Home Wireless Internet Tips
Laptop computers become more affordable with each passing year, and many computer buyers elect to purchase laptops rather than desktop computers. If you have purchased a laptop computer to use at home, you would not want to hamper the portability of the computer by tethering it to a wired Internet connection. If you are installing a wireless network in your home, keep a few helpful tips in mind to maximize the reliability and safety of the network.
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Router Placement
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Most wireless routers have omnidirectional antennas, which means that they broadcast in all directions simultaneously. To help avoid "dead spots" in your home where you are unable to use the Wi-Fi connection, place the router in a central location to make sure that each room in the house receives equal signal coverage. If you have a very large home, you may need to purchase a signal repeater or upgraded antenna to reach every room.
Router Security
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Every wireless router has the ability to encrypt its broadcasts. When you enable this feature, every computer that connects to the router uses a alphanumeric key to encrypt packets of data before sending them to the router, and to decrypt data received. Enable the encryption feature of your router as soon as you set it up, and examine the instruction manual to learn about any other security features that the router offers. If you do not encrypt your data, anyone close enough to the router to receive signal from it could use your Internet connection without authorization and could possibly intercept and read your transmissions to and from the router.
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Keep an Ethernet Cable
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If you own an Ethernet cable, do not throw it away after configuring your wireless network. If you enable the encryption feature of your router and lose the encryption key -- for example, because you reinstall Windows -- you will lose access to the router unless you perform a full hardware reset, which erases the router's configuration. Routers do not encrypt wired connections; if you lose your encryption key, you can retrieve it by connecting the computer to the router with an Ethernet cable.
Router Speed
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Companies classify their routers according to the wireless transmission standard supported. The 802.11b, g and n standards -- listed in order of maximum possible speed -- are the most common. Routers are backward-compatible, which means that an 802.11n router also supports 802.11b and g. Purchase the fastest router that you can afford, even if you do not own a computer that supports the same transmission standard. This way, if you purchase a computer with a faster wireless adapter in the future, you will not need to purchase a new router to take advantage of the increased speed.
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References
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