Setup Home Server

What do we need?
1. Modem ADSL + ADLS line ( Modem X5)
2. PC up-time 24/24
3. Windows XP + IIS Server

Step1:

Check LAN setting:

PC(192.168.0.9) <---> Router (IP=192.168.0.1) <--> Modem ADSL

IP Address : 192.168.0.9
Subnet Mask : 255.255.255.0
Default Gateway : 192.168.0.1 <--- IP of Modem
Step II: Config router
Enter router configuration web page: http://192.168.0.1

Chose (Advandce Setup)

Chose Virtual Server

Step 3: Set NAT configuration.

Public Port : 80
People from internet will connect to this port in order to connect to home server. Router will redirect traffic from public port in router to our PC.

Private Port : 80 Port that our PC listen to
Port Type : TCP
Host IP Address : xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx (IP of our computer)

Step 4: Save configuration and reboot.

Step 5: Create domain which point to our IP
Because ADSL uses dynamic IP so we need an domain to update IP.
Use service: www.no-ip.com.

Create an account

Add our host to domain

Download: No-IP DUC to update IP periodically

Creating a Wireless Network -- Part 3 (Troubleshooting)

Step-by-Step: Creating a Wireless Network -- Part 3 (Troubleshooting)
By: Aaron Weiss

August 10, 2006

In Part 2 of “Creating a Wireless Network" we set up and configured your wireless network, beaming data across your home and/or office. But sometimes, things go awry. What if your network seems to slow? Or unreliable? In the conclusion to our series we look at some common factors that can undermine your wireless network and how you might be able to improve its performance.

Weak Signal?

Whether you’ve set up an 802.11b network, a 11g network, or an enhanced network with speeds of 108Mbps or more, experiencing maximum speed depends on signal strength between your wireless router and your wireless computer.

Wireless networks are designed to slow down as the signal degrades, which generally is a good thing – it means your network isn’t simply on or off, but capable of working under a variety of less-than-ideal conditions. But if yours is slowing down unnecessarily, you may have options to improve its speed.

Your signal strength will vary depending upon your wireless computer’s location relative to your wireless router.

In Windows XP (screen above) you can double-click the wireless networking icon in your taskbar to see your signal strength.

Mac OS X users can click the AirPort icon in the toolbar an choose Open Internet Connect from the drop down menu to see a detailed signal strength meter (see screen above).

In practice, you may not see 100 percent signal strength, yet still achieve near maximum network speed. Wireless performance is divided into segments. If your connection seems to hover under 60 percent or so in strength, consider why that may be.

Wireless Router Placement

Often, signal-strength problems are due to the location of your wireless router. Ideally, the more of a "bird's eye view" your wireless router has of your home or office, the stronger the signal will be throughout. Central, open locations on higher floors are ideal.

Of course, in practice, your wireless router needs access to power and, probably, your broadband modem. You may be able to relocate your broadband modem depending where your cable or phone lines enter your home or office, or extend the cabling between your broadband modem and router.

In particular, avoid placing your wireless router in basements or other locations surrounded by thick walls, which will weaken the wireless signal. The same rules apply to the other end of the connection, too — your wireless computer. Obviously, your distance from the router is one factor in signal strength, but within its rated operating range, distance is less important than dense physical obstacles.

Be sure that the antenna(s) on your wireless router are in an upright position. Usually this works best, but if you continue to experience signal strength weakness, try re-orienting the antennas by small amounts.

Unfortunately, all hardware is not created equal. Some models of wireless router simply perform better than others. And different models of wireless add-on cards and built-in wireless reception on portable computers can vary widely. It's not uncommon for one model of portable computer to receive a weaker signal strength than another model or brand right beside it due to lower quality components.

Interference

As our electronic universe becomes increasingly crowded, opportunities for one piece of gear to interfere with another increase. Today's wireless network hardware uses the 2.4GHz frequency range. Two of the most notorious culprits that also emit radiation at 2.4GHz are microwave ovens and many cordless telephones.

The mere presence of two operating devices at 2.4GHz does not automatically guarantee conflict. Wireless network gear slices up its frequency range into 11 smaller channels, and by default tries to find the clearest channel whenever a connection is made. Similarly, newer cordless phones are designed to be friendlier in co-existing with wireless networks. That said, proximity to microwave ovens (in use) and cordless telephones still account for the most common forms of interference with wireless networks.

Another common source of interference is other wireless networks. Again, the hardware tries to avoid conflict, but some handle this better than others, and densely populated areas may simply have crowded airwaves. If your home or office is located in an urban environment and your signal strength seems weaker than it should be, try moving your wireless gear to the center of your space. Staying away from walls or windows where neighboring networks might bleed through could help.

Dropped Connections?

Losing the connection between your wireless computer and your wireless router is the most common failure that can plague your wireless network experience. Sometimes you lose your connection and can't get it back for a random length of time. Other times, you lose your connection for a split second, but it's almost immediately re-established. Even this can cause problems during certain activities, like file transfers.

Dropped connections can be tricky to diagnose because they are really a symptom of another problem. Quite a few problems can express themselves as a lost connection. Let's consider some of the most common causes.

Interference

We talked about how interference can affect your wireless performance. If severe enough, interference could certainly result in dropped connections. I remember a case where an individual sat with his cordless phone right beside his portable computer. He'd be surfing the Web without difficulty and then the phone would ring. After their conversation, their wireless connection was lost. It would spontaneously return 30 seconds or so later. Indeed, the culprit was the cordless phone, an older model, which was blasting interference on the 2.4GHz frequency shared by the wireless network.

Switching to a 900MHz or 5.8GHz cordless phone will often the resolve the conflict. Newer 2.4GHz cordless phones that advertise themselves as "WiFi friendly" will also resolve the problem.

Firmware and Driver Updates

Both your wireless router and wireless card, whether an add-on or built-in to your computer, are driven by software "brains". The brains of your wireless router is known as firmware. The brains of your wireless card is known as a driver.

Manufacturers often update their firmwares and drivers to add features and fix bugs. When you remove your hardware from its box, the firmware and drivers included may already be slightly outdated. Many times, this isn't a problem, because the bugs that do exist are often obscure and affect only certain unusual situations. But you never know.

There is something to be said for the adage, "if it ain't broke, don't fix it." If your wireless network is performing up to your expectations, there's really no need to muck around with updating your firmware and drivers. But if you are having mysterious problems — particularly dropped connections —that's a different story.

Often, updating your firmware and drivers turns out to be just the fix to gaining a stable connection.

Most wireless routers let you update the firmware through the browser-based administration interface. The process involves just a few simple steps:

1. Visit the manufacturer's site for your wireless router.
2. Navigate to the Downloads area and find the firmware for your specific model of wireless router. 3. Download the firmware and save or unpack it onto your computer (follow the manufacturer's instructions). 4. Connect your computer to the router using a wired Ethernet cable, and disable your wireless connection. It's not safe to upgrade your router's firmware over a wireless connection.
5. Open the administration page for your wireless router. Our example is from a ZyXEL brand X-550 router — yours may look different.
6. Open the firmware upgrade administration page and follow the prompts to open the firmware file you downloaded. 7. Once you begin the firmware upgrade process, do nothing. Any interruption in the process, from a lost connection to a power outage, could damage your router. Before doing this at all, be sure to check the manual for your particular model. Procedures may vary.

More often than note, updating the wireless router firmware solves many mysterious network problems. But if it doesn't, the next suspects are the wireless drivers in your computer.

If possible, test other wireless computers in your network. Do they experience the same dropped connections as yours? If not, you may want to update the drivers of your wireless card. Procedures vary widely, so consult the Web site of your portable manufacturer, or the maker of your wireless card, for downloads and instructions to update your drivers.

Duplicate Network Names

Another scenario that may lead to dropped connections occurs when your wireless computer is confused about which wireless access point to connect with.

If your home or office is near others, they may have a wireless network with the same name as yours. This is especially common when people don't change their network names (known as SSID's) when setting up their router. In Part 2, Step 6 of this series we configured the network name.

Suppose you didn't change your wireless network name, so it defaults to the very common "LINKSYS". Your neighbor next door has the same brand of router and didn't change her network name either. If your wireless networks overlap, your computer can see both. Windows XP will not show both as separate available networks — instead, it will show only "LINKSYS."

When you connect to "LINKSYS" Windows will try to connect with the one with a stronger signal. It may be that both your signals are similar, but small fluctuations change which is stronger at any given moment. Windows will start hopping between them, trying to stay with the strongest, and dropping your connection with each transfer.

Assign your wireless network a unique name and avoid the duplicate SSID problem.

802.1X Authentication

In Part 2 of this series, we looked in detail at securing your wireless network, either with WEP or, better, WPA or, better yet, WPA2. Some organizations employ another form of security, known as 802.1X. Unless you are inside a network that uses 802.1X (most likely no), you don't need Windows to attempt 802.1X authentication. When it does so, it may interrupt your connection.

You can disable 802.1X authentication in Windows XP by going into your Control Panel, Network, and opening the Properties page for your wireless connection.

Look for the property tab labeled Authentication — its exact location may vary.

Uncheck 802.1x authentication.

Step-by-Step: Creating a Wireless Network – Part 2

Step-by-Step: Creating a Wireless Network – Part 2

By Aaron Weiss

August 7, 2006

In Part 1 of “Creating a Wireless Network” we considered which equipment you’d need to meet your goals for speed, range, and security. Gear in hand, let’s set up the hardware and walk through a few simple configuration steps to bring your wireless network to life.

For the purpose of this guide, let’s assume you have two pieces of wireless gear: a wireless broadband router and a portable computer with wireless capability. If your portable computer does not have built-in wireless, you may use either a wireless card or USB adapter as described in Part 1. In either case, follow the manufacturer’s instructions for installing the device drivers that came with the hardware.

Step 1: Get To Know Your Wireless Router

Figure 1.

On the rear of a typical wireless router you’ll see several connections (from right to left in Figure 1):

• A power input jack one.
• One or more wired Ethernet jacks (often labeled 1, 2, 3, 4) for computers on your network which don't have wireless ability.
• One Ethernet jack for your broadband connection, often labeled “WAN” or “Internet.”
• A reset button. On most routers you can depress this button for 30+ seconds to restore all configuration settings to their factory defaults.

Depending on the model, some wireless routers will also have a small switch on the back to physically enable or disable the wireless network. You should verify that this switch is set to "on" to use the wireless functionality.

Some costlier routers may also feature two Ethernet inputs for two incoming broadband connections, for users who have both cable and DSL, for example.

Step 2: Determine Your Broadband Type

If you are not connecting your wireless router to a broadband connection, and only intend to use wireless networking for your local network rather than connecting to the Internet, skip this section.

Most people will connect their wireless router to an incoming broadband service. You need to know how your broadband service lets you onto its network, information we'll use in Step 5 to configure your router. There are three common broadband connection methods:

• DHCP aka Dynamic IP : The most common type of broadband connection, especially for cable modem users. Basic network parameters are automatically assigned to your router by the broadband modem.
• PPPoE: An increasingly common connection type, especially for DSL users in some parts of the country. PPPoE requires you to supply a username and password to initiate your broadband connection, information which should have been provided to you when your broadband service was installed or purchased.
• Static IP: Less common for home residential users, somewhat more common for business broadband. Your broadband provider would have supplied you with a set of numeric addresses you need to connect to the network, as they are not assigned automatically.

If you don't know which of the above your broadband service uses, when we setup your router you can try DHCP, since it is fully automatic. Should that fail to connect, you may contact your broadband provider for details.

Step 3: Connect Your Router To a Wired PC For Initial Setup

Figure 2.

Before you place the router in its ideal location, we will first set things up with a temporary wired connection to a computer. Either a desktop PC or portable computer with an Ethernet jack will do, although hooking up to a portable may require less climbing behind or under furniture.

3A. Your router probably included an Ethernet cable in the box. Use this or another Ethernet cable you have to connect the network jack on your computer to one of the local ports on the router – those labeled 1, 2, and so on. It doesn’t matter which, as long as you do not connect the cable to your router’s “WAN”/”Internet” port.

Also connect the Ethernet cable from your broadband modem to the "WAN"/"Internet" port on your router.

Now your router is connected via cable to both your broadband modem and your computer.

3B. It often helps to reboot your broadband modem at this point -- the easiest way is to unplug it from power and plug it back in. Most broadband modems will take a little while to reboot, anywhere from a few seconds to a couple of minutes.

Boot (or reboot) your computer as well.

Step 4: Open Web Browser and Connect to Wireless Router Administration Interface

You manage and configure your wireless router using a Web browser. To connect to your router you need to know its default IP address and connect your browser to http://routeripaddress. For example, if you own a Linksys brand wireless router, its default IP address is 192.168.1.1, and therefore you open your browser to the URL http://192.168.1.1.

Most wireless routers also require you to log in to access configuration pages. Quite likely, your router includes a manual or a "quick setup" guide which details both its default IP address and default login. Some common IP addresses and logins for popular brands include:

Brand	Default Address	Default Username	Default Password
Belkin	192.168.2.1
D-Link	192.168.0.1	admin
Linksys	192.168.1.1	or admin	admin or
Netgear	192.168.0.1	admin	password
SMC	192.168.2.1		smcadmin
Zyxel	192.168.1.1	admin or	1234

Figure 3.

Note that means to leave the field blank. These defaults describe many models in a vendor's lineup, but may not be accurate for certain exceptions or new models released after publication. Again, the documentation included with your router should clearly describe its default IP address and login.

Once connected, you'll see an administration interface similar to that in Figure 3, which was taken from a Zyxel brand wireless router. Your particular router's interface may look different and feature different menus, but many of the most important settings are similar between models and brands. Consult your documentation, of course.

Step 5: Configure Your Broadband Connection

You may recall way back in Step 2 you determined the type of broadband connection you have. Now it's time to setup the router accordingly. On this model, we clicked the "Basic" menu and "WAN" submenu. Again, your model may differ, and newer models may include a guided wizard that takes you through these steps. Users without a broadband connection can likewise skip this step.

Figure 4.

In our case, we have a broadband connection of the DHCP variety, also known as "Dynamic IP" as you see in Figure 4.

PPPoE users should click that button and a prompt will request your login name and password, as supplied by your service provider.

Static IP users will be prompted to supply several numerical addresses, also supplied by your service provider.

It's important to click "Save Settings" (sometimes called "Apply Settings") whenever you make a change.

Test that your router is successfully connected to your broadband. One quick way is to simply open a page to a Web site, such running a search at Google.

If you cannot access the Web, the most common cause is choosing the wrong broadband connection type for your service.

Step 6: Configure Your Wireless Network Basics

If your router is connected to broadband and it's working successfully, we can (finally!) setup the wireless networking configuration. On our sample router we clicked the "Wireless" submenu.

Figure 5.

It sounds simple, but note that the router reports that the wireless radio is on. Without that we would get nowhere. This particular router has a physical switch on the back to enable the wireless function. Other routers will include a checkbox in this administration interface for enabling or disabling all wireless function. Some wireless routers come out-of-the-box with their wireless disabled, others enabled. So it's important to double check.

Assign your wireless network a name, also known as an SSID. Choose a unique name in case there may be neighboring wireless routers nearby.

The visibility status setting is sometimes known on other routers as "hidden" mode. Some people mistakenly believe that hiding your network name is an effective form of security. It is not. You don't need to hide your network name.

Figure 6.

Also note the 802.11 mode setting, typically found on "g" variety wireless routers. Here you can tell the wireless router to connect only to devices which support the faster "g" mode, only the slower "b" mode, or either kind of device. Supporting both modes will make your wireless network more compatible with a variety of users. But if you know that you have only "g" wireless hardware in your network, selecting g-only mode can improve overall wireless performance.

Step 7: Configure Your Wireless Security

Figure 7.

In most circumstances you should employ encryption to protect your wireless network from all manner of attack and interception. Wireless networks located far removed from other people, like rural locations, probably don't run much risk without using wireless security. But we're often better safe than sorry.

Most wireless network users will select one of three common forms of secure encryption: WEP, WPA, or WPA2. As a general rule of thumb, you should only use the older, less secure WEP security when you know your network must support users with only WEP-capable computers. WPA is stronger than WEP and supports a wide variety of computers. WPA2, the newest form of wireless security, is even stronger still, but supports only the newest wireless computers.

7a. If you must use WEP security, try to choose a key length of 128 bits. If your router or wireless computer do not support 128 bit keys, you can try 64 or 40-bit keys, but note that these are even less secure.

Supply a passphrase for your WEP encryption. Later you'll need to use this same passphrase when configuring WEP on your wireless computer connection. Typically you can leave the remaining WEP options unchanged.

Figure 8.

7b. Choose WPA2 encryption if supported by your wireless computers. Our particular router offers a mixed WPA mode which will connect to WPA2 where available or else try WPA. Your router may or may not offer this feature, in which case you may need to select WPA mode if your network users may use hardware which does not support WPA2.

Your "Pre-Shared Key" is your WPA password. It must be longer than 8 characters up to 63. A longer, more difficult to guess key provides stronger security, but you must write it down somewhere safe because all connecting computers must use this password key.

Step 8: Going Wireless

Figure 9.

With the above configurations saved you're now ready to put the "wireless" in "wireless network." Choose the computer you will use to make the wireless connection. If you'll use the same computer you've been using to configure your router with the temporary Ethernet cable, remove that cable now.

If your portable computer is a newer model and includes built-in wireless support, be sure its wireless feature is switched on. On some portable models there is a switch on one side; on other models you enable wireless with a keyboard combination -- check your user manual.

If you've added wireless hardware to a portable computer or a desktop PC, be sure to follow the manufacturer's instructions for installing the appropriate drivers and software. This process varies widely from model to model.

Figure 10.

Both Mac OS X and Windows XP include built-in software for connecting your wireless computer to the wireless network. Windows users may also have installed software provided by the vendor of your wireless hardware which can be used instead of Windows' included software.

8a. Users of Mac OS X enjoy the easiest wireless connection process. Simply click the wireless icon at the top right of your screen and the drop down menu displays a list of available wireless networks. Choose one to join it. If you've secured your wireless network in Step 7, it will show a small lock beside its name, and the Mac will prompt you for the password key you created on the wireless router. (See Figure 9.)

8b. Windows users will see a wireless system icon in the lower right of the screen. You can right-click this icon to pop open a menu from which you select "View Available Wireless Networks." (See Figure 10.)

Figure 11.

Windows will open a summary showing the wireless network you created on your router -- and any other wireless networks your hardware sees in the vicinity!

In Figure 11, Windows sees the one wireless network transmitted from our router. As indicated, it is protected with WPA security.

Click the "Connect" button and Windows will prompt for the password key you created in Step 7.

If you are using your wireless hardware vendor's software rather than Windows', it may look different -- for example, Netgear supplies their own connection software with some models. In Figure 12, we use Netgear's wireless connection software to connect to a 128-bit WEP-protected network.

Whatever wireless connection software you use, the end result should be the same: you're connected!

Figure 12.

You should now be able to access the Internet, if your router is connected to broadband, and share resources among your computers the same as on a wired network.

Your wireless network will perform best with a strong signal. Ideally, find a location for your wireless router which is far from dense obstructions. Where possible, locating your wireless router in a higher location (such as a second story) is preferred to a low location like a basement.

In part three we'll take a closer look at fine tuning your wireless network performance and troubleshooting connection problems.