The life of a code monkey

Simple home network setup that anyone can do

On several occasions I have been asked to help setup someone’s home network. I hope this guide helps those of you who have the confidence to do it but lack the know-how. Often home router will come with a disk that will assist you in setting up your router as part of a network. If you follow these directions you will not need that disk. 

This guide will merely guide you in setting up a network so that multiple PCs can access the internet through a single router. 

The Pieces and Basics

To start off lets identify the key components of a home network.

• Modem. Regardless of whether you have cable, or DSL your ISP (Internet service provider, aka the person you pay every month so you can have internet access) will provide you with some magical box that lets a computer connect to the internet. For cable modems these boxes will have one wire to connect to your cable line, and another wire to connect to a computer. For DSL modems there will be a wire to connect to the phone line (and often a second jack to plug a phone, if you plug these in backwards it wont work) and a second wire to connect to your computer.
• Router. Think of this as a splitter for your internet connection. The modem only has one wire to plug into a computer so the router is going to take that one wire and split its internet-live-giving-connectivity to multiple computers. 
• PC. This should be obvious, but you will need multiple computers. After all that is the entire point of the router; to split the connection multiple ways. Although any computer will work, I am a PC guy who favors Windows so all of my directions will be targeting Windows 98, ME, 2000, 2k3, XP, Vista, and 7 (yes these directions are pretty much universal, I will try to point out differences when they arise)
• Ethernet cable. This is the primary cable that you will use to connect the components together. The ends look like over-sized phone cord ends.
• Command prompt. Several times in this tutorial I will reference “opening a command prompt.” To do this, hold down the windows key and press R. This will open the run dialog. Type in “cmd” (older operating system also use “command”) and and press OK. The command prompt will show up (black window with a little flashing cursor). At this point you can enter a command and press Enter to execute the command. I will always surround the commands you will need to enter in quotation marks. Do not type these when entering a command, they are simply there so you can see the text that should be entered.
• Ping. This is a quick to determine if your computer can connect to another computer or device. Here is an example of pinging google to see if you computer has internet access (if you computer can connect to www.google.com I assume that you will have no problem with any other web sites). To execute the ping open a command prompt (see above). Type if the command “ping www.google.com”. You will see something like:
  Pinging www.l.google.com [74.125.127.147] with 32 bytes of data:
  Reply from 74.125.127.147: bytes=32 time=16ms TTL=54
  …
  There is a lot of information that is displayed on the screen. All we are concerned with is if we see lines that start with “Reply from…” This indicates that our computer has successfully connected to www.google.com. 
  Rather then seeing a reply you might see:
  Request timed out. 
  or
  Ping request could not find host www.google.com…
  In both cases it means that your computer was unable to connect to www.google.com and you need to figure out where the connection problem is located.
• IP Address. All computers and devices have IP addresses. Think of these like house addresses. When computers need to send letter to each other over the internet (say viewing a web page) they need the IP address of the computer they are sending the letter to. Often in this guide I will tell you to retrieve your IP address to make sure your computer has one and that it is within an acceptable range. To retrieve your IP address open a command prompt (see above). Enter the command “ipconfig” and press enter. you are looking for a line that begins with “IP Address” or “IPv4 Address.” The address will be in the format x.x.x.x (ie. 192.168.1.2, or 172.28.1.166). When checking your IP address there may be several network adapters that show up. You can ignore any adapter that has a Media State of “Media disconnected.” You are only concerned with the connection that you have plugged in.
   

The Initial Setup

I always advocate starting small, testing, then adding more pieces. So for now put the router aside; we are going to setup a single PC with the modem and verify that it works. 

Connect the modem to the PC using the Ethernet cable and power on both devices. Check your IP Address (see above). Make sure that it is not 0.0.0.0. Next attempt to ping www.google.com to verify that you have an internet connection (yes you could just open a web browser and try to navigate to www.google.com but using the command prompt makes you look smarter). Once you have verified that you have an internet connection, give yourself a pat on the back and move onto the next section. If your internet connection is not working consult your ISP, typically they offer support for this type of setup.

The Final Setup

Now lets remove the PC from the modem that we connected in the previous section, and get the router that we had set aside. Examine the router to find the internet port. Often it will be set aside from the other ports, and many manufacturers will mark it (consult the documentation that came with your router if you have trouble locating it). Connect the Ethernet cable from your modem to the internet port on the router, and power on the router. Next connect your PC to one of the other ports on the router.

Once again check your computer’s IP address. It will be different then it was in the previous section. If your computer does not have an IP address (ie the IP Address is 0.0.0.0) consult the Troubleshooting section below. While looking at the command prompt make a note of the IP address for the Default Gateway, you will need this later. 

Now try to ping www.google.com. If it succeeds then congratulations; you have a working network. You should now be able to connect multiple computers to the router and have all of them browse the internet.

Now grab the IP address of the default gateway (you should have made a note of it earlier). This is the IP address of the router (remember all devices have to have an address so they can send messages to each other, this includes routers). Open a web browser (Internet Explorer, Firefox, Chrome, Safari, Opera, etc.) and type in that IP address where you would normally type in a web page address (the address bar). You will be prompted to enter a username and password. Consult your documentation for your router to find the default username and password. 

Now it is important to note that every router is different. I am going to provide some abstract directions here that should help guide you to the correct menus. When in doubt consult your routers manual. 

The first setting that we need to change in the password that we just used to log into the router. Typically you can find this under “Basic Settings” “Administration” or “Security” menu. If you forget this password see the Troubleshooting section below for resetting it. 

If your router supports wireless (often you will see Wifi, 802.11, or little antennas on the router) you will want to add a password to the wireless signal as well. 

Troubleshooting

Often if you are having trouble getting things to work power down all of the devices; the power then back on starting with the modem, then the router, then the PC(s). At each device wait for the previous device to fully turn on before turning on the next device.

I can’t log into my router/I don’t have the username or password

Home routers all have a reset button on them. Often it is a little pin hole that you will need a pen to press and hold for about ten seconds (consult your manual for specifics). This will return your router to its initial state; meaning that you will need to re-configure all of your settings. If you have lost your manual and are unsure, what the default password is, you can look on http://www.phenoelit-us.org/dpl/dpl.html to locate it.

I can ping my router/www.google.com but I can’t browse the internet 

If the ping returns with replies then the internet connection is working properly. Typically this type of problem is caused by a configuration issue in your web browser. 

Open Internet Explorer. Click on Tools»Internet Options. Select the Connections tab. Make sure that the radio button “Never dial a connection” is either disabled or checked. Next click on the “LAN settings” button. The “Automatically detect settings” check box should be checked and all others should be unchecked. 

I can ping my router but not www.google.com

This type of issue means that there is a connection issue somewhere between your router and google. Start by plugging your modem directly into your PC and try again. If this works then check your router configuration (possibly try resetting the router). If it does not work then there is a problem with the modems connection. Check to verify that the modem acknowledges that there is connection to the PC (most has a light that will turn on when a connection is made). Also check to make sure that there is a light on at the computer where the Ethernet cable is plugged in. If the connections are working consult your modem’s manual or contact your ISP for further assistance.