Building a wireless network in home or SOHO (Small Office Home Office) is not a very difficult task to do today, even though by someone without computer networking experience. With DSL wireless modem, you can build a wireless network in home easily and securely.

For mostly people without any computer network knowledge, building the wireless network in home is even something that they never imagine before. However, if they know all the requirements to build a wireless network can be replaced by a single all-in-one DSL wireless modem, technical complexities of computer networking, connection, and configuration can be minimized as small as possible.

One of the apparent reasons to build a wireless network in home today is to share the broadband internet connection with many computers in the household. Besides, with the wireless network in home you can browse the internet with your laptop at the pool side, with your Wi-Fi phone or Skype phone – you can make some internet calls anywhere within the house without the need of turning-on the computer, or you can go live game with your XBOX console in the comfort of your living room without the clutter of the wires. All the requirements you need to build a simple wireless network in home or SOHO is a single all-in-one DSL wireless modem. What are actually the requirements to build a wireless network in home?

Firstly, you need a DSL modem. A modem is a digital to analog signal converter and vice versa, and is an interface device between the subscriber premises and the local Telco or the ISP. Generally when you signup for a broadband internet services, the ISP provides you a modem which is connected directly to a single computer using a USB connection or Ethernet connection. A DSL wireless modem includes a built-in DSL modem – the first requirements you need.

Secondly, you need a router or firewall. A router or firewall protects your private internal network from public networks (the internet) against any types of the threats. Typically home routers are powered by the dual-firewall feature – NAT and SPI. Network address translation (NAT) helps you hide the private network from the public network, while the stateful packets inspection (SPI) inspects the incoming packets precisely and thoroughly against any false positive packets. A DSL wireless modem includes the function of dual-firewall – the second requirements you need.

Thirdly, you need a wireless access point. All wireless devices communicate with the wireless network infrastructure using the wireless access point. Access point bridges network devices in the wireless network with the network devices in the wired network. Wireless access points extend your network wirelessly within the wireless coverage. A DSL wireless modem includes the function of the wireless access point – the third requirements you need.

Lastly, you need a LAN Switch that will interface the wireless access point to the wired network. Typically the DSL wireless modem includes a 4-port LAN Switch. With these Ethernet ports, you can also connect the computers directly using the UTP LAN cable; and connect the Ethernet print server to share the printer on the network. The recent products shipped with the 10/100/1,000 Mbps Gigabit port – with auto-sensing Ethernet port. With auto-sensing LAN port, you don’t need to worry about the cable type used, either cross UTP cable or straight-through cable – the system will detect the cable type used and adjust the system automatically.

Typical DSL wireless modem includes the above four functions, a DSL modem, a router / firewall, a wireless access point, and a Switch LAN. By purchasing this single all-in-one device – the DSL wireless modem; you can build a simple wireless network in home or SOHO easily and securely. You do not need to buy separate devices to reduce the complexity of the connection, the configuration, and the setting of the wireless network.

Network Setup and Connection

Since DSL wireless modem is a single device – a single solution in building the wireless network, the connection and configuration is simple. By default, with a single connection to the DSL line – the wireless network will be functional. Off course, with the default setting – no security encryption is applied to the wireless connection. Security feature is not enabled by default.

Connect the Internet port (or the WAN port) of the DSL wireless modem to the phone line (the DSL line). Unlike dial-up connection, DSL internet uses the same line as the phone line without interfering each other; both Internet and voice can work together at the same time. Traditional internet using dial-up modem uses the phone line for Internet connection, but at the same time you cannot use the line for the voice (phone calls) until the internet connection is released. With this single connection, your DSL wireless modem is ready to provide wireless roaming within the house and all the computers (with the Wi-Fi enabled) can connect to the network with a simple configuration and even with a simple plug and play.

Each computer on the network needs an IP address to be able to communicate via the network, so how can you provide and configure the IP address? DSL wireless modem includes a DHCP service which is enabled by default. DHCP server provides and leases the IP address configuration to the computers on the network automatically.

There are many DSL wireless modems available at the market today ranging from devices with 802.11g standards and the latest standard is the draft 2.0 802.11n. Draft 802.11n is the future wireless technology which is not ratified yet, but mostly all the wireless manufacturers have shipped their products using 802.11n standards.
By Ki Grinsing

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