In the first two parts to this article series I discussed how to go about getting broadband internet for student housing, when you strike out on your own in your second year you are left to find your own provider with most landlord treating internet supplies as a luxury. This guide has shown how to get the telephone line activated in yours and your housemate's names and how to look for broadband suppliers. The second part discussed what steps to take in order to let your new broadband provider take over from the previous tenant's provider.
Now in this final part I'll cover what steps you'll need to do in order to make sure that the single internet connection in your house is distributed to everyone who lives in your house through wireless networks. I'll go into how to get everyone online and make sure no one steals your internet!
Now you've sorted your connection out now you need to go about sharing the internet amongst all the residents. This is typically done by plugging your modem into a router instead of a single computer, in the past these things used to mean trailing wires everywhere to connect all the computers to the wired router. If you're a student and you're coming in at stupid o'clock in the morning, stumbling in the dark is going to be made more treacherous with all these cables lying everywhere and is bound to cause a bruise or two; thank god for wireless routers!
Wireless routers do the same job as a wired one but don't have the cables encroaching throughout your house. Plus there's no limit to the amount of devices that can connect to the access point too, you aren't restricted to five connections which is great for modern computers as many people will now have a computer and maybe a video games console that connects to the internet too. Some broadband suppliers offer routers as a part of broadband deals so keep an eye out for these offers; they can save you having to shell out 75 on one yourself.
At this point all you and your friends need to do is plug in a wireless adaptor to your PC and sometimes you won't even have to do that since most modern laptops have built in wireless cards. In some student houses you may find the signal gets pretty weak the further you are from the access point, in which case it would be best to invest in a Wireless N router. Different generations of broadband routers provide different levels of strength, in most cases the previous generation, Wireless G would be sufficient and fairly cheap to get for a typical house, however if you're finding the signal isn't reaching everyone in your house then you may have to invest in a wireless N router and adaptors.
The only remaining issue is the security of your network, you want to pay for yours and your housemate's internet, not for your next door neighbours, so securing your wireless network is vital in order to limit who can connect to your network.
The easiest way to protect your network is to lock it down with a private key; this essentially puts a password on your internet access which only the authorised people know. In a student-filled area this is vital since if people can get something without paying for it then they'll surely try their luck. I've known people who've connected to unprotected networks as well as people who have had people trying to use their internet without asking. If someone uses your internet then it may end up experiencing a drop in speed which is definitely not something you'd want.
One issue you may find with sharing a low speed connection is that it may not be quick enough to provide acceptable speeds to all the people connected so you may end up having to look into upgrading your speed. Use a broadband speed test to see if you're getting an acceptable speed, if not then your house may need an upgrade!
access point vs router
Niciun comentariu:
Trimiteți un comentariu