Within the last year or so there has been a large increase in the number of home wireless networks. Some of you might laugh at me saying “I have had wireless for 3 years already!”, but some of us less technically inclined folks are just getting up to speed with this technology. Several of my family and friends have requested that I help them setup their wireless networks and a majority of the time I go help, however the technology used now-a-days to do this is pretty straight forward and nine times out of ten they probably could do it themselves, and earn a sense of accomplishment in the process.

So here I am to help simplify the process of setting up your home wireless network. While this is not a step by step instruction guide since there are so many router types and models out there, it will help those of you willing to do this on your own, find references and tips to making it easier.

Instructions – The first thing that will be the most helpful is the instructions that came with the router. If you just purchased the router then almost positively there is a manual or CD with the manual on it. A majority of routers already come with an installation CD that you install and walk through on your computer to setup the router for you. Using the CD will most likely lead you through the setup without problems, but probably won’t show you any administrative type menus or options that you would get if you logged into your router and configured it that way. The manual is the best resource for getting this done correctly since it will have all the information pertinent to your router manufacturer and model. If this is a router that you didn’t just purchase and you have misplaced the directions or CD that came with it, you can look up the manual or needed setup instructions from the manufacturer’s website or sometimes a third party website. Your best bet in this case is to locate the Manufacturer and model on your router. The manufacturer for those that don’t know is the brand, i.e. Linksys, DLink, etc. The model will be a series of letters and numbers usually found on the front or bottom of your router. Put both of these into Google and search for “manual” or “instructions”. 99% of the time this will get you what you need to continue. Read the entire post…