Wireless Router (WR)

How to install a wireless routerYour broadband connection isn’t limited to serving just one PC.

A wireless router makes it easy to connect all the computers in your home – and more.Wireless sharing is an easy way to make the most of your broadband connection, and although it also raises security issues, a well-configured wireless network can actually make your PCs safer, thanks to the router’s built-in firewall. Not only can all your computers access the Internet at once, but setting up a wireless router also helps you to take advantage of the wireless capabilities now built into other devices such as printers, cameras, PDAs and Internet telephone handsets.Using a wireless router isn’t the only way to share an Internet connection, but it’s definitely the most convenient. Using a wired router, you’d have to trail chunky Ethernet cables all over your house. With similar wiring, you could do without a router and use Windows Internet Connection Sharing to turn one of your PCs into an Internet gateway. But with this setup, the other computers will only have constant Internet access if you keep the gateway machine switched on, which could be an expensive waste of electricity.Installing a WiFi router solves all these problems, and it’s easy to do. We’ll show you how to set up your router and connect all your PCs to it so that the whole family can surf the Internet in harmony.CHOOSING A WIRELESS ROUTERA wireless router creates a network that all your PCs can use to access a single broadband connection. This may sound as if it’s going to be complicated, but it’s really very straightforward. The router acts as a junction box that joins your network together. The router connects to your broadband line through a modem (which may be built into the router, or could be your existing cable modem, for example), and each of your PCs connects to the router either wirelessly or, if it happens to be in the same place as the router, through one of its wired ports.For wired connection, the PC must have an Ethernet adaptor, which most recent systems do, often built into the motherboard. To connect wirelessly, a PC must have a wireless network adaptor. Most laptops now have one built in, and they’re easy to add to desktop PCs too.The kind of router you should buy depends on your broadband connection and your existing hardware. If you have a cable modem with an Ethernet port, you can use this with your new router. If you have any kind of ADSL modem – that means any broadband connection via a phone line, rather than a cable installation such as NTL or Telewest – then we recommend that you bin it and buy a router with an ADSL modem built in, as it’s a lot easier to set up and costs hardly any more.Next, you need to consider which wireless standard you want your router (and all your wireless adaptors) to support. It’s important that all your devices conform to a common standard, of which there are several. The faster the standard your kit supports, the better the speed you’ll get. This is most significant when you use your wireless network to transfer data between your own PCs, because this can potentially reach much higher speeds than Internet access.The 802.11b and 802.11g WiFi standards use frequencies in the 2.4GHz band. The older ‘b’ standard runs at 11 megabits per second (Mbit/s), while the newer ‘g’ standard runs at 54Mbit/s. As they both use the same frequencies, ‘b’ and ‘g’ devices can communicate with each other, but only at the slower speed of the ‘b’ devices. If possible, you should use only ‘g’ devices in your network.The next standard to use the 2.4GHz band will be called 802.11n and will run at 100Mbit/s. Unfortunately, some problems have emerged with the technology behind this, and a final version won’t be officially agreed until July 2007 at the earliest. Although some products already claim to use the ‘n’ standard – sometimes described as ‘pre n’ – it could still change, meaning that any device you buy today might have trouble communicating with later 802.11n products.There is one other wireless network standard, 802.11a, which runs at 54Mbit/s, like 802.11g. Instead of the 2.4GHz frequency band, it uses frequencies clustered around 5GHz. Because of this, ‘a’ products can’t communicate with other types of wireless networking devices and are best avoided. We recommend that you buy an 802.11g router. 802.11b routers aren’t much cheaper and are increasingly hard to find. If your PC has a ‘b’ adaptor built in, it’ll work with your ‘g’ router, but you might consider upgrading it to get the fastest speeds possible.To find out which standards an existing wireless adaptor supports, go to System Properties. In the Hardware tab, open Device Manager and expand the Network adaptors section. If your WiFi card has just a letter ‘b’ at the end of its name, it conforms to the 802.11b standard; if it has ‘bg’, it’s a ‘g’ adaptor.The best routers offer greater speed and range than budget models. Any router will usually mange to connect to devices within a small to medium-sized house, but if you want to browse the web at the bottom of the garden, consider a pricier router that uses MIMO technology. Rather than a single aerial, a MIMO router can have anything between two and seven. At any given moment, atmospheric conditions, interference and other factors mean that some of these aerials receive a better signal than others. MIMO continually shifts the load to whichever aerials work best at the time. In our experience, MIMO routers have a much greater range.For an extra burst of speed, look for a router with a ‘turbo’ mode. These typically run at up to 108Mbit/ s. The catch is that, because they’re non-standard versions of 802.11g that manufacturers have enhanced in different ways, you must buy your network adaptors and router from the same manufacturer.NETWORK SECURITYIf you leave a wireless network unsecured, anyone within range who has a WiFi-equipped PC will be able to use your broadband line, and if they were so inclined they might even be able to gain access to your files. Although it may seem unlikely that you’ll be targeted by a local hacker, ‘bandwidth stealing’ is very common and can even happen without your neighbours realising they’re using your connection. One of our writers checked his router and found no less than nine users on it.The most common WiFi encryption standard is Wireless Protected Access (WPA). Most routers support this; it’s easy to set up and very secure. However, only Windows XP Service Pack 2 supports WPA natively. If any of your PCs lacks SP2 or has an older version of Windows, make sure the software with its WiFi adaptor allows WPA. A new standard, WPA2, is even more secure, but isn’t so widely supported yet.Your router should let you hide the name of your network (its SSID) so that you can connect to it but snoopers won’t see it. You should also be able to limit network access to specified WiFi adaptors using a feature called MAC address filtering or authentication. A MAC address is a unique ID given to each network device when it’s made. If only your own PCs, specified by the MAC addresses of their WiFi adaptors, are allowed on your network, it’s harder for intruders to get in. If you have cable broadband, your router may also need to support MAC address spoofing.Cable providers often allow access only to the MAC address of the PC you signed up with. With spoofing, your router can show that MAC address, not its own, to the cable provider’s server. Finally, your router should act as a DHCP server. This means it can hand out network settings, such as IP addresses, automatically to any PC or other device you add. Just about all routers can do this, but it’s worth checking.CHOOSING NETWORK ADAPTORSEach computer you want to link wirelessly to the router needs a WiFi adaptor. If you bought your PC recently it may have one built in, but if not, several types are available. For a desktop system, you can use either a WiFi card that plugs into a free PCI slot or an external WiFi adaptor that plugs into a USB or Ethernet port.Adaptors that connect to a separate aerial with a cable are useful if your PC sits with its back to the wall, because you can place the aerial where it’s likely to get a good signal, instead of having it stuck behind your PC. USB is a good choice if you often move from PC to PC and need to take your wireless connection with you. 802.11g models will need a USB 2.0 (HiSpeed) port to transfer data at full speed. Notebook PCs may have a built-in WiFi chip; if yours hasn’t, you can buy a WiFi adaptor for the PC Card slot.MODEM CONNECTIONCheck your broadband modem’s connections to find out if you can use it with a router. Regardless of whether it’s for ADSL or cable, it’ll have either a USB or an Ethernet socket to link to your PC. Ethernet, above left, looks similar to a telephone socket (but isn’t), while USB, on the right, is marked with a distinctive symbol.WINDOWSCheck each PC’s version of Windows before buying a WiFi card for it. For 98 SE or Me, you’ll need your Windows install CD, and you’ll be relying on your adaptor’s software for security features. Windows XP already supports WiFi; with Service Pack 1 you can use WEP security, while SP2 supports the more secure WPA. An update for WPA2/WPSIE can be downloaded from www.microsoft.com.PORTS AND SOCKETSTo connect wirelessly, a PC needs a WiFi adaptor. PCI adaptors fit into a spare slot in a desktop PC; USB adaptors plug into USB ports on any kind of PC (preferably USB 2.0); and CardBus cards plug into a laptop’s PC Card slot. Access points that plug into an Ethernet port are pricey, but may help connect older computers. For wired connections, you can add Ethernet on a PCI card if necessary.Check out our latest wireless networking deals