Home Network

Finally, after toying with the idea for years, I purchased a wireless router/switch yesterday at Best Buy so that I can create a network at home. Of course, I only have one computer at home (desktop) and one computer from work (laptop), but I plan to buy another computer soon. It will be nice to be able to share resources such as my scanner, printer, Internet connection, etc. I bought a Linksys router. Linksys is a division of Cisco systems, probably one of the companies that Cisco bought out in the past 5 years. According to CNET, the Linksys router is a good choice, and easy to set up. Networking terminology confuses me, and security confuses me even further, but I am excited to see if I can get it working. We are going to have a wired (or wireless) house!!

Update: Well, after fiddeling around with the settings of the router, the encryption and both my desktop and laptop computers for about 2 hours, I finally enabled a wireless connection to the Internet from my laptop. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to figure out the encryption. I set it up on the router using my desktop computer, but I couldn't figure out what the encryption key was supposed to be. When I tried to access the network from my laptop, it asked me for an encryption key, and I didn't know what it was. I had an encryption passcode, but this did not work. So, for the time being, I disabled the encryption security. Probably not a good solution long term, but it allows me faster access I'm sure, and at least I got to see a connection working! To my surprise, I had a couple of other wireless connections available to me in the office. If I had checked in the past, these probably would have appeared. I actually was able to connect to the Internet through one of the connections. I didn't mess around with it too much though. I hope nobody messes with mine until I get the encryption figured out. I'll do some picking of technical minds at work to see if anyone can help me. In the meantime, I'm writing this from the living room couch. Cool!

Another task I need to figure out is how to use my printer, scanner, etc. from my laptop. Also, I should be able to access my hard drive on my desktop from my laptop, I think. However, I can't seem to figure it out by just playing around.

Comments

Sean Meade said…
*jealousy*
3:56 PM
Eric said…
Yeah, I probably wouldn't have splurged on this type of a technology if I hadn't received a gift certificate from Best Buy for Christmas. It hums along pretty good on my laptop. It's cool!! Really not all that expensive either. I think I paid $50 after a rebate at Best Buy. Not chump change, but cheaper than I thought it would be.
8:53 PM
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