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Home Networks:
A Love-Hate Relationship

Many homes have home networks today. We love them when they work and hate them when they do not. Virtually all home networks connect the kids PCs and the parents or grandparents PCs to the Internet using some type of high speed access either Comcast Cable, DSL or Verizon FIOS. While DSL is cheaper and very adequate for most home networks, Comcast Cable is faster, and FIOS is the fastest. The fastest Internet access speed is for nerds like me.

Home networks depend upon Internet Access Speed. In all high speed connections to the Internet, there exists a bottleneck someplace. Cable modems can send data at 768 Kbps and receive data at up to 3 Mbps. In contrast DSL may send at 256 Kbps but only receive at speeds up to 800 Mbps. My FIOS on the other hand sends data at 3 Mbps and receives data at 15 Mbps. These speeds are dwarfed by the 100 Mbps or 1,000 Mbps speed of a wired home network. Some are slow in comparison to wireless speeds of 11 Mbps, 54 Mbps, or 108 Mbps.

What is a home network made of? Home networks consist of a root – a cable or DSL modem, a branch – a router, switch, firewall and wireless access point all rolled into one small box, and leaves – the various PCs networked through out the home. To solve many home network problems, you turn off the leaf first, then the branch and finally the root, only to power on the root, then the branch and finally the leaves.

Home networks can have both wired and wireless connections. Windows XP, Windows 2000, Windows NT, Windows Me, Windows 98se, and use in some cased Windows 95 can all run on the same network. They can share file folders on their disk drives and printers. I make shortcuts from the desktop of one PC to shared file folders on another PC somewhere on the network. It works just great. And printers on a PC only need to be shared then connected to from another PC for that PC to print to them. The various Windows PCs in a network get along better than the Democrats and the Republicans in an election year.

The price on wireless components has dropped dramatically. It is best to purchase the Wireless G components (802.11G specification) because they operate at 54 Mbps, but more importantly their radio signal makes better connections between the PCs regardless of the walls and other obstructions in the home. However, Windows 98 PCs are not supported by Linksys Wireless G adapters. Linksys is a very popular manufacturer of network equipment. The Windows 98 PCs must use Linksys Wireless B (802.11B specification) adapters. Fortunately, Wireless G routers (the branches) work with both Wireless B and Wireless G networking components.

The firewall function in the branch (the router, switch, and wireless access point combined) is really needed today to prevent nasty people and software from coming into our PC un-invited. What firewalls do is to block anyone trying to probe your PC from the Internet. They do not respond to PING and other probing commands. When you request web pages from a web site, you invite them into your network (any your home) and the firewall being a good bouncer lets them come into your home network. Unfortunately, spyware rides in on the coattails of this invitation. Once spyware gets inside a network, it then invites all its buddies into the network. Since they are invited by someone on the inside, the firewall lets them pass. Bummer! Worse yet some of those buddies can be viruses that disable PC virus scanning software. This leads to a real house party for the spyware and viruses. If this happens, you hate your home network.

However, some easy periodic maintenance that removes spyware can restore the love for your home network. OK, you may never love your network, but I am a nerd and I love mine! When my home network breaks, I hate life. A small amount of periodic maintenance every day, week or month can keep the home network love-hate relationship on the love and not the hate side.


Link to "How Home Networking Works"

P. D. Moulton and Dial A Nerd, a local Columbia, Ellicott City, Howard County, Maryland(MD) PC repair, computer repair, laptop computer repair, Wi-Fi network and wired LAN network configuration & repair, Windows XP repair, Windows Vista repair, Windows 7 repair, network server computer support, and virus & spyware removal. Dial-A-Nerd repairs PC (s), computers, networks, removes viruses & spyware and upgrades slow computers 24 hours a day 7 days a week. DialANerd provides immediate remote access as well as fixed price computer repair, network repair, virus & spyware removal services at its local Columbia, Ellicott City, Howard County, Maryland(MD) repair shop. Repair completion is typically 24-hours to 48-hours. Dial A Nerd recovers hard disk data and saves your data. Each hard disk is tested for errors for free. Dial A Nerd makes a fixed disk image, recovers and saves your data for about a 90% of the desktop computer, laptop computer, and netbook PC (s) serviced. Dial A Nerd, a local Columbia, Ellicott City, Howard County, Maryland(MD) repair business provides fast PC repair, computer repair, desktop computer repair, laptop computer repair, Wi-Fi network and wired LAN network configuration & repair, Windows XP repair, Windows Vista repair, Windows 7 repair, network server support, and virus & spyware removal services with a warranty. Dial A Nerd works on many PCs including Sony computers, Gateway computers, Hewlett Packard computers, Compaq computers, Toshiba computers, Emachines computers, Clone PCs, and Dell computers in the local Columbia, Ellicott City, Howard County, Maryland(MD). The Dial A Nerd mission is delivering the best quality, affordable cost effective PC repair, computer repair, laptop computer repair, desktop computer repair, Wi-Fi network and wired LAN network configuration & repair, Windows XP repair, Windows Vista repair, Windows 7 repair, network server support, virus & spyware removal, home PC repair, printer configuration, PC - desktop computer - laptop computer - netbook computer performance optimization & speed up service. Homes and small businesses with limited IT service and IT support budgets in the local Columbia, Ellicott City, Howard County, Maryland(MD) hire Dial A Nerd.


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DialANerd
7146 Rivers Edge Road Columbia, MD 21044 US
Phone: 410-531-5890 Website: dialanerd.com