How to Connect Computers to a Network

Video Transcript

"Hi. I'm Jason MacGenus and we're going to talk about connecting computers to a network today. The easiest and quickest method is to connect directly with an Ethernet cable or hard line or wired connection. What you can see is we've got here; we have a Linux router and on the back we've already got our Ethernet cable plugged in; right here, if you can see. I've already plugged that in. So, we're basically going to go to our Ethernet port on our Mac. All Macs come built in with Ethernet ports, so here's the other end of the jack. This is an RJ45 connector. It's just a little bit wider. So, we're going to take that and plug that directly in. So, right now we're connected directly into the router. This is just my power cable there. What we have here a modem. This is a cable modem. Our internet connection is coming into this box and so we have an Ethernet jack going from the cable modem to the wireless router. So, this is the actual internet line that comes in. So, anything we hook into these Ethernet ports is going to give us access. That's a wired connection and that basically means you're putting a physical cable between the wireless router and your computer; another way to do it through a wireless connection. So, we're going to do that right now. We're going to go up here and we're going to click on our airport for all Macs, basically starting with the Mac Book, the Mac Book Pro, The Mac Mini and the IMacs all have built in wireless to them. So, I'm going to go into my built in wireless and turn my airport on. So, we have a full signal here. If there is multiple networks in the area you're going to be able to kind of switch between them or have your choice. Ours is the Linux, so we're going to leave that one selected. Now, we are connected to the internet. That's pretty much it. It's just a matter of deciding if you want a hard line or have a wired connection which is an Ethernet cable; you also have wireless connections. So, if those two items you can connect to the internet or network."