Home Networking - Experiences

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Jerry Kozel - Parent

My home networking experience was in two phases. The first was with a phone line network to connect two machines to share files, a printer and an Internet connection - the results were mixed at best.  The second phase was getting high speed Internet access through cable and then using a Linksys Router / Wireless Access Point - the results were much better.  Details of my experience with each of these configurations are below.

My needs for a home network are pretty typical.  I have a desktop computer and printer in the Bonus room and two laptops.  One laptop is used by my daughter and the other one I carry back and forth between work and home.  There is also a second printer that can be attached to the laptop used for work.

A So - So Experience

I wanted to share files, share printers and share a dial-up Internet connection.  Since there was no easy way to run wires between the computers, I tried using a phone line network.  My results were mixed. Although I got everything setup and configured, there were a number of problems.  First was that sharing the Internet connection wasn't very practical because the desktop computer in the Bonus room that actually did the dialing out had to be turned on and not in some funny state that the last user may have left it in.  So it was frustrating to have to run upstairs to the Bonus room, see what was the problem and correct it.  The phone line adapters and software also didn't work well with Windows 98.  There were problems that the machines would just hang when shutting down.  So, although I was able to get the network to work, it wasn't very useful and seemed very fragile.  I was also the only one in the household that could make it work.

A Much Better Experience

The second phase started with acquiring high speed Internet access from our cable company. I chose cable because at that time it that was the only high speed Internet access available in our neighborhood.  Initially the cable modem was connect directly to the desktop computer in the Bonus room.  High speed Internet access is really addicting.  The next step was to redo the home network.  I decided to give up on the phone line network and try wireless.  I bought a Linksys 4 port Router / Wireless Access Point.  The cable modem now plugs into the router / wireless access point and the desktop computer is connected by an Ethernet cable to one of the router's four ports.  The two laptops were outfitted with wireless access cards that plug into their PCMCIA slots.  After some tinkering, I was able to get all of the drivers installed and everything set up.  The results are definitively a lot better.  The network is very stable and reliable.  The cable modem and router / wireless access point do not need to be touched for months at a time.  Occasionally there will be a problem with the cable provider and the fix is usually just turning the cable modem off and then back on.  The computers are now more independent so the desktop computer no longer needs to be on for the rest of the network to work.  So all this means is that the network just works with very little need to fuss with it. 

Even though I am now satisfied with this set up, there are a few problems that had to be overcome.  First is the wireless signal strength.  The wireless access point is in the far end of the Bonus room on the second floor.  The signal is usable in about half of the house on the first floor.  So I have learned where the locations are with weak signals and avoid those locations.  Other people that I work with have experienced the same thing and have either moved the wireless access point into a more central location in their houses or added a signal booster.  The second problem was that after I upgraded one of the laptops to Windows XP, its network connection would get hung up if a large file was being transferred.  It took awhile to figure out that the software in the router / wireless access point needed to be updated.  So this is a good tip - sometime problems can be solved by upgrading software for the various components on the network. 

I also had to do a couple of things for security.  In order to access my e-mail at work using the home network, I had to change one of the settings in the router / wireless access point to turn on something called "IPSec".  Fortunately the instructions I got from work told me what needed to be done.  Once I changed that setting, everything worked flawlessly.  One other security change that I made to the network was to turn on WEP security.  This required setting up a password on the router / access point and each of the laptops. By turning on WEP, other wireless machines that do not have the correct password can not wirelessly access my home network. 

So as you can tell, the cable high speed Internet access combined with wireless has worked very well and I am pleased with it.  I have had the network running for about one and one half years and have been pleased.  I also don't see the need to change the network in the near future because there is still capacity to add additional machines to the network by either wiring them directly into the router or wirelessly connecting into the network.

Questions or comments?  Send mail to: Jerry Kozel@caryacademy.org