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It leads the reader through a preliminary understanding of the underlying electronic sciences Preparation is the key to success and our collection of over 20 electrical engineering books in PDF format will help you achieve it. Practical Electronics — August In order to ensure that user-safety is not compromised and you enjoy faster downloads, we have used trusted 3rd-party repository links that are not hosted on our website.

Front Cover. It became an independent weekly in September of that year, then became a monthly in due to wartime paper shortages. Debug, Tweak and fine-tune your DIY electronics projects. The voltages often change smoothly from one value to the next, like gradually turning a light dimmer switch up or down. You should not miss the opportunity to have Free Templates. Other free engineering downloads and industrial books makes this site a valuable addition to your industrial learning systems.

PDF reader, The rest of Thomas books are available to buy or download on Lulu. The tutorials are listed in alphabetical order, but if you are new to electronics, I would recommend to start with DC Theory. Yes, this is basic electronics book in Bengali will help the students to learn Practical Electronics Education, uses of variety electronics parts, build circuit design using electronics parts and build any types of 6.

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Lecture 4: RC Circuits. Measurement of Power Supply Voltages. Read Paper. It deals with devices that are used to carry out computer applications. Thomas has kindly made Book 1 available as a free download in PDF form, click here to download or the link above.

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Electronics 47 Chapter Objectives 47 4. It covers the following topics: DC circuits, Linear AC circuits, Circuit analysis and simulation, ,Diodes and diode circuits, , Diodes and transistors, , Basic transistor circuits, Amplifier building blocks, Transistor models, Differential amplifiers Practical Electronics began publication in the UK in December, and was aimed at the experimenter and construction enthusiast.

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Blender Free. Spirality Free. Scratch 3 Free. Paint 3D Free. Apps for gamers Show all. Xbox Free. Deezer Music Free. Xbox Avatar Editor Free. Your requirements affect the kind of equipment you need, so it’s important that you think about what you want to do before you open your wallet. The Internet’s a big place, and to see it you have to connect your network somehow. Do you have more than one computer in your home?

Do you want to be able to get files between the two? Or maybe you’re looking for a separate device to store files on, and you need to connect to that. Are these small files, large files, or huge files? Even though USB key fobs are cheap, you can’t beat the convenience of being able to copy files by the drag-and-drop method. Services are available that let you watch video over the Internet. You may also have a device that will let you watch TV over your home network. Either way, video introduces some demands that not every piece of wireless equipment can accommodate.

If you’re a gamer, then you know how network condi- tions can affect your game. You can’t control much on the Internet, but you can make sure that your network’s not the problem. Printers are coming with wireless capabilities now, so you can put your printer wherever you want, or move it whenever you need.

Give some thought to devices you have that may already be wireless capa- ble. They may need an upgrade, or alter your plans slightly, depending on their age. You don’t want that old PC you got from your aunt dragging down the speed of your network if you can avoid it. Finally, think about where in your house you want to use your computer and wireless peripherals. We get into the details about range shortly, but a wire- less solution for a living room will be different for a room mansion, espe- cially if you also need Internet access down in the guest mansion.

What’s that? Your guest mansion’s empty? When can I move in? And even if they could, your computer doesn’t have the power to talk back. Unlike your favorite radio station, the distances involved are much smaller.

A radio station’s coverage is measured in miles; your network is measured in feet. Isn’t all radio the same? Not by a long shot! A radio station’s power output is around , watts; your wireless devices are under a tenth of a watt.

Frequency plays a part in it, too — higher frequencies travel shorter distances. Your wireless network’s frequencies are at least 20 times as high as your radio’s. The wireless engineers at the IEEE are constantly updating their standards to give you faster speeds and better distance. Incidentally, IEEE used to stand for Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, but taking a page from a famous fried chicken chain, they have rebranded themselves just as IEEE, which is pronounced “Eye-triple-E” These standards are supposed to ensure that if you buy two products from two different vendors, they can work together.

Each letter is a different standard that may or may not be interopera- ble with other standards. We talk about the standards in the next chapter, but just so you have an idea, here are some of the ranges of the various standards. Table shows ranges you can expect in a typical indoor environment. Note the use of the word typical. Depending on your hardware, your environment, and where you place your devices, you may see better or worse distances. It’s Wireless, Not Magic!

In this section, you find out what kind of things cause problems with wireless signals. The access point is responsible for everything on the wireless network, so it’s important that your equipment and the access point have no problems communicating.

Wireless isn’t magic. It’s a radio wave. Radio waves follow the laws of physics, some of which have the end result of damaging radio signals to the point where they can’t be decoded. A signal that can’t be decoded is useless to all involved; the result is a slow or nonexistent network. In general, wireless problems fall into two categories: interference from other radio waves, and interference from physical objects. Interference from other radio Waves Whatever country you’re from, your government likely regulates which wire- less frequencies can be used, by issuing licenses to people for certain parts bands of the radio waves.

The governments do this in part to make sure that multiple people don’t try to use the same frequency and step all over each other. They also do it because they get large sums of money out of the deal. Have you ever played with remote control cars when two people pick up a transmitter with the same frequency? Oh, what fun that is, when the single car tries to respond to two sets of commands.

Wireless network devices operate in unlicensed bands. Unlicensed bands are free for anyone to use as long as they abide by the rules the government set out.

These rules, for one, limit the power output of a device so that your transmitter doesn’t interfere with your whole block. Anything transmitting in the ranges that wireless radios use 2. Other wireless networking devices can cause problems. This is why the IEEE specified several channels within the 2. These channels are on slightly different frequencies so that two devices can coexist. We go over a lot more informa- tion about adjusting your channels later in this chapter, but for now, remem- ber that having two access points on the same channel is a bad thing.

Microwave ovens emit interference in the 2. Playing with your access point’s channels is not going to do much here, because microwave ovens interfere with all of them. For example, I’ve got my microwave oven in one corner of the house and my access point on the opposite corner on a different level. This arrangement usually works unless I’m trying to use my computer in the kitchen with the microwave on. Another source of interference is from cordless phones.

Phones generally come in MHz models, and, you guessed it, 2. Cordless phones bounce around from frequency to frequency to try to avoid interference. You’ll probably find that the wireless network causes you more problems while talking on the phone than the other way around, though.

However, if you’re having periodic network problems and can’t pin a cause on it, you might want to check and see if someone’s talking on a cordless phone at the time. Interference from other items Radio waves can be interrupted in flight by almost any solid object. Walls, doors, furniture, and even glass can degrade your wireless signal. Walls are likely to be your biggest concern. In general, the bigger and thicker the wall, the worse it’s going to make the signal. Simple drywall walls may not cause a problem, but brick or stone walls, or metal such as a concrete wall reinforced with rebar , are going to cause problems.

If your house has several levels, then try to determine what kind of material is between the floors. In a house, it’s usually wood, which is only a mild barrier to radio waves.

The easiest approach to dealing with interference is to place your access point as close as possible to the places you want to use wireless. If you find some dead areas, you can try moving your access point. In the worst case, you buy a second access point or a repeater to give service to the dead zone. It’s a lot cheaper than knocking down walls, after all. Radio engineers have also found other problems caused by walls and furniture that have to do with the way radio waves bounce off of things.

The Preparing to Shop When wireless standards were first introduced, the cost of wireless was obscene. Access points ran in the thousands of dollars and were marketed to big companies with buckets of cash. Unsurprisingly, the technology was much slower and difficult to manage.

CD 2o Preparing to Shop The technology life cycle If you’ve followed any area of technology, you’ll know that stuff keeps on getting better. Cameras get smaller, computers get faster, and televisions get bigger. You might expect that you’d have more options and be able to choose how fast you want your computer to be, but that is rarely the case. When making parts for electronics devices, it’s in the manufacturer’s best interest to make as few versions as possible.

Overthe past couple of decades, Intel has made chips for comput- ers that run from 4 MHz to over 3 GHz. Digital cameras started out well under a megapixel but have now blown past 12 megapixels. USB memory keys started out at megabyte, and now they’re replacing your hard drive.

But try to go to a store and find the full array of products? Not going to happen. Part of it is that people are buying the higher end gear, but it’s also that it costs more to maketheold stuff.

Chip-making machines have already been retooled for the newest chips. The chips to make a computer’s wired network card run atthe original 10megabits persecond cost a lot more than the ones that let them run times faster. Atthe same time, manufacturers shootfor cer- tain price points. Once the old model was sold out, it wasn’t being made anymore.

Then the introduction of the Internet drove demand for computers up, and advances in manufacturing and the increased demand drove the manufacturer’s costdown. The same goes with cellular phones. The price of phones has stayed the same, but you just get more features. Phones now have cameras and built-in MP3 players and can play video games. It’s hard to find a basic cell phone now.

The demand is low, and it’s getting so cheap to add the phone or MP3 player that it makes more economic sense to not offer the bare-bones version. Every so often something disruptive comes to a product that makes the current technology less desirable. Plasma and LCD televisions made oldertube televisions cheap, for a while, as manufacturers tried to get rid of their parts inventory and to make a profit off their soon-to- be obsolete technology while they could.

When a new wireless standard is on the horizon, the currenttechnology drops in price. The popular- ity of wireless made the price of wired network equipment take a nosedive as manufacturers tried to keep the sales coming in. Now, competition in consumer-grade computer equipment has driven down prices, and advances in manufacturing have allowed engineers to do more with less.

Prices in consumer electronics tend to follow an interesting pattern. First, the cost is high as a new technology is introduced. As the technology gains ground, the price drops as competition enters the market. This should not be a surprise. Instead of staying on the market, older equipment just goes away as it gets replaced.

Prices fall only after something really innovative happens, usually because the manufactur- ers want you to stay with that technology instead of the new thing. Within the price range of a particular technology, you find that the latest and greatest model costs the most. If you want to save a fair bit of money, you can get something with 90 percent of the features and speed of the device that happened to be new just a little while ago.

You can also go really cheap and get a knock-off device made by a company you’ve never heard of. Each has their advantages and disadvantages. All that said, the next section has a list of the types of equipment you’ll be looking at, along with the expected price range.

The access point’s job is to manage the wireless network and relay messages between the wireless and wired devices. It’s a firewall that connects your network to the Internet and provides some network services and safety along the way. We go over these features later. The router also has a built-in access point. Optionally, the router can have a few wired network ports. A wireless router can also be used only as an access point by plugging it in a certain way and not configur- ing all the features.

These, too, are like access points some can double as an access point. As long as the extender can receive the signal well, it can rebroadcast at a higher power to extend the range. Figure A wireless range extender. For laptops that don’t have wireless built in, you need a notebook adapter, sometimes called a PC card for your computer.

Figure shows such an adapter. Figure PC card adapter. CD If you are upgrading a desktop machine, you have a couple of options. Note in Figure that the PCI-based card has an external antenna, which is helpful in obtaining the best signal, especially if your desktop is in a tight spot.

Figure PCI wireless adapter with external antenna. You’ll find the PC card is probably more convenient because part of the card is inside your computer. Wireless cards for PCs cost about the same as their laptop counterparts, though you may pay slightly more for the benefits of an external antenna. To get your shopping list started, you’ll want an access point or a router, plus a wireless card for each device you want to get on the network. Take stock of your existing computers; they may already have a wireless NIC built in.

Don’t pull out your wallet just yet. We’ve yet to get into the various options you have underneath the wireless umbrella. There are different radio stan- dards, frequencies, antennas, and routers. I’m getting excited just think- ing about the possibilities! You’ve got to choose between the various Did you need wired ports?

So many choices, what do you do? In this chapter, you find out what hardware you need to get on the Internet and to build your wireless network. After you read this chapter, you can con- fidently make a purchase. You’ll also want to make sure your Internet connec- tion is up to par. You are likely to have a few Internet access options available to you, so you’ll want to make sure you know what each option offers.

The information in this chapter can help you form the foundation of your wireless network, so the best place to start is where the Internet meets your house. Several companies are vying for your business, and they’re all offer- ing something slightly different.

How do you cut through this noise and buy the right product for you? Before you get much further on the topic, though, your decision might already be made for you.

Maybe you’re in a location where you’ve only got one option. Maybe you already have something. In that case, feel free to skip this section, or read on if you’re interested. Look at the flyers that come in your mailbox or newspaper. Look at your telephone and cable bills. Chances are you’re being offered a choice between digital subscriber line DSL and cable.

Usually both options are called “High Speed Internet,” or some flavor of that. If it comes from the phone company, it’s DSL. If it comes from the cable company, it’s cable. Depending on where you live, you might be offered a satellite service, or even a fiber-based service. You also should have the option of dial-up. So many options! My head is spinning! All other things being equal, your decision comes down to comparing speed and cost.

How fast do you need your Internet to be, and how much do you want to spend? Sharing the road Even though the term information superhighway died a merciful death many years back, it’s sometimes helpful to think of the Internet as a road system. When you browse the Web, or receive e-mail, your computer sends informa- tion in the form of packets to the other end, which can be a Web server or an e-mail system.

The other end looks at these packets and sends the response back to you in a new series of packets. These streams of packets are often called traffic. It might help to think of these packets as cars on a road. Your Internet con- nection is a small road that can carry so many cars. This road connects to bigger roads that eventually lead to superhighways that are many lanes wide.

Depending on who you’re trying to talk to, they may be located right off the highway in the case of a busy Web site, or they may be on a road much like yours in the case of a small Web site or home user. Just like cars on a road, Internet traffic sometimes gets congested if too many cars try to use the road.

Only so many cars can fit on a single lane, which means information takes longer to get between the two sides. The fre- quencies that make up voice fall within a small range, so a DSL modem throws the Internet signals into the space that’s left. At the phone company, these Internet signals are pulled out by a device called a DSLAM what it means isn’t important, but it’s one of the coolest acronyms in the networking field.

The Internet goes on the higher frequencies, which means every phone jack in your house needs a filter placed on it so that you don’t hear the noise gen- erated by the high frequencies, and your phone doesn’t affect the quality of the data transmissions.

You can choose from a wide variety of DSL, and only your Internet service provider knows which ones are being used. However, do make sure this is the case if you are looking at DSL. You then plug your network into the DSL modem. The advantages of DSL are that you have a dedicated connection between your computer and the service provider, rather than sharing it with your neighbors. However, your Internet traffic eventually merges with your neigh- bors in the provider’s high-speed core, anyway.

DSL offers good speeds, and because it’s delivered over your phone line, you can usually get a price break by bundling your DSL and phone service. DSL is usually offered in different grades, such as 1 Mbps down and K up. This means you can download files at 1 million bits per second, or roughly a compact disc’s worth of files in an hour and a half.

The upstream speed isn’t as important because the bulk of your Internet usage is downloading. Having 1 Mbps down is adequate for Web browsing, but having Mbps is more desirable. It goes up from there, so if you plan on downloading a lot of files, then look at higher plans. Contemplating cable Cable-based Internet uses some TV channels for sending and receiving the Internet signals.

A cable modem plugs into your TV jack, you plug your net- work into the cable modem, and you’re off to the races. Cable is capable of higher speeds than DSL, so this tends to even out. The usual practice of cable companies seems to be to charge a rental fee for the modem or to allow you to buy your own. If you want to go down this road, ask your cable company for a list of supported modems and follow it to the letter!

These grades are likely to be faster than DSL, but remember, you are sharing your connection. Usually the basic package is good enough to get you started, and you can easily upgrade later. Don’t forget to ask about bundling opportunities if you’re a cable subscriber.

Debating dial-up I only mention dial-up in here to tell you to avoid it. It’s slow. It doesn’t cost much less than a basic high-speed DSL or cable package. You can’t use your phone when you’re on the Internet because your computer is using it, which defeats the purpose of wireless.

Did I mention it’s slow? Dial-up requires you to use a modem in your computer to make a call to another modem at your provider, while DSL injects the Internet sig- nals on top of your voice calls which you don’t notice. DSL is good, dial-up is bad. Oh, yeah, and dial-up is slow. Exploring flOS or FTTH options Depending on where you live, you might have the option of getting fiber optic cable delivered to your home.

Pronouncing the two might get messy, though. Fiber optic cable can deliver a lot of speed. It’s reliable, too. This extra speed will cost from “slightly more than cable” to “a lot more than cable,” depend- ing on how fast you want to go. But, if the option is available to you, it’s worth looking at. You will be able to get speeds much faster than cable or DSL. Depending on the provider of the fiber, you may be able to get better entertainment offerings, such as high-definition television and video on demand over the same fiber.

Going otter the Letters Getting set up with Internet access if you don’t have it already takes a few days, which gives you time to think about the kind of wireless network you want. The eggheads I mean engineers The IEEE Over 20 standards exist in the The Original — It worked, but given the state of industry in , it was expensive and bulky.

They were the size of a shoebox! The other standards out there are amendments to Improving on things — You get a lot of noise at 2. There’s also more room up there, which means you can have more radios operating in the same area without stepping on each other. The downside is a slightly decreased range; indoor networks are usu- ally rated at around feet for Needless to say, unless your gear has both a and b radios in them, you have to choose one or the other.

Mass market appeal and low prices made The market for You can still find some Giving uou speeds in , it’s In the worst case you get That aside, Despite being released in , this version is still current. If you look at what’s on your store shelves, or if you already have a network card, chances are it’s At 54 mbps, If you already have Although But look in the stores, and you’ll see A patent problem with a part of In the meantime, an industry group called the Wi-Fi Alliance has developed a certification program for devices to ensure that they comply with draft 2.

The logo is shown in Figure I talk about upgrading your router later, but for now, just understand that if you buy a certified product, you shouldn’t have to buy anything else to upgrade once those lawyers get finished. It also doubles the range of That’s fast! Behind those impressive numbers, though, is some marketing magic.

You only get the benefits of 5 GHz if your equipment has 5 GHz radios that means both your access point and wireless card. Such devices are labeled dual band, meaning that they have both the 2. In the interests of dropping costs, though, many For this to happen, the frequency has to be clear and the device has to have multiple antennas.

At the 2. Most consumer devices have two antennas, which is twice as good as one, but only half as good as the four that are required to get up to Mbps. It’s not all bad news for There are still improvements on If you have a need for speed, then 5 GHz This way you can make sure your speed-hungry devices aren’t slowed down by legacy adapters. Compatibility concerns Wireless devices are generally downward compatible with other devices in the same frequency.

Therefore, you can mix Keep in mind that just because something’s compatible doesn’t mean that it’s going to run as well as it could. Even with an Book II Chapter 2 When your access point’s capabilities exceed that of the clients, you still have problems.

An This limitation isn’t too much to worry about because Table Look at It? Make sure any Check www. If speed is a concern, go with n. If your laptops already have a b or g radio, then consider starting out with Purchasing a Brand Name Go to the store and you’re going to see an assortment of products, all by dif- ferent manufacturers.

The first part of the selection process is finding which of these boxes have the features you want, followed by picking a manufacturer. You’re going to see a few manufacturers, some you recognize, some you don’t. I recommend going with a name-brand product instead of a cheap, white, box knockoff, especially if you’re choosing Do you see the same manufacturer being advertised by different stores?

If so, chances are it’s a reputable brand that different stores are willing to stand behind. Also consider that an established brand has the resources and desire to maintain the software that makes your wireless card work.

You may need to call for help at some point. Cheap equipment is made cheaply. This is your guarantee that the device will interoperate with other vendors’ equipment. Read the fine print carefully; some- times items shown on the box aren’t inside the box. A few bucks extra on a name-brand device will almost certainly save you frustration down the road. Talk to some friends, neighbors, or coworkers to find out the brands that they like or dislike.

Routing and Bridging You’re going to have a network in your house, and it’s going to connect to your service provider’s network. To get between networks, you have to route. These networks are connected by a device called a router. This router is the part that lets you get out on the Internet.

Routers also incorporate a firewall, which is a protection mechanism from the bad guys out there on the Internet. Pretty much every wireless router out there has a built-in firewall. If you’re connecting parts of your own network, you want to bridge. Maybe you’re making your wired network bigger by adding more ports. Maybe you’re adding a new wireless access point to an existing wireless network.

The connection from the Internet service provider which is drawn as a cloud, because you can’t have a good network drawing with at least one cloud comes in to the router. Anything to the right of the router is part of the internal network.

On the internal network is a device called a switch, which allows you to add wired ports to a network. One of those ports connects to an access point, which brings in the wireless computers.

Access Point Laptop The router is routing between the stuff on the left and the stuff on the right. The network on the right is made up of the switch, the access point, and all the computers. The switch and the access point bridge all their connections to each other, which is how a small network grows. Thankfully, you rarely have to worry about this because most routers you buy combine the router, the switch, and the wireless access point.

If you need to connect some wired computers in, then make sure your router has enough ports, or that you’ve got an extra switch that you can connect to the router to add the ports. You might be surprised at what one access point will do, especially if you’re using If that one access point leaves you with dead spots in your house, try moving the access point around if you can , to see if that helps.

If that doesn’t clean up those pesky dead spots, then you have to look at alternatives. Upgrading your antenna Your access point may have removable antennas, in which case you can try to find a better antenna. The short, plastic antennas that are what you prob- ably got with your access point the highly technical term for these are a rubber ducky antenna are optimized to spray radio energy in all directions such as a big sphere. Other antennas are made to spray in one direction, or in a doughnut shape.

Changing your antenna is becoming a less attractive option as time goes on. Some access points have moved to internal antennae, and with the multiple antennas in Adding more devices is becoming so cheap that worrying about your antenna is probably not worth it. Repeaters and range extenders The easiest approach is to add repeaters, or range extenders, to your net- work. These devices listen to the existing wireless network and rebroadcast the signal. Because of this, you can expect a repeater to increase your wire- less range by about percent in one direction, as shown in Figure Figure A wireless range extender in action.

As you can see from Figure , the range extender has to be inside the coverage area of the main access point white circle. This scenario has a fair bit of overlap between the two radios: a large part of the extended coverage area dark circle is already covered by the main access point. When shopping for range extenders, also remember that some wireless access points can be configured as a repeater, which is the same thing.

They both do a fine job of extending the signal, but knowing that you have the two options helps you comparison shop.

Creating multiple access points The solution that gives you the best range is to use multiple access points and then to bridge them together. Figure shows how this works. However, the two access points must somehow be connected over the wired network. Given that the benefit of wireless is avoiding wires, this option is cumbersome to set up. Figure does show some overlap between the two access points, so that there is no dead zone between the two.

Multiple access points can also be helpful if an entire floor is inaccessible from the main access point. A repeater won’t work in your basement if the If If beating With Wired Devices signal isn’t strong enough, and your only option might be to run a cable between two access points.

You may have a PC or a video game console that doesn’t have a wireless adapter. Consider replacing your computer with one that has built-in wireless capa- bility. But if you can’t do that, you got three options: Wire it, upgrade it, or bridge it. Wiring a computer The first option is to simply embrace your device’s lack of wireless and run a cable from your router to computer. Your router probably has a switch built in, which is a device that’s there to provide several wired ports.

Figure shows the switch ports on the back of a router. Figure Switch ports on the back of your router. In theory, wiring a computer is easy. If your computer is in the same room as the router, then run a cable of appropriate length between the two devices, and you’re set. If your computer is in another room, you’ll have to think of the least disruptive way to get there. The cable simply plugs into one of the switch ports on the router on one end, and into the Ethernet port of your computer on the other.

Run the cable along the baseboard of your wall if you can, or under a strate- gically placed rug. Avoid bare cable, it just looks bad and people tend to trip over them, especially when carrying fragile things. If you do have to drill, try to drill in closets to avoid an ugly mess. You may also see category 6 cable or some fancy thing with connectors coated in pre- cious metals, but for a home network you’d just be throwing your money away.

Even better, find a friend with cabling experience to do the work for you in exchange for dinner. Wiring up your computer works, but you bought a book on wireless net- working, not wired networking. Unless your computer is really close to your router, avoid the mess and pick one of the other options. Upgrading a computer Most computers have some expansion slots that let you add peripherals, such as network cards, to your computer without having to buy a com- pletely new computer.

With this option, you go out and buy the appropriate adapter for your computer, and then install it. The key here is to make sure that you’ve got the right adapter for your com- puter. Computers are getting faster and smaller, and the expansion cards follow the trend.

The traditional method is to install a PCI card that’s peripheral compo- nent interconnect, for those of you who need to know these things , which is a card that goes into specially designed slots right on the motherboard of your computer.

The slots are aligned such that one edge of your card sticks outside your computer’s case, which allows for easy connection of an antenna. Chapter 1 of this minibook shows a PCI-based network card. Most computers that you buy will have a free PCI slot, but the only way to make certain is to check. You should see at least one blank panel on the back of your computer it’s about 4 inches high and slightly over half an inch wide. If you open your case, you can see an empty slot for the card.

Opening the case isn’t for everyone, and improvements in the Universal Serial Bus USB have made it possible to get the same speeds without the hassle. If your computer has a free USB 2. Figure shows the USB slot from a typical desktop computer.

When buying an adapter for a desktop machine, be it USB or PCI, keep in mind where your computer is and where the antenna would be. An antenna that’s buried under a pile of books, or is stuck in a cabinet, will not per- form as well as one that’s got room to breathe. I’d recommend an external antenna with a cable for PCI cards. USB adapters are also used with laptops, so are often designed to be small. You can take a USB adapter with an integrated antenna and attach a USB extension cable to it if your desk layout hides the antenna.

Your adapter might come with this cable — check the box to make sure. Laptops Laptops follow the same idea as desktops; however, the technologies are different. If your laptop doesn’t have wireless built in or it’s an older tech- nology and you want to update , then you can go down the USB route, or an adapter.

USB devices for laptops work the same way as they do on desktops, except that you want something that’s small and unobtrusive. Before you buy, look at where your USB ports are. If you dock your laptop, consider whether or not you need wireless while docked. The other option for laptops is a peripheral card, much like the PCI card from a desktop. Laptops are a bit more refined, though; they have standard card types that plug into the side of the computer.

The name is also better, don’t you think? Laptops have been shipping with ExpressCard since at least , so chances are you already have an ExpressCard slot. You might also have a PC Card slot. The two types of cards are available in the same width and not compatible , so it’s not obvious from looking which one you have. If you look at the pins inside the slot for the card you might need a flash- light, and will certainly need to pop out the plastic holder , you find that PC Cards have a wide connector, almost 2 inches wide, and have protruding pins.

The ExpressCard’s connector is slightly over an inch wide and has more of a card interface. To make things even more confusing, ExpressCards come in two widths. The connector is the same, but you can’t use the 54mm card in a 34mm slot! There should be a plastic guide inside the slot, though, that allows you to use the 34mm card in the 54mm adapter.

Figure shows the two ExpressCard variants. IfO beating With Wired Devices When in doubt, check out the documentation that came with your computer, especially the sales brochure. Bridging a computer Bridging is remarkably simple — you buy a device that speaks wireless on one side and has a network jack on the other.

This device bridges the wire- less to the wired, so that the computer thinks it’s on a wired network, but everything it sends goes out to the wireless network.

This option is great for video game consoles, where you may not have flex- ibility in what you can add. Some models can behave as a bridge for use at home and a standalone access point if you and a bunch of friends decide to get together with your consoles or computers and play multiplayer games. For most of you, this will be the most foreign part of the whole process. Don’t worry! In terms of difficulty, I rank this as easier than setting up a home entertainment system and slightly harder than falling off a log.

In this chapter, I discuss the router. If you bought some network adapters, you can set those aside for now. First, you get acquainted with the equip- ment, and then I explain how to put it together and get it going!

For those of you with foggy memories, or who skipped ahead, the router is the device that connects your home network to the Internet. The router hides all your internal computers and acts as a firewall, which helps to protect you from the bad guys out there. Your router probably has wireless built in, so it’s going to take care of getting your wireless computers connected.

Unpacking the Box Clear off a table and start unpacking the router box. Thankfully, you can better. Be care- For ADSL setups, you can move your modem ful, though, especially if you had someone from to any phone jack.

You have to make sure that the cable company come out and set up your all the other phones in your house have a filter equipment. The installers for cable modems on them, which prevents noise from the phone optimize your house wiring to give the best from interfering with the Internet signal. Ideally, this area is as close to the center of your house as possible, to maximize the wireless range. So, you’ve found a central location with a bit of breathing room for the router. It’s near a power outlet, and is out of the way enough that you’re not going to trip over it.

Grab some masking tape and a marker before you start setting things up. Tag your cables as you go along so that someone looking for a free outlet doesn’t pull your cable modem’s plug, or you don’t forget which port plugs into what, should they get separated.

Plugging Everything Together Before you start hooking equipment up, throw together a quick picture of what you’re trying to build. Figure shows an example of a network. Starting on the left, you have your cable modem, which is probably already plugged into your phone or cable line. The cable modem hooks into the exter- nal side of your router. Your router connects wirelessly to your workstations, and optionally through a wired interface to any devices that need it.

While you’re configuring your network, you can connect your PC to the router using an Ethernet cable. After you’ve set up the router, you can begin using your wireless network.

To help you find it, I’ve taken a picture of my cable modem in Figure An Ethernet jack looks a lot like a regular telephone jack, except the Ethernet jack is wider than the phone jack. Your router connects your internal network to the Internet. It’s expecting the Internet to be on a certain port.

Hook up the power adapter to your router and give it a few minutes to get started. You should see lights on both your cable or DSL modem and the router, indicating that a connection was made. Sometimes the light is right underneath the port itself, sometimes it’s on the front of the device. Unplug the power from your router until you’re ready to set it up. When plugging in an Ethernet cable, it should click.

Give the cable a gentle tug. It should not fall out of the port that it’s plugged in. Piuqqinq your computer Into the router Now that you’ve found the Internet port on the router, the inside ports should be pretty easy. They are likely numbered and in a group, possibly with a label like Ethernet.

Plug a cable from your computer’s Ethernet port into the first Ethernet port on the router. Now you should have something like Figure Congratulations, the hardest part is over! It’s time to configure the router. Configuring the Router Dj Figure The laptop, router, and cable modem all hooked up. Even if everything works for you, going through the configuration steps is a good idea. Doing so improves your security, you can upgrade your router’s software to the latest version, and you might even find it fun!

Depending on the router you buy, it may come with a CD that takes you through the configuration section. Feel free to use it, because they gener- ally do a good job. You should still read through this section because it describes the settings you want to look at, and you may have to resort to the method we describe below.

I’m also using a Netgear router. If you have something different, the screens will look different but the process will be similar. If you are having problems with a step here, jump over to Chapter 8 for some troubleshooting information. The URL you enter is either printed on the router or is in the manual that came with your router.

Maybe your dog ate your instruction manual before you got a chance to copy down the URL, and it’s not on your router. That’s fine — there’s a way to find it. From the Windows Start menu, click on Run. A pop-up box appears above the Start button, asking which program you want to run.

Type in cmd and press the Enter key. A black window opens. Type ipconfig and press the Enter key. I’ve pasted what I see. Your window should look something like Figure Look for the line starting with Default Gateway. The gateway is Figure Determining your IP address and gateway. If you don’t have an address, or it starts with You see a status light on both the router and the computer’s Ethernet port if you have a connection. Whichever way you find it, open up your Web browser and enter the address of your router.

After connecting, you are challenged to log in, as shown in Figure File E0k View i-iiiWiy Bookmark? You can also try a username of admin and a password of passwordior many models. If you lost your manual, the site www. After you’ve logged in, your router will probably check for software updates. If you are prompted to upgrade your router, you should do so.

If you got an error that no Internet connection could be found, don’t panic! You might need to make the changes in the next section. After the router upgrade completes, for better or worse, you are sent to the wizard no, not the pointy hat kind! I mean the menus that help you set up your Internet connection. Setting up the Internet connection The first stage of the configuration wizard is the Internet setup.

Figure shows the initial question that asks if you want the router to determine the Internet connection type. Let the detection process proceed, because it can save you some time. After the detection runs, you are given an option to review your settings and to fill in any missing information about your Internet connection.

Figure shows the configuration screen for the Internet connection. Helpful information related to Ihe selected Settings jiage appears in this column l[ you are using Internet Explorer, you may click an item in the center column to lump directly to the related help section, otherwise, stroll down until vou reach It.

Basic Settings Help rwise, Note: If you are setting uptherouiei t’oi the first time, the default setimgs may work for vou with no changes. The Internet IP address is filled in but grayed out because the router detected the Internet connection properly. Cable Internet generally doesn’t require a login. If you have ADSL, it depends on your provider. If your ISP gave you a username and password when you signed up, or if the detection failed, then you probably need a login.

If you had to run software such as the WinPoET on your computer to get on the Internet, then you need a login. If you do need a login, follow these steps. Your screen changes to something such as Figure When in doubt, call your ISP and ask. Login This is usually the name that you Ui address. If your ISP leciunes vuui full e-mail addi ess. Enter the login information your Internet service provider gave you, and then scroll to the bottom and select Apply. Doing so resets your router.

Confirm you have an Internet address by selecting Router Status from the main menu. If all went well you see an address on the Internet port. The status light on the router corresponding to the Internet port also changes to green. Your router is taking care of logging in for you. Congratulations, you’re on the Internet! Working With uour ISP Some Internet service providers are picky about who they let on the Internet and will not let you on from a different computer. This situation is most often the case with cable modems, because the ADSL service with a login identifies people by the login.

From the ISP’s perspective, your router is now the only person using the Internet because all your local devices are hidden behind it. The first thing to do is to reboot your cable modem. Doing this clears out any computer associations should the restriction be made on the cable modem. If that doesn’t work, try plugging your computer directly into the cable modem another reason I told you to label your cables! If your computer works but the modem doesn’t, then you need your ISP to intervene.

Give your ISP a call and tell them that you just installed a new router and are having problems connecting. Ask if you’re being restricted based on your computer. Also let them know the outcome of plugging in the computer. If you aren’t getting anywhere with your ISP, and your computer works but the router doesn’t, you can tell the router to act like your computer.

Increasing security Security is a tradeoff between the risk of something bad happening and the frustration you’re going to encounter trying to prevent it. We could talk for hours about all the things you could do to keep bad guys out, but in the next couple of sections, I focus on some simple fixes that can make a big difference.