Setting up a computer network at home is a great way of sharing data and resources like printer, CD-ROM, internet and hardware disk with the other users. Additionally, you can also play LAN games, listen to the music, media, sharing, watching movies and sharing other network resources. There are variety of ways with which you can configure your home network i.e. wired and wirelessly and by using the various combinations of the hardware and software.
Setup/Configurations
Setting up a home network requires some technical knowledge and skills. The required components and software include the following.
- Two or more computers with LAN cards
- A hub/switch
- DSL/Broadband Router
- Network Cables
- Windows 2000 Professional and Windows 2000/2003 Server.
Make sure that all your hardware devices all of same manufacturer. After you purchase the required hardware components and software you can connect your computers by the following methods.
- Install Windows 2000 Professional or Windows XP on the computers.
- By using the UTP/STP cable, make straight cable for each computer.
- Attach one end of the cable with the computer and one with the hub/switch.
- Configure LAN card of each computer and provide the IP address, subnet mask and default gateway address.
- Make sure that the green lights (LED) of the LAN cards are blinking.
- Provide unique name and same workgroup name to every computer.
- Now setup your DSL modem to share the internet with all computers.
- After you complete all the configurations you can check the connectivity between the two computers by pinging each other.
- Install an up-to-dated antivirus and anti spyware program to all the computers in your network to protect it from the internal and external threats like viruses, spyware, adware, malware, Trojan horses, hackers, intruders and unauthorized users.
- Install and Configure firewall to the gateway computer.
Troubleshooting Tips
If your home network is not working and you are not able to connect with the other computers then you can resolve the problem with the following tips/techniques.
- Ping the other computer and for this go to Start > Run and type CMD.
- On the command prompt type ping 10.10.10.100 (10.10.10.100 is the IP address of the destination computer). If you are not getting the reply from the other computer then you need to check the cables at both ends, check the TCP/IP settings of your LAN card and make sure that the firewall is not blocking the PING requests.
- If your problem is still not resolved then try to change the network cable and LAN card and reconfigure the LAN card.