Planning a Wireless Network
Time to up your family’s technology level. You want to setup a wireless network in your home, but you’re no computer whiz. How do you do it? Well, with proper planning and the assistance of your local network experts (i.e Geek Easy Computers), it’s not as difficult as you may think. In this article we walk you through the major steps of planning and deploying a wireless network for your home or small office.
Step One…
First step is to figure out how many devices (and what types) you are going to want to connect to your network. This will determine what level of wireless router you invest in. For example, say you wanted to connect your laptop, your wife’s iPad, your smartphone, and both of the kids’ tablets. Oh, and the family computer. That’s 6 devices. The would mean you would need a router capable of handling at least that many. This is one of those times when overkill is a good thing. You know you need to cover 6 devices regularly, but what about when family comes to visit, or the kids have company? It’s always good to plan for more capacity than you actually need.
Step Two…
Assess the area you want to be able to cover with wireless signal. In other words, how many walls and/or floors are going to be between your devices and the router? You want to place the router in the most central location, as each wall or floor the signal has to travel through will weaken it. A good way to do this is to sketch your floor plan. That way you can visualize where the walls are. You want to place the router in an area that’s central to where the majority of the useage will be, but out of the way so that it will be undisturbed. Proximity to your incoming internet connection also plays into your desired location.
Step Three
Determine what other useful features you might want bundled into your wireless router. Things like dual band (allows 2.4ghz and 5ghz network connectivity), gigabit ethernet ports (allows for faster wired connection on your internal network), USB ports for printer or external hard drive sharing, and take those options into account when shopping for a new wireless router. If you have a particularly large house or want to extend coverage to a walled garage or outside, you might consider adding additional access points (wireless only connectivity devices). Keep in mind that the more thought you put into this decision now, the more likely the chosen device(s) will last you, and continue to be compatible with new generation hardware.
Wrapping it up…
The final step is putting it all together. Hopefully by this point you’ve had some guidance from your local networking experts, such as Geek Easy Computers. This is where we step in. We can set up your network to your specification, test it, make any adjustments or modifications, and voila! Your home or office is wireless! We can even setup a limited guest account so when you have visitors, they can access the internet without providing access to your private network.
As you can see, proper planning & guidance from experts can make a sometimes complicated process, less so. That’s our goal, to make your technology easy! Give us a call and let’s start planning your wireless network!