Selecting equipment for a WiFi Network at home

Date 21 February 2005
By Viji Rajasundram

This article will begin to explain how to setup a basic WiFi Network at home, to share an existing Broadband connection. There are several ways, but we will describe the most common and straightforward method here.

First, ensure that the ADSL modem, ( the one that connects to the phone line with the broadband service and then onto your computer ) has a network interface to your computer, instead of a USB interface. You can usually tell by looking at the cable – and one quick way would be that network cables provided with the modems usually come in nice bright colours.

Next, we have to select the centrepiece of your home network, the Wireless Access Point (WAP) Router. There are several on the market for under RM300. However, I would stick to the better known brands e.g. LinkSys or D-Link if I was looking for fewer complications in getting assistance if and when required.

Now, select a store offering friendly service to buy from. Pricing wise, you are not going to go too far-off if you did some price comparisons first -  but go with the friendly service people always, even if costs a little more. You will never know when you may need them again.

There are currently two commonly available standards when it comes to WiFi – the 802.11B and the 802.11G standard. The G-standard is newer and faster and works with the older B-Standard. But the B-standard is what is currently available on almost all laptops and other WiFi enabled equipment, except for the rare few that may have only come into the market in 2005. For most of us, the B-Standard would suffice, which does 22Mbps as opposed to the 54 Mbps on the G-standard, as not many things over the Internet are flying at us at anywhere near 22Mbps yet. But looking at the price differential ( RM 50 ), I would splurge and go with the 802.11G and set it to work for the 802.11B networks, while waiting for the G-equipment to become more widely available.

Next , we will look at some basic security issues.