How To Set Up a Wireless Network

Wifi, one of the greatest inventions of the modern age. No longer are we shackled to wall outlets by chains of cables. Yes, my friends wifi allows to us surf the world wide web from most any location within and close without our domiciles. Setting it up, however, can be a little tricky.

First, the easy part.

Supplies:
1 wireless router - linksys, belkin or the one provided by your ISP (Internet Service Provider).
2 Ethernet Cables - ethernet cables are the wires that look like really fat phone cords. At least one was provided by your ISP. It is connected from your modem to the computer already.

Step 1
Unplug the power cord from your modem, the box your ISP provided you with that connects to the wall. If you get your internet from the phone company, it is the box that connects to the phone outlet. If you get internet from the cable company, it is the box attached to the cable outlet. Once you have identified the modem and disconnected the power proceed to Step 2.

Step 2
Unplug the ethernet cable (fat phone cord) from the modem and put it into the jack on the wireless router labeled "1". This ethernet cable should now be going from the wireless router to the computer. Note* If don't have a desktop computer and you will be using a laptop only or if you're desktop is going to be wireless as well, skip this step.

Step 3
Grab your other ethernet cable and plug one end into the modem (internet box from phone or cable company). Plug the other into the wireless router jack labeled "WAN" (wide area network).

Step 4
Attach the power cord to both your modem and your wireless routers to turn on. Wait 30 seconds to 1 minute.

Step 5
You should be in business. Your laptop should detect the new wireless network. Happy surfing!

Caution: At this point your wireless network is unsecured, meaning anybody in close enough range can surf the internet using your connection. This is especially bad in apartment buildings. To remedy this, go through a couple of extra advanced steps.

Advanced
In order to secure your network you have to access the router. To do this, open your internet browser (internet explorer for instance) and type the following address, 192.168.1.1. This is the standard address given by a network to a router and you should see a settings menu for your router. If that doesn't work type this address instead, 192.168.2.1.  If for some reason this doesn't work either, grab a paper clip. Somewhere on the wireless router there is a pin-hole. You can reset the router back to factory defaults by inserting a paper clip. Once that is done, try one of the addresses again.

Once you have gained access to your router, you need to adjust the wireless security settings from the available menus. These differ from brand to brand, but you should be able to find something called "wireless security". You have two options, WEP security and MAC addressing. WEP security means that in order to access the internet each laptop or wireless device will need to provide a password. Your router should tell you how long that password has to be. MAC addressing has nothing to do with Mac computers. It simply means the physical address of the computer you are using.

By using this method of security, only the computers whose physical address you have allowed will be able to use your internet. The drawback is that while securing your connection the data traveling through the air is not encrypted. If you live next to hackers, this isn't good. They could still steal your signal as it travels and see the information you just sent. In order to get the MAC address for a computer you must go to: Accessories and then "command prompt" in Windows. Once the little black box appears type "ipconfig/all" and hit enter.

A whole list of information comes up. You should see something like this.

Wireless LAN adapter Wireless Network Connection:

   Media State . . . . . . . . . . . : Media disconnected
   Connection-specific DNS Suffix  . :
   Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Realtek RTL8191SE Wireless LAN 802.11n PCI-E NIC
   Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-26-B6-97-CF-DA
   DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : Yes
   Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes

Find the physical address and type it into your MAC list making sure to replace the hyphens with colons. Save your settings and you are done.

I know this can be a little tricky. Good luck everybody.