@Home: Wireless Network Project

1. @Home: Wireless Network Project Allison Ernst COSC171, 06/04/10

2. Project Requirements Imagine you are living in a house with three other students and everyone has a PC (laptop or desktop). Determine what you would need to purchase to create a home wireless network (based on 802.11g) that would enable all four of you to access the Internet with only a single subscription to a high-speed Internet provider (either cable or DSL). • Casually interview someone with home wireless network experience. Consider family members, neighbors, Facebook • friends, online blogs, and cable companies. Ask questions that will help you plan for your network: where are the modem • and wireless router located? What devices are connected? How much does monthly access cost? Where did you purchase • your modem and/or router? Is your printer wireless? What software is needed? Are passwords used? Any other helpful • hints? • Establish your fictitious home network needs, including the number/ages of people, devices, and physical layout of the • apt/home. • Choose and define five terms related to home networks. See textbook and online resources. • Search for sample home network diagrams on the Web. Insert a sample, with source cited, in your project. • Use Inspiration 9.0, a graphic organizer, to diagram your home network plan. Include the network hub, four computers, at • least one printer, and any other devices you want to connect. Provide details of each device. Use several network symbols • (from Inspiration or Web) in the diagram. Use arrows to connect diagram. Insert a textbox with your name. • Choose a wireless router and find prices from three different sources, including an online auction (i.e. Ebay), online • classified site (i.e. Craig's list), and store. • View the sample Home Wireless Network presentation created for COSC171. Create a similar presentation, using • PowerPoint or OpenOffice present, to share your home wireless network plans and diagram. Demonstrate understanding of • network terminology within your final project.

3. Interview – Networking About Networking • For this project, I interviewed my dad, Rob Ernst. I interviewed him over dinner on Thursday night, casually asking him questions about our home network. • Where are the Modem and Wireless Router located? In the basement piano studio, sitting on top of a desk. Because the house is of modest size (two floor rambler), the router has no trouble broadcasting to all rooms in the house. However, there is a substantially weaker signal (2 to 3 bars) in the living room because it is on the second floor and at the opposite end of the house. If you want to be wireless, it’s probably best to be somewhere in the basement to get the strongest and fastest signal. However, we haven’t had many problems. • What devices are connected? Three desktop computers, three laptops, two phones, and an Xbox 360. • How much does monthly access cost? Through Verizon, we pay $19.99 a month for access. This is in addition to our phone bill, as DSL is an extra charge on top of phone service. However, the startup cost is more because the router cost $55 dollars and replacing the router in September cost us another $55. • What software is needed? All the computers and the Xbox automatically recognize the wireless signal, so, to the best of my knowledge, no additional software is needed. • Are passwords used? We don’t want anybody stealing our internet access, and in a housing development with fairly few obstructions between homes, you could easily pick up someone else’s signal. Thus, we’ve continued to use the same randomized password the network came with when it was setup. It’s a pain if someone wants to come over and visit and use their laptop, but we’ve put a sticky note with the password on the router, and everybody’s computer is setup to remember “cookies” to keep us able to log in even if we’ve been away and on other wireless networks.

4. My Wireless Network Needs • For this project, I’ve chosen to create a network for four single students living off-campus in a two-bedroom apartment. • The devices I’ve chosen to include in this home network are 4 computers (3 laptops and one desktop), 1 printer, 1 Wii, 1 Blackberry Phone and 1 iPod Touch. • See the diagram below for the apartment layout.

5. Common Network Terminology • DSL (Digital Subscriber Line) – A technology that brings high-speed internet to homes or businesses by sharing lines with telephone lines that carry voice calls. • Modem – Short for modulator/demodulator. A hardware device that connects a computer to a telephone line. • Router – Hardware devices that route messages between networks. • BPS (bits per second) – The measurement for modem transmission speeds. • WEP Key – Stands for Wired Equivalent Privacy – an encryption scheme that improves the security of wireless networks. There are many terms associated with home networking. Here’s five helpful terms to know!

6. Sample Wireless Network Diagram Source: http://z.about.com/d/compnetworking/1/0/l/3/wired-diagram-3.jpg

7. My Wireless Network Diagram HP Laptop Computer Toshiba Laptop Computer Blackberry Phone HP Desktop Computer Macbook Laptop Computer iPod Touch HP Printer Wii Game Console

8. Wireless Router Price Comparison • Product Description: Linksys Wireless-N Broadband Router WRT160N Wireless router, The Ultra RangePlus Wireless-N Broadband Router is really three devices in one box. First, there's the Wireless Access Point, which lets you connect to the network without wires. There's also a built-in 4-port full-duplex 10/100 Switch to connect your wired-Ethernet devices together. Finally, the Router function ties it all together and lets your whole network share a high-speed cable or DSL Internet connection. • Amazon.com - $34.99 • Walmart.com - $79.54 • Ebay.com - $32.99 Product Description: http://www.google.com/products/catalog?oe=UTF-8&gfns=1&q=linksys+WRT160N&um=1&ie=UTF-8&cid=8655819641630219606&ei=lToJTOXaLcT7lweu-4i3Dg&sa=X&oi=product_catalog_result&ct=result&resnum=3&ved=0CDwQ8wIwAg# Price Comparisons: http://www.amazon.com/Cisco-Linksys-WRT160N-RM-Refurbished-Wireless-N-Router/dp/B001VMAYAM http://www.walmart.com/ip/Linksys-WRT160N-Wireless-N-Ultra-RangePlus-Broadband Router/8466730?sourceid=1500000000000003142050&ci_src=14110944&ci_sku=8466730 http://cgi.ebay.com/LINKSYS-WRT160N-WIRELESS-N-WIFI-ROUTER-ULTRA-RANGEPLUS-/120534044477?cmd=ViewItem&pt=COMP_EN_Routers&hash=item1c10638f3d

9. Summary of Learning This project taught me a lot about home networks. In addition to the amount of vocabulary I learned this week, I learned how to apply what I’d learned and design a functioning home network. While using PowerPoint went fairly smoothly and I had no trouble creating a slideshow, I was surprised at how lost I was once I opened Inspiration and began using the program! It took me about ten minutes to even find where I could draw a straight line. Once I overcame the initial frustration of locating things within the program, I found it to be very user friendly. It was very easy to organize my diagram by dragging icons on the diagram and resizing them as needed. Drawing up my diagram on the computer using Inspiration made my home network much clearer and easier to understand than the scribbles I had made on a piece of paper. I can see myself using Inspiration for organization of diagrams or plans for things outside of this class in the near future. This project also helped me articulate what I’d learned about home networking. In interviewing my dad, I could see how home networks really aren’t a scary, hard to understand world. In fact, they’re very easy to understand, set-up and maintain. I was very excited to be able to understand the interview and things I read online about home networks now that I have a grasp on a wide variety of terms in the networking world. By increasing my competency through this week’s lesson, I feel fully equipped to handle setting up and maintaining a home network once I leave Messiah’s campus.