You remembered to
label each of the router
ends of the cables, so
you know which rooms
they’re servicing,
right? Transfer that
information onto the
faceplate. The Leviton
faceplates we’re using
provide windows and
labels for this purpose.STEP 5 : HOOK UP YOUR HARDWARE
Congratulations, you’ve finished the most difficult part of the job!
Once you’ve fi nished your cable runs and termination, your network is nearly
complete. But before your move your furniture back into place and pat yourself
on the back, you should test your new installation for cable continuity. Because
even an inexpensive cable tester—such as Belkin’s model F4F314—will set you
back about $90, this step is optional. The alternative to testing your cable runs
is to fi nish the project and then test your network by connecting the home run
to your switch, then a PC to each of the ports. Once both ends are connected,
the green and yellow lights above the network ports on your PC should be lit. If
they’re not, pop the jacks off the wall and double-check your wiring.
A
Connect your eight-port switch to the Ethernet
jacks in the wall using Cat5e patch cables.
(Note: This photo is a dramatic reenactment.
The wiring closet in our test house was too
snug to shoot in.)B
When the green lights come on, you’ve
successfully completed all your hard-wiring!Right-click My
Computer, choose
Properties from the
pop-up menu, and
click the Computer
Name tab. Assign each
computer a unique
name, but make sure
they’re all assigned to
the same workgroup.Right-click each folder
containing music, movies,
and other files you wish to
share, and choose Properties.
Click the Sharing tab and then
click the radio button labeled
“Share this folder.” You may
also need to install special
software for your streaming
boxes later.The router-
configuration process
will vary slightly from
one router to the next,
but they’ll all pretty
much follow the same
basic steps: You’ll log
onto the router through
a web browser, change
its default access
password and default
Service Set Identifier
(SSID) to something
unique, and enable
security.STEP 6 : FINISHING UP
Configure Windows XP and clean up your mess
Once you’ve fi nished hooking up all your hardware, you’ll need to
confi gure Windows XP on your media server to enable fi le sharing. As
long as your router has DHCP turned on, it will automatically dole out IP
addresses to all the machines on your network. It’s also a good idea to
assign a unique name to each PC on the network and make sure they’re
all assigned to the same workgroup.
If you’re setting up both wired and wireless networks, you’ll also
want to take care to ensure that your wireless network is secure.
You can use either Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA) or the older Wired
Equivalent Protocol (WEP) standard. We recommend WPA—you should
use it unless your hardware only supports WEP.
After setting up your wireless access point and eight-port
switch, plug a PC into the port in each room and test it to ensure
you can reach the shared folders on the media server and that you
can get onto the Internet. Now your wired network is complete!
JUNE 2005 MA XIMUMPC 31
C
B
A
D