How to setup a network in your house – Ethernet LAN to the HPNA

Nowadays almost every single house has a computer, and also since in the recent years the prices of computers have declined rapidly and are very cheap today, many of us have more than one computer at our houses.And if you have more than one computer in your house and you haven’t networked them up, then you are missing something here.

Networking two or more computers saves a lot of time, effort and also money!.Let me explain in this article how you can save a lot of money just by networking.

Imagine the following situation, Dad has a computer in his room and the kids have their own computers and mom has a laptop, and there’s only one printer in the house, anytime any one in the family has to print something they have to store it on a CD or floppy and then go to the dad’s room and print it out.Also there is a lot of problem in sharing files.

Networking all the computers through a router can save a lot of troubles.When you setup a network in your house, and the printer is also networked, then anyone can use the printer without moving away from their own computer.Also if you want to move any files from your computer to your kids computer, then you can easily and fastly do it through the network.

Networking is most of the time done through the Ethernet standard, but there are other mediums as well.HPNA which stands for Home Phone Line Network Adapter is another technology which utilizes the existing phone line to transfer high speed data with maximum transmission speed of up to 10 mbps.For utilizing HPNA you need a HPNA adapter which you connect it on one side to the computer and on the other side to the telephone line, and vice versa for the other machine as well.HPNA had some popularity in the past few years around year 2000, but nowadays since the prices of different types of routers has already declined a lot, there is not much demand of HPNA.Another thing is that routers(utilizing Ethernet network technology) are much more faster than these HPNA technology, Ethernet routers typically transfer data at a speed of up to 100 mbps.

Ethernet standard is also known as 10/100 mbps Fast Ethernet, recently a new type of even a faster type of Ethernet has been introduced, known as Giga LAN, these Giga LAN
Enabled routers and compatible NIC(Network Interface Cards) can transfer speeds of up to 1 Gbps.This is revolutionary speed, I really don’t know where the limit.

Networking two computers is best done using a cross over cable(CAT 5 UTP).This cable is different from the cable that is used to connect from a computer to a router, that type is also a CAT 5 UTP, but its straight over.

Setting up a network of two computers is relatively easy and doesn’t usually require you to buy a router, unless you plan to go wireless, then you will need to buy a wireless router.Going wireless is pretty good as wireless routers give a lot of flexibility.

But if you want to setup a network of more than two computers, then you will need to buy a router, whether a wireless router or wired one, that is up to you.And also you have to buy the standard Ethernet cables(CAT 5 UTP).

Choosing which router to go with is not very tricky.Routers come in a variety of types and which one to choose will depend surely on your needs.If you need to setup a wireless network, then you would need to buy a wireless router.But if you plan to go for the wired router, its much cheaper and a bit easier to install also.

Some popular manufacturers of routers are D-Link, Linksys( a CISCO subsidiary),3 COM, Netgear and many others which I don’t remember.These routers are extremely good and are designed for stability.Routers usually operate only within a specific range of temperature, the reason because since routers have to be powered on 24/7 they must be taken care of, as excessive temperature can damage the router.

If you don’t want to spend a lot of cash on routers(both wired and wireless routers), then I suggest you head to www.ebay.com which is a popular site for second hand goods and also some brand new(sealed) products at extremely low rates.These discount routers are very good as well, but one must buy them after carefully reviewing the item.Also some shops have special offers and discount prices on routers.

If you want to setup a wireless network for all the computers, including the desktops, then you would have to buy a wireless client card for each computer along with the router.These wi-fi cards are usually PCI cards, but nowadays the USB wi-fi cards are becoming very common.You don’t even have to open the computer, simply plug in the USB wireless device and then you’re hooked on to the wireless network.The USB wireless devices are so small, like the popular pen or flash drives that can be hooked into a key chain.

But a disadvantage of these USB wireless devices is that they need a custom software to be managed, unlike the PCI(for Desktops) and PCMCIA(for laptops) which just require a driver and then they can be configured through Windows Xp itself.