Setting up a home network

[blueonblack]

I've been wanting to set up a network in our home but honestly don't know the first thing about it. I have a desktop with XP without wireless capability, my wife has a laptop with Vista Home Premium and built-in wifi.

What I would like to do is to have a physically separate storage area with two hard drives in RAID1 configuration (mirrored array), that we can both access wirelessly for storage. I know I would need something to add wireless capability to my desktop, and a router to connect them but beyond that I am lost. Can anyone guide me from there?
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[SgtM]

What you'll need:

1. Wireless router. I like Linksys products

2. Wireless PCI card. Although, I recommend staying wired for desktops. Put your wireless router near the computer, and just run a short CAT5 jumper to it.

3. Separate storage means a home server. Get an old box and throw linux on it. That is, unless you have a spare XP Pro license, or a server 2003 license. With the server, you'll definitely want to have a wired connection. Once you get it built, run it headless and use VNC or remote desktop for administration purposes.

Setup is really a breeze. These routers are plug and play. There really isn't much you have to do. Though, I do recommend setting up some kind of security for the wireless. Disable the SSID broadcast, setup WPA2 with MAC filtering, and you'll be fine.

[AMD Killa]

you wont need a dedicated computer for your RAID. You could get a NAS 2 drive RAID enclosure, then connect it to your router through UTP cable (cat5e). Yes, the dedicated machine would be the cheapest way, but only if you have spare parts lying around.

Don't forget to setup some encryption on it, and remember to change the default wireless key (and administrator password) so you don't end up losing control of your network.

Even if you disable the SSID broadcast, it still broadcasts, it's just that computers are told to ignore it. However with some clever little programs for linux, they can still be seen. However, I would still disable it, but only after you have set it up fully so that all your wireless devices have a profile for your network.

Need any more advice, just post your questions here, and we'll sort em out for ya

[Luke122]

Adding Wifi to a laptop can be done a few different ways. Depending on the laptop, the best solution is to go with an internal "mini-pci" type card. No external connections or antenna at all. Next best would be a pcmcia or card-bus wifi card. A little pricier usually, but just plug it in and go.. you dont even need to reboot to install most of them. No risk of void warranties either (though some manufacturers cover mini-pci installs under regular usage, like Asus I believe.. make sure before you do it.)

Final option is an external USB device.. which I personally hate, since I'm always afraid of snapping it off by bumping into something or whatever.. ugh. Cheapest option by far though.

The other guys nailed the rest of the install, so I wont even comment on that. :)

[blueonblack]

Great information, guys, appreciate it. (SgtM, I followed you pretty well until step 3...)

Luke--> The laptop has wi-fi already, it's the desktop I need it in, but if I have the router hooked to the desktop with a hard line I won't need to worry about it, right?

I saw a dual-drive SATA RAID external hard drive enclosure on Newegg...

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817121042

But I'd rather not buy it if I don't have to. My motherboard supports RAID, can I configure 2 drives in a standard external enclosure with the onboard RAID controller without doing anything to my internal drive?
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METHADONE REHAB DICUSSION (http://www.rehab-forum.com/methadone-rehab/)

[Bopher]

SgtM has it right on for you. The 'headless' unit is just another computer running an OS that can your other computers can connect to over the network.

Right now I have as an example, 2 desktops running wireless, 1 laptop, Wii, Palm and both cell phones can connect to the wifi in the house. My router sits on top of the entertainment center next to the modem. My file server sits right next to the entertainment center only hooked up via cat5. The only reason I have the router in the living room is so I can connect the PS2 directly.

My file server has no monitor, mouse, keyboard hooked into it. I can access it over the network using a program called PCAnywhere but its an older copy I bought a long time ago. You can use VNC or remote desktop which are free or even sign up with logmein.com but you'll be basically accessing everything out over the internet and back again which means internet goes down, no server access. Using these programs will allow you to 'see' the server desktop on another system. That way you can do stuff like file maintence, virus check or just check the over all health of the system. I have stuff scheduled to happen but I like to poke in every so often and make sure my disks aren't about to say go into nuclear meltdown and I never knew.:D

[nevermind1534]

The Wii is close to my computer, so whenever my sister would play newer games, or especially using the internet, it would kill my wireless connection. The kitchen is also below my bedroom, so It's near impossible to get a wireless connection when the microwave is running. It's been fine so far with my 50ft cat6 ethernet cable that I ran aftter I lost my third antenna.

[crenn]

Enabling RAID on that motherboard could cause problems (unless it's already enabled). I'd be careful as you may have to reinstall windows (this may not be the case).

A dlink or netgear wireless router would work well.

Something like this maybe:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833122016

[Crazy Buddhist]

Luke--> The laptop has wi-fi already, it's the desktop I need it in, but if I have the router hooked to the desktop with a hard line I won't need to worry about it, right?


That was the first thing I picked up on - don't you use the internet on your desktop? I assumed yes meaning it was plugged into the router. ipso facto sum, plug your network raid storage box or homebrew machine into said same router and you are nearly done.

The router will offer whatever services the storage box offers to any machine in the same windows workgroup.

Have it set to share a folder on the C:/ drive to the home network. You will have printer and filesharing turned on on all three machines and ensure they are have exactly the same name for the workgroup.

You could run the storage machine on Linux really nicely as it will run a Samba server that monitors which machines are on the network and which not and what services they are offering (you might like to make your printer or a folder on your HDD available to your wife for easy file sharing for example). then you can go into the network properties and turn off computer browser and turn it off in windows services on both yours and your wifes machines - the server will do that work of keeping check of whats where. One of the resident Linux gurus will probably recommend a distro for you. The same applies to any flavour of Windoze too. set computer browser to on on the storage box if it will always be on and you can even connect your printer directly to that machine too.

Make sure that your firewall is not set to block netbios traffic but that your router will block it from the outside world (standard out of the box but not always). If all else fails try setting all three machines to static IP addresses in the range of the router (usually 10.0.0.2 to 10.0.0.255 or 192.168.1.2 - 192.168.1.255) normally this requires a reboot to take effect. If you only want each machine to access the storage box you could set firewall rules to have extra security in case your wireless network is breached. For details on wireless security read the Wireless Networking how to in the Wiki HERE (http://www.thebestcasescenario.com/modwiki/index.php/Wireless_Networking).

Good luck !

Matthew

[blueonblack]

Ok, first of all, thanks for all the info, guys. Let me describe what I've decided on and you can pick apart any problems you may see.

Dual-drive RAID external hard drive enclosure:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817121042

Two SATA hard drives:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822145166

Wireless router:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833156242

eSATA bracket:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16812226006

I have dialup Internet so the Ethernet port is available for the router. Once this is set up and running we should both be able to access whatever is on the two discs (in RAID 1) in the enclosure, correct?

Oh yeah, I'm running XP and she's running Vista, can the two even communicate nicely?
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HONDA CB250RS HISTORY (http://www.honda-wiki.org/wiki/Honda_CB250RS)

[Crazy Buddhist]

The router has five ethernet ports - one for the WAN or "Wide Area Network" where you would usually pug in the ADSL or cable modem.

The hard drives will have to be physically connected to one of your computers and then set to be shared as it only offers USB or SATA connections.

XP and Vista get along OK on the whole.

The router seems OK - it does not seem to offer a DHCP server but DHCP pass-through from an ADSL router. If this is the case you will need to set all the machines IP addresses and subnetmasks to the same range as the router.

As you are using dial up you will have to set up internet connection sharing from the machine that has the modem and have that machine plugged into one of the four LAN Ethernet ports (not the WAN port).

I'm assuming this is your desktop machine?

If that is the case your Desktop will now be carrying the load of your wife's surfing and usage of the external HDD's and will always need to be on for her to use either.

It would be more elegant to build a small server housing the hard drives and have that connect to the dial-up internet and share with the other machines. You can set it to dial up whenever either of you wants to connect.

You would then have your file/internet sharing server and the desktop plugged into LAN ports on the router by cable and your wife's wireless laptop - which is very unlikely to get the maximum range on the router as it almost certainly does not have a wireless N but wireless G network card.

Matthew

Edit: If you want the storage plugged into the router you must get an Network Storage Device or Enclosure with Etheret capability:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822201009 Netgear/Cisco

Or even

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822155203 Dlink

This one has had mixed reviews but with firmware upgrades has been said to function well. It also has built in wireless capability which can be used as a wireless access point for your wife to connect. I would speak with D link tech support first and explain you want to share the internet connection from the desktop with your wife's laptop and gain storage you can both access - check that this will allow you to pass the shared internet from your PC to the Box and over the wireless. You may also need an Ethernet cross-over cable to connect this directly to a PC using Ethernet but if you can do all that with it and your desktop can carry the load then you won't need a router.

In fact if you go with your first ideas and have the HDD unit plugged into your desktop you probably don't actually need a router but can almost certainly just use a wireless access point plugged into the ethernet port of your desktop for your wife to connect to.

Hard to be precise with advice whilst guessing some info - but the configuration you decided on above can definitely be improved.

2nd Edit: Here is a prebuilt 1 Terrabyte Network storage solution which includes streaming media capability at $249.99 (click image to go to shop)

"Buffalo Technology HS-DH1000GL 1TB LiveStation Live Network Storage
Easy setup, does not require drivers / Minimal Power Consumption / Built-in DLNA Certified Media Server for Streaming / Auto-Sensing Ethernet Port"

http://images.jr.com/productimages/BUFHSDH1000GL.PNG?FTR=7&CELL=210%2C210&QLT=67&CVT=jpeg (http://www.jr.com/buffalo-technology/pe/BUF_HSDH1000GL/)

With that and the router you'd be set and you would not need your desktop machine on for your wife to access files.

[blueonblack]

Crazy B- I like that last one, that's pretty cool. Little pricey right now, though, and the data we will be storing and want access to is absolutely irreplaceable, so RAID 1 is a must. I had another idea. What would I need for a wired setup? I can run CAT5 cable under the house into the room she uses with little difficulty. I was thinking of building a basic PC with spare parts, being sure to use a motherboard with Ethernet ability, installing XP on it and putting the data drives inside it. What would be needed to connect the 3 systems? I have what I think is called a hub that I've used to connect 2 systems before for gaming, and it's got like 16 ports on it. Can I build this basic system and simply link them all through this hub? Just keep the data machine running all the time instead of the 2 user machines?
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Mercedes-Benz W120/121 (http://www.mercedes-wiki.com/wiki/Mercedes-Benz_W120/121)

[Crazy Buddhist]

I had another idea. What would I need for a wired setup? I can run CAT5 cable under the house into the room she uses with little difficulty. I was thinking of building a basic PC with spare parts, being sure to use a motherboard with Ethernet ability, installing XP on it and putting the data drives inside it. What would be needed to connect the 3 systems? I have what I think is called a hub that I've used to connect 2 systems before for gaming, and it's got like 16 ports on it. Can I build this basic system and simply link them all through this hub? Just keep the data machine running all the time instead of the 2 user machines?

That my friend is your perfect solution. Go for the highest quality network cabling you can as it improves performance and means you won't rewire the house when you go gigabit on the network one day. You may want to check that the hub is at minimum a 10/100 Ethernet hub - if it's old and only 10Mb get a new one or file transfers will be impossibly slow.

This is the perfect set up and use for a hub ....


Home Networking Advisor Network Hub Details Home Network Setup Advisor - Restart (http://compnetworking.about.com/library/advisor/blhomeadvisor.htm)
Is an Ethernet Network Hub Right for You? Ethernet hubs are sometimes used in wired home networks that share dial-up Internet connections between only a few computers. More... (http://compnetworking.about.com/library/advisor/blhomeadvisor_wiredrouter2.htm#hublabel)


CrazyB

[Bopher]

I agree with Crazy B on this one. A hub will work just fine if you go all wired. You only need a router if you're going to share a High Speed connection. I like the idea of the NAS using the ethernet, I use an old computer as my NAS that wouldn't work for someone and they gave me the whole thing. (Amazing what happens when the right RAM is installed) Using this as my center gives me access from outside my network too from work so I keep files I need in both locations on there.

[crenn]

Look at Cat6 cabling, and instead of using Windows XP on the slave machine, might look at Linux and also get it to do DHCP on your network. If the motherboard doesn't support RAID1, you can always get it to do it in software.

[blueonblack]

Thanks for the help as always, guys!
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[Crazy Buddhist]

Look at Cat6 cabling, and instead of using Windows XP on the slave machine, might look at Linux and also get it to do DHCP on your network. If the motherboard doesn't support RAID1, you can always get it to do it in software.

I'm not sure if a hub will allow DHCP to pass through and work successfully. I'd recommend using fixed IP addresses on all the machines.

Matthew

[crenn]

If the hub is a switch, there will be no problem really, if the hub is a router, then the router's DHCP could be disabled (Although setting up the router's DHCP would be easier).

[Crazy Buddhist]

Hubs, routers and switches are three different things.

Hub: repeats every packet from every node to every other node.

Router: receives and sends/routes packets to/from single nodes that request them. (and usually does a lot more such as DHCP functions etc)

Switch: sends routed packets to their desired node (only) in an extended network.

You can add a 16 port switch to one of the LAN ports on a four port router and you'll have 19 fully switched and routed nodes you can utilise.

If you put a hub in the same place it will work but the hub will route everything to everything and it will be real slow if you are using those 16 ports!

Sometimes people use an extra router to extend their network with all the extra functions turned off or set to pass through. Basically using a router this way is turning it into a switch.

CrazyB

[eslfish]

The Wii is close to my computer, so whenever my sister would play newer games, or especially using the internet, it would kill my wireless connection. The kitchen is also below my bedroom, so It's near impossible to get a wireless connection when the microwave is running. It's been fine so far with my 50ft cat6 ethernet cable that I ran aftter I lost my third antenna.

LMFAO I soo remember that, you would log in and out soo many times....haha

[AMD Killa]

I'm not sure if a hub will allow DHCP to pass through and work successfully. I'd recommend using fixed IP addresses on all the machines.

Matthew

I think it will, but only if it is transparent capable. My vista machine doesnt like my LAN over mains adapters. I guess they are not transparent. They are designed to work with the BT Vision box I have.