Installing Your Network Hardware

Now that you have all your parts -a NIC or wireless LAN adapter for each computer, enough cabling (or none, for a wireless LAN), and a hub (or wireless access point), you're ready to put it all together to create the physical network. This procedure is best done when the computers aren't in use and when you have a good chunk of time to devote to it-on a weekend .

Installing the Hub, Switch, or Wireless Access Point

Put the hub, switch, or wireless access point in a location where it won't be disturbed. It doesn't have to be near any computers-in a house, you might want to put a hub in the basement or attic, because it's easy to run all your cables there. You can have more than one hub, too; you might want one hub in the basement, with a cable from each room to the basement, and another hub in the office, to connect all the computers in the office. (This is more efficient than running a separate cable from each computer in the office to the basement .) You can cascade hubs by connecting one of the jacks on one hub to the uplink port of the other hub.

A wireless access point should be in a central location to minimize the distance and the number of walls between it and each of the computers with which it has to communicate. If you have a large house or office, you can have multiple access points and cable them all to a hub.

Tip  

Be sure to label each cable, so that when you are troubleshooting later, you can tell which cable goes to which computer. We use indelible laundry marker: paper labels may rip, mold, or fall off. When you buy your Ethernet cable, you can choose different-colored cables.

Stringing Cable

For a cabled network, once the NIC and its driver are installed, you can connect the cabling. The computers can be turned on when you connect the cables.

Cabling can be a simple job or an extravagant one, depending on your needs and how much time, effort, and money you're willing to invest. A home office network that consists of two computers close together probably means cables running on the floor around the edge of the room and behind furniture. Cabling for an office probably means cables hidden by conduit, running inside walls, and running above dropped ceilings. You may want to hire someone if you have many computers to connect and want it done neatly. If you put cable inside ceilings or walls, be sure the installation conforms to fire and electrical codes.

When planning your wiring job, plan for the future. If you're wiring your office, add extra cables while the walls and ceiling are open . Put network jacks in the walls of any room that you think might have a computer in it some day. Plan your network cabling in the same manner you would plan phone extensions. Doing all the wiring now can make adding a computer to your network much easier in the future.

Home office cabling can be a bit more free form, especially if all the PCs are within close proximity of your broadband connection and router. However, it's prudent to manage your cabling nonetheless to prevent a spider's nest of network cables running under your desks or across the floor. Such nests of cabling can cause hazards to children, pets, and even the inattentive SOHO worker who trips over a loose cable.

Connecting the cables to the hub and to the computers is easy-just plug the cable into the RJ-45 jacks on the NIC and the hub as you would plug a phone wire into a phone jack.

Caution  

Don't run twisted-pair cable in a bundle with electrical power cable, because the electromagnetic interference (EMI) can adversely affect the network-a short-circuit between power and network cables could cause injury or fire.

Once you complete the construction phase, you need to sit at each computer and configure Windows so it knows about the network, as described in the next chapter.