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| Selecting A Home Network Kit |
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Wiring The Home June 2000 • Vol.8 Issue 6 Page(s) 48-54 in print issue |
Selecting A Home Network Kit Choose The Right Tools For Putting PCs In Touch | ||
 If it hasn't happened already, it probably won't be long before you own more than one home computer. Soon after, you'll want them to share resources. Mom or Dad may want to transfer files from their company notebook PCs to the home-office PC or print to the family's personal laser printer. The kids may want to battle it out with a multiplayer game running between their PC and the home-office PC. Everyone will want to access the Internet connection. Computer networking companies now offer a wide range of home networking packages. The kits often come bundled with consumer goodies such as network games and software that let more than one home PC access the Internet. Easy-to-understand instructions also distinguish these products from the SOHO (small office/home office) network starter kits. Within the home network category, you'll find different technology options. Basic home networking kits are designed for networking computers in the same room. Two alternate solutions exist for anyone who needs to connect computers in several rooms. The first uses existing home wiring such as phone or power lines, and the second solution uses radio technology to broadcast and receive network packets. Today, some basic home networking kits are faster than either the existing home wiring or wireless solutions, but you shouldn't discount the convenience the latter solutions offer. Before buying a kit, spend time analyzing your home to identify the location of each computer and its proximity to electrical and telephone outlets. If you are already using a particular type of networking product, make sure it can operate with the network kit you're planning to buy.  Basic Kits. In addition to the instructions and software extras, the basic do-it-yourself kit offers two NICs (network interface cards) that are installed into the PCs, 15- or 20-foot lengths of cabling for connecting the cards to the network, and a type of switch- box used to connect the network together. The switchbox is called either a network hub or a network switch. These kits typically use Ethernet technology. It's fairly simple and dependable, though it can slow down due to network congestion as large numbers of network devices try to communicate at the same time, or when a high amount of information is flowing through the network. The speed of the network card and the type of cable used to link the devices also govern the network's speed. Ethernet networks now come in two speed ranges. Standard Ethernet devices operate at 10Mbps (megabits per second), and Fast Ethernet can run at either 10Mbps or 100Mbps. Network hubs and switches normally use telephone-style wiring known as UTP (unshielded twisted wire pair). UTP wiring can use either six-conductor connectors called RJ-11 connectors or eight-conductor connectors called RJ-45 connectors. These are the same types of connectors used in the telephone industry. If you've connected a modem to your telephone wall jack, you've used a cable with RJ-11 connectors. The RJ-45 connectors look the same, only wider. The cable used to link Fast Ethernet computers must be of higher quality than that used with standard Ethernet. Cable that works at Fast Ethernet speeds is called Category 5, or Cat 5 cable, but standard 10Mbps Ethernet devices can also use Cat 5 cable. This is handy to know when checking out the back of the Ethernet starter kit packaging. Remember that when you mix standard Ethernet devices and Fast Ethernet devices on a network, the network will have to run at the lower speed. If you buy a kit with a 10Mbps network hub and two Fast Ethernet NICs, the network will run at 10Mbps. NICs fit into one of two types of computer bus expansion slots. NICs with ISA (Industry Standard Architecture) connectors can be used in PCs with 486 processors, as well as the newest Pentium processors. The downside of using an ISA NIC is that you'll need to manually adjust the NIC settings, which should be explained in the NIC's instruction manual. NICs using PCI (Peripheral Component Interconnect) connectors are designed to operate in Pentium-class computers, which support Plug-and-Play features for automatically adjusting card settings. PCI cards also let the computer's processor communicate directly with PCI peripheral devices without having to use a slower peripheral controller chip on the computer's motherboard. This results in a more responsive network connection. The network hub lets all connected network devices communicate with each other, but if two network devices are talking to each other, others will have to wait. As mentioned earlier, when more devices try to communicate with each other, the network slows down. A network switch overcomes congestion by acting as an ultra-fast switchboard operator. The switch operates so quickly that the pairs of network devices believe they are the only computers on the network, which ensures a minimum of lost data and greater speed. The network switch is more complicated, so it's a bit more expensive. Network switches can offer speeds of up to 200Mbps, so you may decide the improved speed is worth the price. Network hubs and switches have different designs that let them connect to between four and 24 network devices. These network connections are called ports. All starter kits come with network hubs or switches that have either four or five ports. Additionally, hubs and switches should have an expansion port, called an interconnect port, that lets you link two hubs or network switches. Note that you can't use the interconnect port for a regular network port. If you need to use a switch and hub together, ask your vendor for information. You may need a crossover cable to link them. This lets you quickly upgrade your network with a network switch and wait until next month's paycheck to replace the older hub. Remember that your network will run at the speed of the slowest component until everything is upgraded to the same speed. A software driver lets a PC's operating system communicate with a hardware peripheral such as a sound card or an NIC. Different operating systems require different software drivers. Carefully read the back of the network starter kit packaging to make sure the NICs and software drivers support your computer's operating system. Most networking kits have clear instructions. Microsoft and 3Com have made network settings easier to change and understand by jointly developing Microsoft HomeClick software products that help users easily manage their network settings. HomeClick automatically detects and configures most network settings for file and printer sharing and Internet access. 3Com HomeConnect Product Manager Darrell Hill says this is a great advantage for notebook PC owners because it lets them easily switch their network card settings for work IP (Internet protocol) addresses and home IP addresses. Universal Serial Port Kits Many people are nervous about opening their PCs to install a new card, so many companies now offer Ethernet NICs that connect to one of the home PC's USB (Universal Serial Bus) ports. Currently the price of a single external adapter, $35 to $50, is a bit higher than the price of internal Ethernet cards, which range from about $15 to $25. These USB- to-Ethernet adapters work on newer Pentium computers that have USB ports on their motherboards. The adapters also currently support the Windows 98 Second Edition operating system. If you have a newer computer, this shouldn't be a problem. USB-to-Ethernet adapters are nice for desktop computers, and they also make hooking up Win98 notebook PCs a snap, provided the notebooks have USB ports. The adapter is housed in a small plastic enclosure with an RJ-45 network connector on one end and a USB connector on the other. A small USB cable connects the computer to the adapter, and a longer Cat 5 network cable connects the adapter to the network hub. 3Com's HomeConnect product line offers a 10Mbps USB-to-Ethernet kit, called the 3C460-Kit Home Network Kit (http://www.3com .com/client/pcd/homeconnect/homenet working/products/p36_key.htm). The kit includes two 10Mbps USB Ethernet adapters, two 2-foot USB cables, two 25-foot Cat 5 cables, an Ethernet hub with 110-volt power supply, and an instruction manual. The kit also includes a Win98 Second Edition update CD, Microsoft HomeClick Network software, and a Microsoft games sampler CD. Wiring To Go The Distance. Until recently, scattering networked PCs around a home meant hiring a computer cable installer to come in and add the additional wiring. The only apparent solutions were using existing home electrical or phone wiring or setting up a wireless LAN (local-area network) using PC network cards that contained miniature radio frequency transmitters. The first efforts to use existing home wiring yielded a maximum network speed of 1Mbps for home phone line networks. Today, they are still faster than the present home power line networks. Power Line Networks. These networks use a residence's electrical wiring to communicate with devices attached to external or internal network adapters plugged into unused power receptacles. This type of network has a couple of limitations. First, because the power line network will extend all the way out to the power pole's transformer, this type of network could be prone to snooping if more than one home shares a transformer. Next, power lines can have a good deal of electrical noise, and a network loses speed when filtering out the interference. Generally speaking the faster a network goes, the less tolerant it is to interference.
Inari (formerly Intelogis) offers a 350Kbps product called the Passport Network Starter Kit (http://www.intelogis.com/store). This type of power line network adapter connects to the PC through its parallel port. A standard electrical plug mounted on the adapter plugs into the power socket. Since this product uses the parallel port (Centronix) interface, it's possible to hook printers to a power line network. The Inari-developed AVirt network sharing software comes with the package and lets a modem-equipped PC act as an Internet gateway for the rest of the network. The modem could be a telephone, cable, or DSL (digital subscriber line) modem. This product could have uses in locations that have only one phone jack and computers in different rooms. Inari Vice President of Marketing Ryan Aston says a new 2Mbps Passport adapter will be available in the fall, making the Inari offering comparable to current wireless network packages. Phone Line Networks. The Home Phoneline Networking Alliance (http://www .homepna.org) developed the 1Mbps HomePNA 1.0 specification to support a maximum distance of about 500 feet between network devices for early phone line attempts. That effort spawned a faster new specification called HomePNA 2.0 in December 1999. Check the kit's packaging to see whether it offers a higher speed. Brad Bester, director of product management for D-Link Systems (http://www .dlink.com), says that the 10Mbps speed is satisfactory for most home uses. He says the earlier 1Mbps speed was unacceptable for home gaming because it could not approximate hard drive access speeds. In addition, the old 1Mbps standard was inadequate for delivery of video streams. Bester says speeds of about 8Mbps should be adequate for video delivery. Bester also notes that the Home PNA specification lets the Home PNA adapters work with up to 95% of the telephone wiring in U.S. homes. Karen Sohl, corporate communications manager for Linksys (http://www.linksys.com), says we should expect home phone line products to be completely upgraded to the new standard during the second half of the year. Many companies now offer HPN 2.0 network adapters, but other products are lagging. The new specification lets users plug computers and phones into the same RJ-11 wall jacks and run networks at speeds of up to 10Mbps with a maximum distance of about 1,000 feet between networked devices. Devices such as DSL modems (also called DSL routers) could also work with Home PNA 2.0 network cards because the cards translate the network signal to a higher frequency not used by either voice or DSL data communications.
HomePNA adapters have two RJ-11 jacks, letting you daisy chain one adapter to another. This is the perfect solution for rooms with only one telephone jack and two or more computers. These adapters look like Ethernet adapters and must be inserted into one of the computer's bus expansion slots. All-in-one USB-to-Home PNA adapters are on the way. The first to market may be the D-link DHN-120 Home PNA Adapter, which the company plans to release shortly before midyear. Sohl says companies have been waiting to offer USB-to-Home PNA adapters because of changes in the newly released USB 2.0 standard and the newly released Home PNA 2.0 standard. She says the USB-to-Home PNA adapters should sell well when released in the latter part of this year. Linking To The Internet. Both standard Ethernet and HomePNA adapters need a way to connect the home network to the Internet. You can do this through a regular telephone modem, a DSL modem, or a cable modem. DSL and cable modems have very high access speeds and can be connected to the Internet 24 hours a day without tying up a phone line. Cable modems connect to the cable TV system that not only delivers television programming but also acts as an ISP (Internet service provider). DSL modems link your house with the phone company that acts as the ISP. If you previously had only one computer connected to your cable or DSL modem, you'll have to replace the cable used to connect the two devices. This old cable is a "cross-over" cable that makes sure the correct network signal arrives at the right pins of the RJ-45 connectors. When you add your hub or network switch, you'll need to replace the DSL modem's crossover cable with a regular Cat 5 cable. Here's a word of caution. Before you hook up your network to your ISP, make sure you check with your ISP about its home networking policies. You should expect to pay more for connecting additional PCs to your ISP. DSL modems have both Ethernet and RJ-11 connectors. The Ethernet connection links a single PC with an Ethernet adapter or with a network hub or network switch, while the RJ-11 connector links the modem to the wall telephone jack. Cable modems also have an Ethernet adapter as well as coaxial cable connection. As with the DSL modem, you can connect either a single Ethernet-equipped computer or a network hub or network switch. Special bridging software, which is normally packaged with home kits, lets you link all machines on the hub to the Internet. For instance, Linksys home kits feature a two-user license for LANBridge Internet-sharing software. Microsoft HomeClick Software and Win98 Second Edition are bundled with the 3Com HomeConnect kits. HomeClick and Win98 Second Edition are combined on one computer that acts as the Internet bridge for the remaining networked computers. HomePNA networks can also be integrated into a regular Ethernet using an Ethernet-to-HomePNA bridge. Linksys makes the HPESO3 HomeLink Broadband Network Bridge (http://www.linksys.com/scripts/features.asp?part=hpes03). This device lets you connect the bridge directly to a cable or DSL modem's Ethernet port. You then use one of the bridge's two RJ-11 ports to connect the bridge to the nearest telephone jack, linking it with the rest of the HomePNA network. You can also use the bridge to connect an existing 10Mbps Ethernet home network and a HomePNA network. The bridge does have the limitation of being an older design that can handle only 1Mbps through the Home-PNA part of the bridge. Look for Linksys and other networking companies to offer faster broadband network bridges in the future as Fast Ethernet and HomePNA 2.0 version networks become more prevalent. Wireless Home Networking. Wireless home networking offers the promise of being able to situate a desktop PC anywhere in the house and still enjoy Internet access. Wireless networks use either infrared (IR) or radio transceivers. IR-based wireless solutions are practical only for devices that have a direct line of sight to each other, which makes IR home networking a bit impractical for PCs located in different rooms. This makes installing a radio transceiver on each network device the most attractive option, especially for notebook PC users who want to freely use their notebooks around the house. As usual, there are some limitations to consider. First, older units use the 900MHz frequency band, which is the same one cordless phones use, creating the possibility of interference. This also creates the danger of network traffic interception in a neighboring home. Also, the current wireless network specification allows a maximum transfer rate of 2Mbps. Newer wireless offerings use the 2.4GHz (gigahertz) frequency band. This frequency band allows "frequency hopping," meaning that the devices can constantly shift frequency at a high rate and avoid the likelihood of interference or interception by a nosy neighbor. These devices also have an extended range of about 1,000 feet in open areas. WebGear's Aviator2.4 radio transceivers operate in the 2.4GHz band and come in a variety of models, including ISA, PCI, and USB versions. These products ship with WinProxy for WebGear Networks software that lets all wireless PCs in a home share access to the Internet though a single modem connection. The WebGear Wireless Networking Kit links two PCs together (http://www.webgear.com/online_store/aviator_2_4kit .html). To reach the Internet, one of the two PCs must have either a modem or an Ethernet card that has Internet access though a DSL or cable modem. The Proxim Symphony (http://www.proxim.com/symphony) wireless products come in a variety of models including PCI and ISA card offerings. Range varies from about 150 feet indoors to about 300 feet in open areas. Additionally, the Proxim Symphony Cordless Ethernet Bridge can link the home wireless network to the Ethernet port of DSL or cable modems or to a home Ethernet network. The company says you can't connect its Ethernet bridge directly to a cable or DSL modem. Instead you should purchase a network hub and an additional Cat 5 cable, which connects the hub to the bridge. If you normally reach your ISP through a dial-up modem, try the Symphony Wireless Modem, which lets your PCs use 56Kbps dial-up access without having each PC plugged into the telephone jack. The wireless modem supports current modem standards and is therefore x2 and V.9 compliant. The Proxim Symphony products use the company's own Internet bridging software called Symphony Conductor. The Symphony Wireless Modem and the Symphony Cordless Ethernet Bridge can support up to 10 simultaneous users. The company advises that if you need to connect more than 10 users, you should upgrade to Proxim's RangeLAN2 (http://www.proxim.com/symphony) business product line. Securing Your Network. The Internet has it own well-publicized hazards, namely viruses and hackers. Remember that once you link your computers together and connect them to the Internet, you're exposing them to these dangers. Start your security strategy by minimizing the folders you share between machines and make sure the shared folders are protected with passwords using numbers and characters. Avoid using names or easily guessed words for passwords. Try using the first letter of each word in an easily remembered phrase. You shouldn't share the system hard drive. Some Internet worms such as ExploreZip worm can travel across your home network and infect other machines while destroying Microsoft Office document files. It arrives through the Internet as an e-mail attachment and tricks users into running it to see what it does. Ensure all of your machines are running antivirus software that is being regularly updated. We recommend weekly updates to stay current with newly discovered viruses. Products such as Norton AntiVirus (http://www.symantec.com/nav/index.html) and McAfee VirusScan 4.5 (http://www.mcafeeb2b.com) can automatically download and install these updates. Hackers often try to break into computers by looking for services they offer, such as Web servers and file sharing. These services are numbered. For instance, port 80 always provides Web pages to requesters. Hackers try to break into a port using known software glitches that can give them access to the machine. Businesses prevent this by placing an obstacle called a firewall between the network and the hackers. A number of companies now offer personal firewall software. Examples include ZoneAlarm 2.0 (http://www.zonealarm .com/), BlackIce Defender (http://net workice.com/Products/BlackICE/black ice%20defender.htm), and ConSeal PC (http://www .signal9.com). The latter product has been acquired by Network Associates and will be released in the spring of 2000 as McAfee Personal Firewall. Norton Internet Security 2000 (http://www .symantec.com/sabu/nis/#) is one of the most comprehensive software packages. It has a number of ways to restrict access from the outside and regulate site content viewing. It protects against malignant Web sites that have nasty Active-X and Java applets designed to trash your machine, and it features Norton AntiVirus 2000. Finally, companies are beginning to offer consumer firewalls, which is a scaled-down business firewall that can handle several PCs. D-Link's DI-701 Residential Gateway (http://www.dlink .com/../../products /broadband/di701) is an Ethernet firewall that blocks attempts to enter your network. It can support up to 32 PCs using a single ISP account. You connect the DI-701 between your cable or DSL modem and the rest of your Ethernet Network. Users of the 3Com HomeConnect kit can use Microsoft Home-Click to protect against outside access of files and printers. Home-Click automatically disables file and printer sharing through dial-up modem connections. If you are accessing the Internet though a cable or DSL modem, 3Com recommends that you use two Ethernet cards in a single PC. The first card connects to the cable or DSL modem, and the second connects to your Ethernet hub or switch. HomeClick will automatically disable file and printer sharing on the first card while allowing it on the second. The Inari Passport power line networks solve the eavesdropping problem by encrypting their network traffic. While adjacent homes may see their network, they'll be unable to access them. Also the aVirt Internet sharing software has basic personal firewall protection. Wireless users get more security if their transceivers are operating at 2.4GHz. This type of radio transmitter uses the same frequency-hopping technology as military radios, making interception more difficult. Additionally, the Proxim Symphony wireless models use a password to provide additional protection from eavesdropping. Dependable Service. Today's expanding selection of home networking options is firmly built on the experience gained by network vendors, making today's products quite reliable and user-friendly. Warranty support is a fine example of this, as many companies now offer either lifetime or five-year warranties. Home networking technical support gains from the networking companies business commitment. Most companies have free around-the-clock help lines. With this level of commitment from manufacturers, an increasing number of consumers should have the courage to give home networking a try. by Bill Hayes
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