Lesson 1- Configuring the Router
Overview
In Lesson 1 we begin by logging into the router and creating an admin password making sure know one but you can get into the routers configuration. We then go through the settings required to get the router and the modem to connect to each other. Next we go to the wireless network settings and make changes so that only your computers can get onto the network. We will connect our computers to the router and get them online in Section 4.
Recommended Networking Hardware
Logging into the Router
We're using the desktop computer located in the home office the one that we connected directly to the router with an ethernet cable. To configure the router were going to use Internet Explorer here and you have to enter the IP address of the router and typically this is 192.168.0.1 and on some routers it's actually 1.1 will change it to zero and press enter.
We're at the routers login screen and the user name we will use is admin. Depending the router the password will either be admin also or it will just be blank. If the IP address or the username and password don't work for your router look on the bottom of the router and there's always a sticker with the IP address of the router as well as its default username and password. On this one it's blank for password so we'll just login.
Setting the Admin Password
Now that's not very secure having no password or having it just be admin for the user and admin for the password so the first thing we'll do is set a password to get into the router. To do that we'll go to tools and the admin password we will enter one it's best to use numbers and letters not just a simple word. This router also has a user password that we'll also set, most routers do not have this.
On a Linksys router to set the administrator password you to go administration and it's just called local router access. We'll save the settings and it tells us that when you reboot to make this setting takes effect. Rebooting the router is just like your computer rebooting when you go to start and shutdown and restart, only this only takes about 15 seconds where as your computer can take minutes.
Okay back at the logon screen will type in the password we just put in and press enter. Next will make sure the router and the modem can see each other. We'll go to setup and we're on the Internet connection screen. This router has a wizard it can walk you through to help you set up the connection to the modem. Were going to use the manual Internet connection set up just so we can show you all the configuration options and walking through them.
Connecting to the Modem
Now the Internet connection type, the default on most routers will be a dynamic IP. This means that the router goes out to a DHCP server that your Internet service provider has setup to get its configuration information and IP address. Most cable modems use this Internet connection type. If we click this we see we also have an option for a static IP. A static IP is also sometime used by cable modems mostly for business lines where instead of going out to a DHCP server to get the IP address you enter one manually as well as sometime you also have to put in a gateway and a couple of DNS servers. This is all information you would get from your cable provider.
The next one is a PPPoE, this is used by DSL modems. It can either be a dynamic IP or static. Static again is where you click and enter the IP address. You also have to put in a username and password and some other information that you would get from your DSL provider. This is all information that you would ordinarily put into the network setup of a computer directly connected to the modem but instead since this router sitting between the computers and your modem you enter the information here.
The next one down is a PPTP. This connection type is mostly used in Europe and Israel. There is also L2TP also used in Europe and the next one down at the bottom on this router there's an option for big pond which is an ISP located in Australia.
On a Linksys router the Internet connection type is set on the main screen under setup and basic setup. If we like it we'll see that the options are very similar to our D-Link router with options enter static IP address, gateway, subnet mask, DNS just like in the D-Link router and of course the different connection protocols that are available.
The modem were using as a cable modem and it gets its information from a DHCP server. We don't have to enter any of this information it just gets it automatically from the server. We haven't made any changes so we don't need to save anything. If you had to enter information here for your modem and you click save settings it will ask you to reboot. On this D-Link router for the status page it shows us the network status established and the connection up time of about eight minutes. As well as an IP address, a subnet mask, gateway, DNS server, IP address information it got from the DHCP server.
On a Linksys router the status pages at the top right and it gives you very similar information. The router name the IP address it's getting from the cable modem, subnet mask, a default gateway and some DNS. If we open up another tab here in Internet Explorer if we go to lets say Google we do indeed have a Internet connection.
Wireless Configuration
Now let's set the router up so we can share this connection with all of our other wireless devices. Will go back to the configuration. On this router you go to set up, wireless settings and this also has a wireless network setup wizard where it will walk us through the configuration. We'll choose the manual wireless network set up so again we can show you all the different options.
By default it's enabled the wireless network. The wireless network name is D-Link. That's the default that D-Link routers ship with. Linksys routers are usually Linksys for the network name. We're going to change that to something else. We'll call it "homenet". You can call it anything you like but for security reasons try not to use anything that's personally identifiable to you like your name.
This router here has an option to change the 802.11 mode. Its set as mixed with wireless N, wireless G and wireless B. If you click that you have options to set it to any one of the standards only or different mixes of the different wireless standards. Were going to set it to a 802.11 N and G because that's the two kinds of wireless devices were going to have on this network.
If you have all N wireless network devices you can set it to N only and that will improve the speed a little bit. By having mixed N and G the transfer speeds between computers are a little bit slower.
The next option you'll find on most routers is a wireless channel to use. This D-Link router has auto channel scanning if we uncheck this we can see it's on channel 6 and he gives you the gigahertz. There is a list of channels we can choose. What this allows for is so that several routers can be in the same range as one another and not interfere with each other.
If you're having trouble with your wireless network there may be another wireless network perhaps that your neighbor has that using the same channel and you can change this setting to a different channel to hopefully get rid of the interference. Were going to leave it set to auto channel scan and it will figure out what channels best to use on the fly.
There is an option for a transmission rate. You can choose different options. We'll just let it do automatic.
The channel width here is set to 20 MHz by default.
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