With this set useful, user-friendly computer networking guides You too can create a home network using several different types of Technologies. Such as:
HPNA Networking - Uses existing telephone jacks and cables
Wireless Networking - Uses Wireless router and wireless adapter
Ethernet Networking - Uses CAT5 cabling and ethernet card
Go ahead and read over each of these guides to get a feel for the different techniques and options that are available to use to connect all your home PCs. These technologies can usually be used together on the same network so be sure to understand the differences and their strengths and weaknesses.
- For more resources to How to Set-up a Network click here
More Computer networking Guides online
Here are some more useful How To's for such things as:
Click here if you are interested in using your Xbox with your computer network How to Connect your Xbox
If you want to use Xbox Live to play online games against other online players or download new features for your games (if there are any available)
Click here if you are needing assistance setting up File and Printer Sharing between your Microsoft Windows computers File and Printer Sharing
Sharing Files/Folders or Printers "across" your home network so those resources are available to other computers is a function of Microsoft Windows and requires no special software
Click here for assistance on downloading and installing a software firewall to protect access to and from your computer's connection to the internet: Guide to software firewalls
Now let's take a look at your computers-
Each computer on the network needs to have some type of network card installed, and if your computer is fairly new there's a good chance it already has an ethernet card or a dial-up modem installed. You can be sure by either simply looking at the back of your pc for a port that looks like a phone jack- if it is the same size as a telephone cable ending then it is either a dial-up modem or an HPNA card.
Test this by trying to insert your telephone cable into it. - if it's too small for the port then it is an ethernet card that is installed.
The other way to tell what type of hardware is installed on your pc is to check in your Device
Manager Click here for instructions
All right so now we're ready to plug some things in-
If you have a DSL internet connection then it may be necessary for you to also use a Filter or Splitter to separate the different signals traveling through the phone wiring.
If this is true and your ISP has provided your hardware, I would strongly recommend contacting them for more specific directions on how to correctly use the filter Basically, it is the filters job to keep the two signal ( telephone and internet ) from interfering with one another.
Connect one end of your telephone cable to the HPNA adapter you've purchased and the other end to the filter or directly into the phone jack.
Now assuming you have the HPNA adapter installed correctly and the computer has gotten the drivers installed properly then now the pc should be able to detect the HPNA signal being transmitted out by the router.
And then verify that each of your computers is able to " Pull an IP Address" from the router and that they all start with the same numbers. The router should give each pc its own unique address and they will all start with the same numbers.
All IP addresses will be in the form of 4 octets - format - xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx Some examples of an IP address are: 192.168.x.x or 172.16.x.x or 10.x.x.x
The X's are numbers that can change from one network to another so not to worry as long as the beginnings are the same.
Think of the IP address as a street address - All your PC's need to live on the same street in the same town.
There will also be a Subnet Mask- don't worry about this number too much either your router will do this stuff for you.
Click here for Instructions on checking an IP address
To be sure all your computers are set-up to automatically get an IP address from your router
Click here for help on setting up and configuring DHCP
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