Friday
Sep302005
Wireless Home Networks
Friday, September 30, 2005 at 01:49PM September 11, 2005
Playing All the Angles in a Wireless Home Network
By KATE MURPHY
JOSEPH M. GRANT, a lawyer in the Houston suburb of Clear Lake, had little trouble setting up a wireless computer network in his house, which has high ceilings and an open floor plan. "It took less than a day," he said.
Susan Chun, the general manager for information planning at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, spent several days trying to do the same thing in her less airy, more angular Manhattan brownstone before she hired a computer consultant to do it for her. "I kept thinking I could make it work," she said. "I was being stubborn."
Depending on a home's location and layout, not to mention the size and complexity of the network, going wireless can be easy or aggravating. But even if you have no problem getting the network up and running, you may not get the clearest reception over the widest possible area. And computer experts say security probably won't be adequate.
Creating a reliable, fast, private wireless network is a matter of choosing the right equipment, placing it efficiently and tweaking the settings to suit the situation.
Why would anyone want a wireless network? For one thing, it's cheaper and less cumbersome than snaking wire throughout the house - and it grants freedom of movement.
"I can work at my laptop anywhere - on my back porch, in the kitchen, in bed," Mr. Grant said. His network also links the seven computers in his 4,600-square-foot house so that he, his wife and three children can swap documents and share one Internet connection. "I can also transmit music to speakers throughout the house, including my woodworking studio in the garage," he said.
Such connectivity and convenience require that all your computers have wireless adapters, which are essentially radio wave transceivers. Most new computers have them built in. If you have an older model, you can pay about $100 for what is known as a N.I.C., for network interface card - also called a P.I.C., for peripheral interconnect card. It fits into a slot on the side of a laptop or snaps into place inside a PC. There are also options that plug into U.S.B. ports.
Another necessity is a central base station, the device that will transmit the Internet feed throughout the house. The options are an access point and a router. Access points, which cost $50 to $100, simply broadcast the signal as it comes in through a cable or digital subscriber line, while routers, at $50 to $200, can manipulate and distribute the signal so that multiple operators can use the same Internet connection simultaneously. Routers also let in only the traffic that users ask for and thus act as firewalls against hackers and worms.
All the components, of course, must operate according to the same standard.
"There are several flavors of wireless equipment," said Steve Blass, a computer manager at Arizona State University in Tempe, who writes the weekly "Ask Dr. Internet" column for Network World, an information technology trade publication. The flavors are 802.11a, 802.11.b, or 802.11g, and there is no mixing to taste because they are not compatible. There are hybrid components, however, that will work with both b and g.
Choosing the standard that is right for you depends on your circumstances. The 802.11b devices are the least expensive and have the widest signal range, but the transmission is the slowest and the standard supports the fewest simultaneous users. The 802.11g standard supports faster transmission and allows more users, but it is prone to interference from other radio waves that may buzz through the airspace. The 802.11a products cost twice as much as the others because they are the least likely to experience such interference, but the signal is also the most easily obstructed by heavy furniture and walls.
Regardless of the standard you choose, you will get the widest broadcast area if the base station is placed centrally on an upper floor, or atop furniture, because radio waves spread best laterally and down. Reception will also be better if the signal does not have to travel at steep angles and if it doesn't have to go through thick walls, mirrors, fish tanks or anything metal.
One reason Ms. Chun had so much trouble in her 1909 brownstone was that many of the walls were made of metal and concrete. "I needed to be more strategic in terms of placement of the equipment," she said. Her consultant moved her router from the floor to a higher location where it didn't have to transmit through as many walls.
To improve the signal range of the base station, you can use access points as boosters throughout the house. For example, you can hook one up in a hallway on the first floor, directly below the router upstairs. The access point would then rebroadcast the router's signal with renewed strength to rooms at opposite ends of the corridor. Ms. Chun has an access point in the back portion of her house to increase the signal coming from her router, which is in the front.
Experts recommend placing wireless network components far from other devices in the house that can cause interference, like cordless phones, microwave ovens, baby monitors or halogen lamps. Of course, people living in crowded urban areas face a greater risk of outside interference from neighbors' wireless networks and devices.
To reduce such disruptions, you can go into the base station's configuration interface - usually by typing a specified address into the Internet browser - and change the signal channel. The user's manual will tell you how to do it.
"Most are set to Channel 6 by default," said Joe Bardwell, president of Connect802 Inc., a wireless network design and equipment company in San Ramon, Calif. So he suggested trying Channels 1 or 11, which are the least likely to overlap with other signals.
ANOTHER base station configuration that needs attention is the security setting. "Most people do not realize that they have no security unless they turn it on," said Charles Stanton, president of Manhattan Home Networks, which helps people in New York and New Jersey set up wireless home networks. It can be a tedious process, because you have to enter a code of up to 26 digits in the base station, as well as in all the computers in the network. (Again, consult the user's manual.)
But if you don't enable the security feature - called W.P.A., for Wi-Fi protected access, in newer wireless products, or W.E.P., for wired equivalent privacy, in older ones - anyone within range can tap into your Internet connection and use it, slowing or interrupting your signal. Worse, by using free, easily downloadable software, hackers can read any e-mail message you send or receive and possibly even gain access to your files.
"Someone out in their car on the street can infiltrate your network," Mr. Bardwell said. "Going wireless is great, but you need to know what you're doing."
Otherwise, the data you transmit are like feathers floating in the air - unlikely to land where you want them to and easy for other people to grab.
Playing All the Angles in a Wireless Home Network
By KATE MURPHY
JOSEPH M. GRANT, a lawyer in the Houston suburb of Clear Lake, had little trouble setting up a wireless computer network in his house, which has high ceilings and an open floor plan. "It took less than a day," he said.
Susan Chun, the general manager for information planning at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, spent several days trying to do the same thing in her less airy, more angular Manhattan brownstone before she hired a computer consultant to do it for her. "I kept thinking I could make it work," she said. "I was being stubborn."
Depending on a home's location and layout, not to mention the size and complexity of the network, going wireless can be easy or aggravating. But even if you have no problem getting the network up and running, you may not get the clearest reception over the widest possible area. And computer experts say security probably won't be adequate.
Creating a reliable, fast, private wireless network is a matter of choosing the right equipment, placing it efficiently and tweaking the settings to suit the situation.
Why would anyone want a wireless network? For one thing, it's cheaper and less cumbersome than snaking wire throughout the house - and it grants freedom of movement.
"I can work at my laptop anywhere - on my back porch, in the kitchen, in bed," Mr. Grant said. His network also links the seven computers in his 4,600-square-foot house so that he, his wife and three children can swap documents and share one Internet connection. "I can also transmit music to speakers throughout the house, including my woodworking studio in the garage," he said.
Such connectivity and convenience require that all your computers have wireless adapters, which are essentially radio wave transceivers. Most new computers have them built in. If you have an older model, you can pay about $100 for what is known as a N.I.C., for network interface card - also called a P.I.C., for peripheral interconnect card. It fits into a slot on the side of a laptop or snaps into place inside a PC. There are also options that plug into U.S.B. ports.
Another necessity is a central base station, the device that will transmit the Internet feed throughout the house. The options are an access point and a router. Access points, which cost $50 to $100, simply broadcast the signal as it comes in through a cable or digital subscriber line, while routers, at $50 to $200, can manipulate and distribute the signal so that multiple operators can use the same Internet connection simultaneously. Routers also let in only the traffic that users ask for and thus act as firewalls against hackers and worms.
All the components, of course, must operate according to the same standard.
"There are several flavors of wireless equipment," said Steve Blass, a computer manager at Arizona State University in Tempe, who writes the weekly "Ask Dr. Internet" column for Network World, an information technology trade publication. The flavors are 802.11a, 802.11.b, or 802.11g, and there is no mixing to taste because they are not compatible. There are hybrid components, however, that will work with both b and g.
Choosing the standard that is right for you depends on your circumstances. The 802.11b devices are the least expensive and have the widest signal range, but the transmission is the slowest and the standard supports the fewest simultaneous users. The 802.11g standard supports faster transmission and allows more users, but it is prone to interference from other radio waves that may buzz through the airspace. The 802.11a products cost twice as much as the others because they are the least likely to experience such interference, but the signal is also the most easily obstructed by heavy furniture and walls.
Regardless of the standard you choose, you will get the widest broadcast area if the base station is placed centrally on an upper floor, or atop furniture, because radio waves spread best laterally and down. Reception will also be better if the signal does not have to travel at steep angles and if it doesn't have to go through thick walls, mirrors, fish tanks or anything metal.
One reason Ms. Chun had so much trouble in her 1909 brownstone was that many of the walls were made of metal and concrete. "I needed to be more strategic in terms of placement of the equipment," she said. Her consultant moved her router from the floor to a higher location where it didn't have to transmit through as many walls.
To improve the signal range of the base station, you can use access points as boosters throughout the house. For example, you can hook one up in a hallway on the first floor, directly below the router upstairs. The access point would then rebroadcast the router's signal with renewed strength to rooms at opposite ends of the corridor. Ms. Chun has an access point in the back portion of her house to increase the signal coming from her router, which is in the front.
Experts recommend placing wireless network components far from other devices in the house that can cause interference, like cordless phones, microwave ovens, baby monitors or halogen lamps. Of course, people living in crowded urban areas face a greater risk of outside interference from neighbors' wireless networks and devices.
To reduce such disruptions, you can go into the base station's configuration interface - usually by typing a specified address into the Internet browser - and change the signal channel. The user's manual will tell you how to do it.
"Most are set to Channel 6 by default," said Joe Bardwell, president of Connect802 Inc., a wireless network design and equipment company in San Ramon, Calif. So he suggested trying Channels 1 or 11, which are the least likely to overlap with other signals.
ANOTHER base station configuration that needs attention is the security setting. "Most people do not realize that they have no security unless they turn it on," said Charles Stanton, president of Manhattan Home Networks, which helps people in New York and New Jersey set up wireless home networks. It can be a tedious process, because you have to enter a code of up to 26 digits in the base station, as well as in all the computers in the network. (Again, consult the user's manual.)
But if you don't enable the security feature - called W.P.A., for Wi-Fi protected access, in newer wireless products, or W.E.P., for wired equivalent privacy, in older ones - anyone within range can tap into your Internet connection and use it, slowing or interrupting your signal. Worse, by using free, easily downloadable software, hackers can read any e-mail message you send or receive and possibly even gain access to your files.
"Someone out in their car on the street can infiltrate your network," Mr. Bardwell said. "Going wireless is great, but you need to know what you're doing."
Otherwise, the data you transmit are like feathers floating in the air - unlikely to land where you want them to and easy for other people to grab.