear is several times faster than cable or DSL. But if you want to be able to transfer large files over the network while streaming audio from a computer to your stereo, or if you like to play bandwidth-intensive, multiplayer games, set your sights on a high-bandwidth solution such as Ethernet, 802.11a, or dual band. Making sense out of the alphabet soup of wireless technologies can be daunting, but here's a quick rundown.

Standard	Actual speed	Range	The good, the bad
802.11b	5Mbps	150 feet	Cheap; provides more bandwidth than even the fastest cable connection; and maintains solid connections up to about 150 feet. But has lower throughput than newer wireless standards and is subject to interference from cordless phones, baby monitors, and microwaves.
802.11a	22Mbps	100 feet	Runs at a less-populated frequency (5.15GHz to 5.35GHz), making it less prone to interference, and its practical throughput is about four times greater than that of 802.11b. But it has a shorter range, does not work with the more common 802.11b or 802.11g equipment, and drains batteries faster.
802.11g	20Mbps	150 feet	Great throughput and backward compatibility with 802.11b. But like 802.11b, it is prone to interference from cordless phones, baby monitors, and microwaves.
Dual band	22Mbps	150 feet	The best of all worlds, 802.11a/b/g gear operates at both 2.4GHz and 5GHz and gives you the advantages of all three standards. The only drawback is that dual-band gear can cost more than twice as much as its single-band counterparts.

There are several alternatives to Wi-Fi (aside from good old wired Ethernet), such as Bluetooth and HomePlug. On their own, these have not really caught on, but they are finding a new market as ways to extend a wireless network to handle other applications or to connect a room that is out of range.

Beyond the basics

Once you've assembled the basics--a router, an access point, and an adapter--you may find that you need additional pieces to complete the puzzle. Antennas or repeaters can boost the range of a wireless network to cover a very large home or even outdoor areas. Bridges connect multiple wireless or wired networks; a power-line bridge is an especially practical way to connect a basement or other hard-to-reach room with your wireless network. A bridge is also useful if you need to connect a digital video recorder (DVR), a game console, or other consumer electronics device that uses only wired Ethernet connection.

No matter how you design your network, make sure that it is secure. The first step to securing your network is to use the standard features that are built into your gear. If you are buying a broadband router, look for one with a NAT firewall and MAC-address filtering. NAT firewalls conceal your network behind the router, and MAC-address filtering allows you to grant or deny access to your network to specific machines. Wireless-networking devices typically include WEP or WPA encryption. Both forms of encryption help protect your network, but WPA is much more secure than WEP. To implement WEP or WPA, you'll need to enter an encryption key on all of the wireless devices on your network. Finally, you should always install and use an antivirus program and a software firewall.