Many electronic devices in your home today, such as the gaming console, smart TV and media player require an Internet connection. So, having your home linked is a must rather than a luxury.

Wireless network
Most smart mobile phones these days are also equipped with Wi-Fi capability. Therefore, setting up a home wireless network allows you the freedom to use your notebook, iPad or smartphone wherever you are at home.

You do not have to worry about running network cables and ugly trunking. Deciding wired or wireless?

Furthermore, wireless routers, running the popular 802.11g/n Wi-Fi protocol are easy and affordable.

For example, a good dual-band wireless router with four Ethernet ports, such as Edimax BR-6475nD which runs the latest wireless protocol, costs below $100.

These wireless routers are easy to set up. Just plug an Ethernet cable from the modem to the wireless router and you are ready to surf the Internet wirelessly.

However, a wireless network is susceptible to interference from your neighbors’ Wi-Fi networks. You might experience signal loss if your neighbor’s Wi-Fi is too powerful.

In addition, Wi-Fi signals do weaken as they pass through walls. So the last room along a corridor in a four-room apartment may not receive any Internet signal.

Here is how to over come the limitations.

Use a wireless repeater or usb wireless adapter

To counter the weakness of a home wireless network, look for a wireless range extender, such as the D-Link DAP1360 (above). Place it near the main wireless router and it will relay the signals to give you a wider coverage.

Note that using a wireless repeater will reduce the performance of the wireless network. The repeater consumes bandwidth when it receives and retransmits the signals. The final bandwidth you get may be weak.

An another solution is to use a USB wireless adapter with an antenna to get a better signal strength from your wireless network.

In a tests, a notebook’s wireless signal strength is 100 per cent when the mobile device and wireless router are in the same room.

When the laptop is moved to an adjacent room and separated by a wall, the wireless signal strength drops to 20 per cent.

By attaching an USB adapter to the laptop, such as the Edimax EW-7711HPn, the reception becomes better with the wireless signal strength increased to 60 per cent.

Network cabling

Nothing beats the reliability and consistency of a wired connection via an Ethernet cable.

If you are renovating your house, it is the best time to plan the way you want to run the network cables. They should run from a network distribution panel such as the termination point of the cable network to all the rooms in the house. You can conceal these cables within walls, skirting or false ceilings so only the access points can be seen.

If you do not want to hack the walls, then you can run the cables on the walls, concealed by plastic trunking. However, this is unsightly.

Another downer is that you have to position the computer near to the access point and this can be troublesome if you cannot fit a desk near it.

Powerline networking
To avoid ugly trunking around the house or reduce the inconsistencies of a wireless network, use the Powerline Networking or HomePlug option.

HomePlug utilities existing home electrical wiring to connect devices to the Internet.

First, plug a HomePlug device to a power socket, then connect an Ethernet cable from a nearby router to it.

You can now plug another HomePlug device to any other power socket in the house and it will be turned into an Internet access point.

The latest Aztech HL115EP HomePlug AV 500Mbps Pass Through will do this. The Internet speed is almost as fast as a wired connection to the router.

While other HomePlug devices might deprive you of a power socket, this Aztech model allows you to plug other gadgets such as a speaker through its pass-through socket.

But this also means your device will have to be near a power socket because it is a wired network.

Western Digital released a HomePlug device with four Ethernet ports known as Western Digital Livewire Powerline Network Kit (above). While it gives you more Ethernet ports, it takes up only one power socket.

Many home users face the problem of connecting all their devices to the same network when they want to exchange files with each other and to connect to a shared broadband line.

Cisco-Linksys PLK300 PowerLine AV Ethernet Adapter Kit

Wi-Fi appears to be the obvious choice because of its convenience and fuss-free set-up. However, the problem with Wi-Fi is that it is susceptible to interference and physical obstructions.

So, what options do you have if your home network suffers from signal blind spots and slow performance?

Some users may stick to the tried and tested way of using a cable or spend additional money on Wi-Fi repeaters, signal boosters or extenders.

Powerline networking is another quick and easy option. You do not need to run any additional wires because it makes use of the wiring you already have for your home appliances.

Personally, I use all three options to link up my home. Wireless is easiest for my gaming consoles and is the most convenient for printing from anywhere in the house.

I have a single powerline set-up for a room that suffers from weak signals and is almost undetectable on the wireless network.

Finally, I use wires between my systems to ensure the fastest and most secure connection.

SOHO Networking: A Guide to Installing a Small-Office/Home-Office Network

Wireless
Advantages

• Convenient and cost-saving as no hacking or messy cables required.
• Simple to share access with guests at your home.

Disadvantages

• Poses a security risk as hackers can tap your wireless network.
• Can face interference from physical objects, especially reinforced concrete walls which have metal bars within.
• Latency (the time it takes for a packet of data to get from one point to another) is high, so it is not good for real-time applications like online gaming and video-chatting.
• The Cisco-Linksys E3000 is one of the latest dual-band powerhouses said to be able to reach the ‘blindest’ of spots.

Wired
Advantages

• Secure as there is no wireless network for hackers to tap.
• Least susceptible to interference as it uses physical wires.
• Lowest latency so great for online games and video-chatting.

Disadvantages

• Having cables snaking all over the house may look untidy.
• May get messy and expensive if you want to conceal the cables as wall-hacking is often required.

Wired connections are a great option if you are renovating your home or moving into a new one as you can plan for the wires to be concealed. The biggest task is deciding where to have the cables converge for the distribution point.

Most offerings from Internet service providers will include a gateway router modem with two or more ports. If you need more ports, a multi-port high-speed switch is needed.

Powerline
Advantages

• Requires no hacking.
• Current connection speeds are fast – up to 1Gbps.
• No additional power supply needed as it is plugged into the mains socket

Disadvantages

• Can be sensitive to signal interferences in the power cables, resulting in lower transfer speeds.
• Can be costly if you need a lot of connections.

Powerline networking is an interesting option if you view it as a hybrid offering.

Local brand Aztech is offering a wired plus wireless solution with their HomePlug HL110EW device. It offers 200Mbps throughput and includes two wired 100Mbps Ethernet ports. It also works as a Wireless-N extender.

By using powerline to reach a weak signal area, you can effectively strengthen the home network.

The HomePlug works in pairs: One is plugged into a power socket near your existing router and cabled to it, while the second adapter can be plugged anywhere else in the house.

SOHO Networking: A Guide to Installing a Small-Office/Home-Office Network

With 13 built-in programmable buttons, the G700 lets gamers have firm control over their video game characters, such as the ability to perform only a single action or a complicated series of them with just one click.

Logitech claims that the functions and wireless capability do not come at the expense of gameplay, that is, there is no lag.

A special charging cable allows the mouse to be used while it is being charged.

Checkout the cool mouse: Logitech Wireless Gaming Mouse G700

Set up a home network or create your own hot spot on the go.

It is easy to see why wireless routers have become so popular in homes and offices. These devices not only offer a convenient way to hook up all your computers at home to the Internet, but they are also great for setting up a home network for file or printer sharing.

If you are looking for a wireless – or Wi-Fi – router, look at those with the latest wireless transmission standard called Wireless-N. With speeds of up to 300Mbps, Wireless-N routers are much faster than Wireless-G (54Mbps) ones and are capable of streaming high-definition video, voice and music.

The Wireless-N technology is fast because it uses multiple radios to transmit multiple streams of data on multiple channels – a technology known as Multiple-In, Multiple-Out (Mimo). These routers are usually compatible with Wireless-G or Wireless-B equipment, so you can upgrade without fear that your old gear will not work.

Prices of Wireless-N routers have been falling. Today, a basic, single-channel Wireless-N router, which is good enough for Web surfing, can cost less than $50.

Heavy multimedia users and gamers should consider routers that run both 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands simultaneously. The 2.4Ghz band will be used for non-time critical traffic like basic Internet surfing and the 5Ghz band for heavy-duty tasks like video streaming and gaming. Be prepared to pay over $200 for such a router.

Those who want to create their own Wi-Fi hot spot while on the move can check out portable wireless routers. These routers tap on your telco’s 3G network using your SIM card. They also run on a built-in battery. Users simply connect their computers or mobile devices over Wi-Fi to access the Internet or share files.

Besides using a portable 3G-enabled router, there is another way to get connected on the go.

Your Android smartphone can be turned into a portable wireless hot spot through what is known as Wi-Fi tethering. Essentially, your phone becomes a Wi-Fi router with which you can connect other devices to the Net through its 3G link.

Wi-Fi tethering is part of the latest Android 2.2 operating system (OS). Google Nexus One users who have upgraded to this OS can activate this feature in Settings> Wireless & Network Settings>Tethering & Portable Hotspot. Turn on the portable Wi-Fi feature from there. Remember to set a password to keep Wi-Fi leechers out.

A number of Android phones from Samsung, HTC and others are expected to get the Android 2.2 upgrade later this year. In the meantime, users can turn to third-party applications like PDAnet, which enables users to hook up via USB and Bluetooth, but not over Wi-Fi.

My experience with my six-month old Nexus One has been nothing short of excellent. On a recent trip to Malaysia, I shared the Nexus One‘s connection with a friend, while connecting two laptops and an iPhone to the Net.

Everything worked well for tasks like surfing the Net and checking e-mail messages.

However, you will have to rein in your expectations if you are logging on to corporate servers via a Virtual Private Network link, or if you are watching YouTube videos, as concurrent connections can tax your phone’s mobile data link.

WI-FI ALLIANCE CERTIFICATION
Any router with an “n” in its name is capable of delivering raw data rates of 300 to 450Mb/s, right?
Wrong!
The Wi-Fi Alliance awards 802.11n interoperability certification only to routers that support two or more spatial streams (each stream is capable of a raw data-transfer rate of 150Mb/s). Single-stream client adapters can be certified as 802.11n, but the Wi-Fi Alliance awards only 802.11a, 802.11b/g, or 802.11a/b/g certification to single-stream routers. Any product that previously qualified for 802.11n Draft 2.0 certification can be automatically certified to be in compliance with the final standard. When in doubt, check which logo appears on the box.

SWITCH SPEED
Nearly every wireless router has an integrated switch for making hardwired Ethernet connections. You need to move
upscale to get a gigabit switch, though; each of the devices in this roundup has WAN and LAN ports that are limited to 100Mb/s speeds. A narrow WAN port isn’t a big deal (even screaming-fast FiOS connections top out at 50Mb/s downstream) and you probably won’t miss a gigabit switch unless you’re running a NAS box or a server.

QUALITY OF SERVICE
Quality of service (QoS) refers to the router’s ability to assign different priorities to the various types of traffic moving over the network. Wi-Fi Multimedia (WMM) is a QoS baseline because the router must have it in order to be certified by the Wi-Fi Alliance. WMM is designed to prioritize network traffic passing through the router according to four criteria (provided the appropriate bits are embedded in the packets before they’re put on the network). Voice traffic receives the highest priority, followed closely by video traffic. Packets carrying a “best effort” flag come next, followed by packets identified as “background.”

Better routers include more robust QoS features. They might let you prioritize traffic by application (so that packets related to an online game are favoured over BitTorrent downloads or web browsing activity, for instance), or by IP or MAC address or Ethernet port (so that a specific device gets higher priority than anything else on the network).

STORAGE OPTION
An increasing number of routers support USB storage devices. Some models support true NAS (network-attached storage) functionality, so that computers on the network can access the drive just like any other storage device. Others provide access to the storage only through a built-in FTP server.

PRINTER OPTION
Some routers can function as a printer server, allowing you to share a single USB printer with every PC on your network. Support for multifunction printers is elusive, however; you can typically share the printer function over the network, but not the scanning or fax features.

PARENTAL CONTROLS
We’re not big fans of this feature (we believe it affords a false sense of security because kids will figure out how to circumvent it anyway), but parental controls do at least allow you to put temporary roadblocks in front of unsavoury websites, and they make activities such as peer-to-peer file sharing more difficult to pull off .

You can convert most wireless routers into a wireless access point by turning off the DHCP server in the firmware.

Don’t toss your existing router in the trash when you bring home a bright, shiny new model; convert it into a wireless access point, switch, or bridge.

Plug a PC into one of the old router’s LAN ports. Open a web browser, type in the router’s IP address, and log in. Your
network must have only one DHCP server, so disable the server on the old router. Now, assign the old router an IP address that’s outside the new router’s DHCP server range.

Unplug the computer, place the old router where you need it, and connect it to the new router with an Ethernet cable (use the LAN ports at both ends). If stringing Ethernet cable isn’t convenient, consider using power-line networking modules. You now should be able to connect to the new access point by typing the access point’s IP address into a web browser on any computer on your network. In addition to having a new wireless access point, you can also use the old router’s remaining LAN ports as a wired switch.

If you have a device that depends on a wired Ethernet connection, but dragging Cat5 cable to it isn’t practical and you don’t want to use power-line modules, convert your old router into a wireless bridge. This will most likely require third-party replacement firmware (DD-WRT, Sveasoft, and Tomato are the most popular options). Install and confi gure the firmware and position the router where needed. You’ll be able to make wired connections this way, but clients will not be able to make wireless connections to the bridge.

Have fun !

In many households today, broadband Internet connections are used not only for e-mail and Web browsing, but also to stream music and video, play online games and/or perhaps make voice calls using a VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) service.

You may have several PCs on your home network, as well as some combination of a gaming console like the Xbox 360, an iPhone or other handheld device, and perhaps a streaming music player such as the Squeezebox or a streaming video player such as the Roku. (And with the holiday gift-giving season upon us, it’s possible you’ll collect more devices soon.) While some of these devices may have a wired connection to your router, most tap in wirelessly.

So what happens when one person wants to listen to music, another wants to watch a movie and still another wants to play an online game all at once? If you’ve never tweaked your router’s firmware, you might experience performance problems. What’s more, many wireless routers leave the factory with some of their best features disabled. I’ll show you how to change your router’s configuration so that you can take full advantage of its capabilities.

Why router settings matter
By default, a wireless router maximizes the rate at which it transfers data. This is desirable when you’re transferring files from point A to point B using a protocol like TCP because you want to move files as fast as possible. If the router begins dropping too many packets, it simply throttles its link rate down until the packet loss abates — and then it begins ramping up all over again.

Dropped packets and seesawing link rates aren’t a big deal when you’re downloading files from the Internet or moving them around your local network because the packets are automatically resent. It also doesn’t matter if some packets arrive out of order, because you’re not going to access the file until the data transfer is complete anyway.

Dropped and out-of-order packets are a big problem, however, if they occur while you’re streaming a movie, listening to music, or speaking to someone using a VoIP service like Vonage or Skype. Applications such as these require a sustainable link rate with as few dropped packets as possible; consistency is the key here, not raw speed.

Sending high-definition video from a PC in your den to a media player in your living room, for instance, typically consumes between 20 and 25 megabits per second of network bandwidth. That shouldn’t a problem for today’s 802.11n routers, which promise theoretical bandwidth of up to 300Mbit/sec.In reality, problems such as dropped packets, out-of-order packets and jitter (packets arriving at different rates of speed) can cause pixilation, stuttering, visual dropouts, soundtracks losing sync with video, and all sorts of other problems.

Concurrent traffic on your network also has an impact. You probably won’t enjoy watching a movie streamed from Netflix if your teenager is exchanging massive files using BitTorrent at the same time, for instance.

Fortunately, there is a solution that delivers optimal performance for everyone in the house. Unless your router is very old, it has firmware settings that can be configured to instruct it to assign packets associated with streaming media traffic (music, video, games and the like) a higher priority than packets associated with data-file traffic (documents, spreadsheets, digital photos and so on), based on the assumption that these data types aren’t as time sensitive.

These settings are collectively known as “quality of service” (QoS). Enabling and tweaking QoS settings is a balancing act: It can make some network-oriented applications run more smoothly, but only at the expense of other applications. It is, however, the best means of allocating your network’s bandwidth.

Unfortunately, there is no standard user interface for changing QoS settings. The Wi-Fi Multimedia (WMM) specification, which is supported by nearly every modern router, is supposed to prioritize network traffic according to four access categories: from highest to lowest priority, these are voice, video, best effort and background. In order for this to work, however, WMM must be enabled in both the router’s firmware and in the client’s Wi-Fi adapter.

In addition, each application (such as the media server in a network-attached storage box) must embed two bits in each packet to inform the router of its priority. However, few real-world applications other than VoIP services embed these bits, which renders WMM rather useless for applications other than voice. And that’s why you’ll need to tweak your router’s QoS settings on your own. Here’s how.

Step by step: Tweaking your router’s settings
It’s not at all unusual for a router manufacturer to release new firmware updates over the router’s useful life. These updates typically include rudimentary bug fixes and performance enhancements, but they sometimes include entirely new functions that didn’t exist when the router was first shipped. Either way, it’s always a good idea to make sure you have the latest version.

Before configuring your router’s QoS settings, check the support pages on the manufacturer’s Web site to see if any new firmware is available. If there is a new version, follow the instructions you’ll find there to download and install it.

I’m using D-Link’s Xtreme-N DIR-655 wireless router as an example in this story, simply because it’s a very popular model that’s still available at retail outlets three years after its initial rollout; it also continues to receive firmware updates. Much of the DIR-655′s QoS technology was developed by a third party, Ubicom, and can also be found in selected routers manufactured by Netgear, Cisco, Trendnet, and others. If you’re using another brand, the screens may look different, but the optimization options should basically be the same; you might just have to poke around to find them.

To get started, type the router’s IP address into your browser of choice and hit Enter. The DIR-655′s default IP address is 192.168.0.1, but I previously changed this router’s address to 192.168.1.1 because the original address conflicted with my DSL modem.

(If you don’t know your router’s IP address, refer to its documentation. The most common router IP addresses are 192.168.1.1 for Linksys routers, 192.168.0.1 for D-Link and Netgear routers, 192.168.2.1 for Belkin routers and 192.168.11.1 for Buffalo routers. If you’ve changed the default IP address and don’t remember what you changed it to, you might have to reset the router to its factory-default values.)

Type in your admin password to access the router’s settings. If you’ve never created an admin password, now would be a good time.

Copyright 2009 IDG Middle East

For all of their conveniences, wireless networks can suffer from interference. Cordless phones, wireless game controllers, fluorescent lights, microwave ovens, Bluetooth devices, cordless headsets, and even the neighbor’s wireless network can all interfere with your wireless network.

This interference occurs when devices emit signals into the same frequency that your network uses. For example, many cordless phones use the same 2.4GHz band used by 802.11b and 802.11g networks. Even 802.11n devices, which use the 5GHz band, aren’t immune to interference, because some cordless phones, radar, and satellites also use this band.

To help decrease interference, don’t place your wireless router near the aforementioned devices, and if you suspect you’re receiving interference from a network outside of your home, try moving your router to a more central point inside your home. You can also try changing the Wi-Fi channel on your wireless devices, which can help to avoid interference from in-home devices. Finally, angling the antennas on your routers or wireless adapters can help to ensure better reception.

If you’re in the market for a new cordless phone, buy a phone that uses a frequency different from your network’s frequency. Better yet, consider buying a phone that uses DECT 6.0, a new protocol that’s designed to avoid interference with other wireless networks. As an added bonus, DECT 6.0 features improved voice quality, range, and security over other cordless phone technologies.

More on How To Resolve Weak Wireless Connection.

Before installing a wireless network, you’ll need to determine if any of your computers or mobile devices already have wireless technology and, if they do, which wireless standards they support.

If none of your computers have wireless capabilities, you’ll still need to know which wireless standards are compatible with each other so you don’t buy incompatible products

Refer to the chart above when purchasing wireless devices