In many cases wireless network setup is a bit more complex than popping in the setup CD and following some simple instructions. Following the "easy" set up CD has proven to be perplexing and tricky for many people. It can be very costly if you need to count on somebody else to setup your wireless network on your behalf.
One thing about the CDs is though they appear to be simple to follow on the surface they do not always work. They also keep you isolated from any understanding of what's going on. It's easy to make a mistake without noticing it and if you do you might need outside help to fix it. This can be a pain.
I'm going to help you to understand what you are doing and why so you can setup any kind of wireless device on your own. I'm going to explain to you the way to set up a secure wireless network without using the installation CD that is provided with your router and without any of the fancy gadgets or push buttons designed to make setting up a wifi router easy. At the end of this article you will see a short series of videos which show how to do this.
Once you understand the basic principles involved you'll be able to set up not only routers, but any wifi device on the market. You'll be your own wireless networking wizard.
Three things you need to know before trying to setup a wi-fi network:
Your SSID - Service Set Identifier. This is a big sounding word which simply means the name of your wi-fi network. It is best to change this from the default and give it a name which means something for you yet means little to someone else.
Your Encryption Type - You need to understand the hierarchy of wifi security. The first and least effective form of wifi encryption is WEP or Wired Equivalent Privacy. As time went by and personal computers became faster WEP turned out to be much easier to crack. Something else was needed. WPA and WPA2 arrived on the scene next and are are generally way more sophisticated and hard to break into than WEP. WPA2 came out only a few short months after WPA. WPA2 uses an even more powerful form of security named AES. Some older os's and video games will only work with WEP. When you are able to you want to use WPA or WPA2. Many times you can choose WPA/WPA2 which allows you to use both types of security with the exact same security password. This can be a very popular option when setting up security on a wifi router.
Security Key - Also referred to as your "pass phrase". It is best to use the word "password" only if talking about the wireless router password. You use your wireless router username and password to log on to the router not connect with the wireless network. Unlike the router password, the security key is what you use to connect to your wifi network. You do not really pick what your WEP password is going to be. It's generated for you after typing in a password you come up with.. The result is a string of numbers of characters which is fairly difficult to remember. The next phase is keying in that string of characters and numbers in to all of your computers and devices. User-friendly this is not.. WPA and WPA2 don't generate hard to memorize hex numbers like WEP does.. Any word, group of words or sentences will do. The spaces between your words in your sentence count as characters. Pass phrases are case sensitive so if a letter is capitalized on the router it must also be capitalized on every one of your devices or it won't work.
OK while this is fresh in your thoughts we should put these new principles to use using a practical illustration. Don't forget to watch the video tutorials below for further clarification.
The next thing can be confusing occasionally, so bear with me while I walk-through the details.You need three pieces of information for you to access your routers web interface.
1. The wireless routers IP address.
2. The routers username and password.
3. Whether your pc is on the same network as the wireless router.
Wireless routers IP Address
Your routers Ip address is probably something similar to 192.168.1.2 or 0.1 or 2.1. The documentation that was included with the router usually supplies this. If you don't have the documentation simply do a search engine search for "router make and model default IP."
Logging On To The Router
The wireless routers username and password is usually along the lines of "admin" and "password". If nothing works try a search on Google like you did with the default IP address. If it's a second-hand wireless router you may need to hard reset it to get it back to it's default settings. You will want a paper clip or small pin to reset the router. Simply push some thing in the little hole in the back of the wireless router and hold it there for about 30 seconds with the wireless router still powered on. Once you release it the router will restart and return to it's factory default configuration settings and you will be able to use it's default password to log on.
Same Network?
If your computer is on exactly the same network as the routers IP address it is possible to connect. If their IP addresses are not on the very same network they will not connect in any way. Network devices must be on the very same network to communicate with each other unless of course they're using a special configured router to join their separate networks. When you know your routers default IP address just go to your computers command prompt and type in IPCONFIG. This should return your computers IP address. Videos on the webpage mentioned below demonstrate how to do this.
So if your computer or laptop is not on the very same network as the wireless router what should you do?
Simply connect one end of an ethernet cable to one of the four jacks at the back of you wireless router and the other to the network port in your Computer and reboot.
When the computer reboots it'll immediately acquire an Ip address from your routers built-in DHCP server that will allow you to communicate with the router.
Since all those things are dealt with you should be able to get connected to the router with no problem.To do this simply:
Open up IE, Firefox or what ever your preferred web browser might be and enter your wireless routers IP address. Hit enter and you will be prompted with a logon screen.
2. Type in the password to access the router.
3. Dig through the menus until you find the "Wireless Security" area of your router and type in what ever you like for your SSID and passphrase.
Good job You Just Set up Your Router!
As soon as you're done you only need to enter in the pass phrase you created into the wireless utilities in each of your network devices. Of the majority of devices it's a simple matter of finding your SSID, simply clicking on it and keying in in your pass phrase.
Now that you know the basic principles it is easy to set up a wireless network without any help and connect almost any wifi device to it. The key points described here are exactly the same for all wi-fi devices.
One thing about the CDs is though they appear to be simple to follow on the surface they do not always work. They also keep you isolated from any understanding of what's going on. It's easy to make a mistake without noticing it and if you do you might need outside help to fix it. This can be a pain.
I'm going to help you to understand what you are doing and why so you can setup any kind of wireless device on your own. I'm going to explain to you the way to set up a secure wireless network without using the installation CD that is provided with your router and without any of the fancy gadgets or push buttons designed to make setting up a wifi router easy. At the end of this article you will see a short series of videos which show how to do this.
Once you understand the basic principles involved you'll be able to set up not only routers, but any wifi device on the market. You'll be your own wireless networking wizard.
Three things you need to know before trying to setup a wi-fi network:
Your SSID - Service Set Identifier. This is a big sounding word which simply means the name of your wi-fi network. It is best to change this from the default and give it a name which means something for you yet means little to someone else.
Your Encryption Type - You need to understand the hierarchy of wifi security. The first and least effective form of wifi encryption is WEP or Wired Equivalent Privacy. As time went by and personal computers became faster WEP turned out to be much easier to crack. Something else was needed. WPA and WPA2 arrived on the scene next and are are generally way more sophisticated and hard to break into than WEP. WPA2 came out only a few short months after WPA. WPA2 uses an even more powerful form of security named AES. Some older os's and video games will only work with WEP. When you are able to you want to use WPA or WPA2. Many times you can choose WPA/WPA2 which allows you to use both types of security with the exact same security password. This can be a very popular option when setting up security on a wifi router.
Security Key - Also referred to as your "pass phrase". It is best to use the word "password" only if talking about the wireless router password. You use your wireless router username and password to log on to the router not connect with the wireless network. Unlike the router password, the security key is what you use to connect to your wifi network. You do not really pick what your WEP password is going to be. It's generated for you after typing in a password you come up with.. The result is a string of numbers of characters which is fairly difficult to remember. The next phase is keying in that string of characters and numbers in to all of your computers and devices. User-friendly this is not.. WPA and WPA2 don't generate hard to memorize hex numbers like WEP does.. Any word, group of words or sentences will do. The spaces between your words in your sentence count as characters. Pass phrases are case sensitive so if a letter is capitalized on the router it must also be capitalized on every one of your devices or it won't work.
OK while this is fresh in your thoughts we should put these new principles to use using a practical illustration. Don't forget to watch the video tutorials below for further clarification.
The next thing can be confusing occasionally, so bear with me while I walk-through the details.You need three pieces of information for you to access your routers web interface.
1. The wireless routers IP address.
2. The routers username and password.
3. Whether your pc is on the same network as the wireless router.
Wireless routers IP Address
Your routers Ip address is probably something similar to 192.168.1.2 or 0.1 or 2.1. The documentation that was included with the router usually supplies this. If you don't have the documentation simply do a search engine search for "router make and model default IP."
Logging On To The Router
The wireless routers username and password is usually along the lines of "admin" and "password". If nothing works try a search on Google like you did with the default IP address. If it's a second-hand wireless router you may need to hard reset it to get it back to it's default settings. You will want a paper clip or small pin to reset the router. Simply push some thing in the little hole in the back of the wireless router and hold it there for about 30 seconds with the wireless router still powered on. Once you release it the router will restart and return to it's factory default configuration settings and you will be able to use it's default password to log on.
Same Network?
If your computer is on exactly the same network as the routers IP address it is possible to connect. If their IP addresses are not on the very same network they will not connect in any way. Network devices must be on the very same network to communicate with each other unless of course they're using a special configured router to join their separate networks. When you know your routers default IP address just go to your computers command prompt and type in IPCONFIG. This should return your computers IP address. Videos on the webpage mentioned below demonstrate how to do this.
So if your computer or laptop is not on the very same network as the wireless router what should you do?
Simply connect one end of an ethernet cable to one of the four jacks at the back of you wireless router and the other to the network port in your Computer and reboot.
When the computer reboots it'll immediately acquire an Ip address from your routers built-in DHCP server that will allow you to communicate with the router.
Since all those things are dealt with you should be able to get connected to the router with no problem.To do this simply:
Open up IE, Firefox or what ever your preferred web browser might be and enter your wireless routers IP address. Hit enter and you will be prompted with a logon screen.
2. Type in the password to access the router.
3. Dig through the menus until you find the "Wireless Security" area of your router and type in what ever you like for your SSID and passphrase.
Good job You Just Set up Your Router!
As soon as you're done you only need to enter in the pass phrase you created into the wireless utilities in each of your network devices. Of the majority of devices it's a simple matter of finding your SSID, simply clicking on it and keying in in your pass phrase.
Now that you know the basic principles it is easy to set up a wireless network without any help and connect almost any wifi device to it. The key points described here are exactly the same for all wi-fi devices.
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