HowTo: Microsoft: SOHO Network 2: Set up a Router and Workstations using DHCP and Preset TCPIP Ranges for a Small-Office/Home-Office Workgroup on Broadband Internet
Summary: This tutorial shows how to set up a router to feed broadband cable or ADSL/DSL internet to a home, home-office or small office (SOHO) network of computer workstations --and-- how to set up each workstation to accept a TCPIP address assigned by the DHCP server in the router, to form a network of computers that communicate with each other and with the internet.
Background: In this scenario you need to set up, reconfigure or change your small network comprised of from 1 to 5 or so computers. You have a router that has sufficient ethernet ports for your number of computers or if not you have an additional hub or switch to accommodate the requisite number. Your computers/worstations run windows operating systems, 98 second edition, 2000 or XP. [If you have millenium edition you should upgrade it to 2000 or XP] This tutorial is in 7 parts
- Section 1: Introducing Networks and the Internet
- Section 2: Connecting the router and computers
- Section 3: Configuring the computers as members of a Workgroup
- Section 4: Configuring the computers to receive an IP address from the router [DHCP]
- Section 5: Power up the router & network
- Section 6: Check the IP addressing of the computers
- Section 7: Configuring the router to connect to the Internet
- Section 8: Web Browser setting to connect to the Internet via a router
Note 1: There are many illustrative images in this HowTo that link via the camera icons
If you have javascript enabled in your browser they should open in a new page. I find it easier to open them in a new tab.
Section 1: Introducing Networks and the Internet:
Networking jargon can be confusing and confronting so I'll introduce some of it here and explain in laymen's terms how they work. A good deal of the jargon is borrowed from everyday life.
Local Area Networks
Comuter Networks carry information from one location [computer] to another. They can be made up of any number from two computers upwards. When physically localised, e.g. to a home or the office at work, with simple connections and communication protocols, the network is a local area network, or LAN. These Small office or home office LANs are sometimes called SOHO networks. If the computers in a LAN are set up pretty much the same, forming a network together as a group of otherwise independent workstations, the LAN can also be called a Workgroup.
Servers & Clients
file:///home/john/swerdotnetOne or more computers in a network can have additional specialsed functions. These computers are often called Servers. For example a computer with a printer attached to it can be set up to receive printer information from other computers in a LAN and print that info on its printer. This computer is called a print server because it provides a printing service for the client computer which sent across the job for printing. Another example: Users in a workgroup might want to work on several computers, or different users might work on the same data. It is efficient in these circumstances to have the data located centrally in a computer called a file server. The file server stores files [documents and so on] ready to be served up to client compters when the user on the client computer asks for it. A web server in a computer attached to the Internet serves web pages to a client computer in my home for display in Firefox, my web browser. And so on etc etc.
Wide Area Networks
There are networks larger that local area networks. These are called Wide Area Networks or WANs. The biggest example of a WAN that I know of is called the Internet. A WAN is a fancy name for a bunch of LAN's - that's all.
Transmission Protocols [TCP/IP]
How do all the signals get around without being garbled? Well of course they need to be coded in a way that allows them to be interpreted when they arrive. They need to conform to a protocol which makes them ready for transmission. They need to adhere to a Transmission Control Protocol, or TCP. There are many sorts of networks and many sorts of TCPs. The one used to hang the Internet together is called the Internet Protocol or IP for short. Thus one subset of the various Transmission Control Protocols is the Internet Protocol [TCPIP or TCP/IP for short].
IP Addressing
Every computer using the TCPIP protocol must have a unique address so the routing devices know where signals are coming from and where they're going. The TCPIP address uses decimal numbers separated by periods and it looks like this:
Internet proticol or IP address: 192.168.1.9 along with Subnet Mask : 255.255.255.99 - these eight numbers are between 0 and 255 inclusive. So when you see something like that you're looking at a the TCPIP address of some device using the TCPIP protocol.
How do devices get their TCPIP addresses? The two most common are to code them in by hand as static IP addresses
or let them be obtained on the fly as dynamic IP addresses.
Translating between user language and IP numbers - Domain Name Servers [DNS]
Here's a little experiment for you: open the command prompt and enter the instruction ping google.com.au -- here's a pic of the transaction
The instruction to reach out to Google's Australian domain name, google.com.au, returned an acknowledgement from Google.au in the form of Google.au's IP address [66.102.7.104]. So there must be something out there that translates between the language of users, i.e. domain names like google.com.au, and the language of computers, i.e IP addresses like 66.102.7.104. These somethings are computers called Domain Name Servers [shortened to DNS in the jargon]. From DNSs you can translate back and forth between IP addresses and domain names. The internet is littered with such computers/DNS servers. If you want to connect to the Internet you need to code the IP address of the DNS you use into the equipment that connects you to the internet, in our case the router. Very frequently your Internet Service Provider maintains a DNS computer for your convenience and you can get their IP addresses to code into your router from Technical Support on the ISP's web pages. It takes about 24 hours for a new domain name and its unique IP address to propagate throughout the world's DNS computers and become available to all. [fascinating stuff]
That's enough jargon. I'm sooo over that stuff! But it did cause me great grief years ago reading networking HowTos [bless the authors' hearts] as an absolute beginner.
Next: have a beer or a cup of tea, or go straight to page 2.
MS Windows Tutorials.
There are only a few at the moment. I will gradually build more.There are five mini HowTo Tutorials in a set. Each HowTo treats a different, independent security program. These are:
Grisoft's AVG Antivirus
virus scanner
Zone Labs' ZoneAlarm
firewall
Lavasoft's Ad Aware
malware cleaner
Javcool's SpywareBlaster
spyware gate
SpyBot's Search & Destroy
registry cleaner
Together, these five quite excellent free programs provide multi faceted and overlapping security not available from single proprietory [i.e. non-free] security package.
Cheers, Swerdna.
