Welcome to the Fast-Air Tech Talk newsletter. The Tech Talk newsletter is a free service for all Fast-Air customers. Please feel encouraged to suggest newsletter topics.
You have more than one computer device in your home or office. You want the devices connected together as well as having access to the Internet.
There are some basic questions to ask.
How many computers will be connected?
Will the devices connect with Ethernet cable (wired) or radio (wireless) or both? For example, laptops connect either way. Most desktop computers only use wired.
What connection speeds do the computers support?
Where are the computers located?
As discussed previously, the magical component to make this happen is a consumer grade router. There are hundreds of models to choose. As is the case with many things in life, there is no one-size-fits-all solution. There are always trade-offs based upon needs and wants.
Here are some basic considerations for choosing a decent model.
Just about any consumer grade router will connect computers and provide all devices with Internet access. One consideration with buying a consumer grade router is how much “future-proofing” is desired.
Future-proofing is an effort to buy a router with advanced features based on a presumption that future computers in the home or office will have advanced features too.
Networking throughput is always limited by the slowest component in the chain. Buying a low-end router will function just fine but will limit new computers that can connect together at faster speeds. Buying a router with more advanced features will not necessarily improve connection speeds of older computers but will accommodate new computers with more advanced features.
No consumer grade router will improve Internet connection speed. Advanced routers will help only with internal connections.
A consumer grade router usually contains a built-in network switch — that is the place where the local area network (LAN) and wide area network (WAN) ports are located. Most router models contain a 4-port network switch. That means up to four wired LAN ports as well as connecting to the Fast-Air CPE WAN port (five ports total).
When more than four wired devices need to be connected, another router is not needed. All that is needed is adding a separate network switch. Switches can be purchased as stand-alone devices.
Network switches come in many varieties, but for many home and small office users, a 4 or 8 port switch is sufficient.
Switches come in two types: managed and unmanaged. Most people get by just fine with an unmanaged switch. A typical consumer grade unmanaged switch is inexpensive.
Managed switches are required with complicated network strategies. Anybody needing a managed switch likely will have networking expertise or will hire somebody to help with such a project.
Many inexpensive routers support 100 megabits per second LAN and WAN ports. 1 Gigabit per second ports are becoming more common and does not raise the price considerably. Many computers today support 1 gigabit per second LAN connections. Computers purchased only a few years ago supported 100 megabits per second.
While a router with 1 gigabit per second ports will not increase Internet speed, the support will allow computers with 1 gigabit per second network adapters to connect and transfer files at maximum speed.
When all wired devices are located in the same room, all that is needed is some Ethernet cable. Ethernet cables can be purchased with connectors already crimped in place. Just connect the computers to the router. For the do-it-yourself types, cable, connectors, and crimping tools are needed.
Most routers and computer operating systems default to using Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP). That fancy phrase means the computers connected to the router automatically will be assigned a network IP address on the same subnet. That means the computers and router can all communicate with one another.
When in the same room, laying the cable behind furniture usually provides a cosmetic appearance. Be sure to keep the cable off of heating ducts and registers. Don’t worry about electro-magnetic interference with other appliance cables and cords — Ethernet cable is designed to withstand that kind of interference.
When the wired computers are not in the same room then additional labor is needed to run cable from each device to the router. For a professional look that means installing an electrical box in a wall and fishing the cable through the wall. How much labor is required depends on the design of the building. Much like phone and coax connectors for TVs, wall plates can be purchased that specifically support the Ethernet RJ45 connectors. Once the RJ45 wall plate is installed, then all that is needed is connecting cables.
Except for the newest state-of-the-art computers and routers, wired connections are faster than wireless. Wired connections tend to be more reliable and more trouble-free. Wireless connections are more convenient but can be more fickle to configure.
That convenience is no cables needed and the device usually works from anywhere in the house or office. The fickleness is wireless technology is more complicated and both the computer and router must be configured correctly to ensure a good connection. Wireless devices also have security concerns.
Not all routers support wireless. When wanting to support wireless devices then be sure to buy a router supporting wireless. Wireless routers usually are packaged with short antennas.
Wireless connection speeds are based on various standards. The wireless standard is called IEEE 802.11. The various wireless speeds are based on the specific paragraphs of the specification standard. Examples include 802.11a, 802.11b, 802.11g, 802.11n, 802.11ac, 802.11ad. This looks confusing but there is a simple way to distinguish the paragraph references — the higher up the alphabet the higher the wireless speed standard.
Low-end routers usually support up to 801.11g with some supporting 801.11n. As might be expected, only the newest computer devices support higher speeds.
Routers supporting these higher speeds are more expensive.
When evaluating wireless speeds the design specification is a theoretical number and rarely reflects what is obtainable in real life. A simple rule-of-thumb is divide the theoretical speed by half. For example, 802.11g is rated at 54 megabits per second, but real world connection speeds will be about half that.
Wireless standards are backwards compatible. That means buying a router supporting 802.11ac will support older computers only supporting 802.11b.
What about additional or advanced features? There are many. More than enough to make even a computer expert’s head spin. Do not get overwhelmed by these features. Almost all consumer grade routers will provide various features that are not needed by many people. All of these features can be ignored or disabled.
Yet some of these features might actually help some users.
For security reasons, computer networks should be treated as private. When guests are in the home or office, they can use the router to connect to the Internet. Without an effort to limit the guests, the guest would have access to the private network. Many consumer grade routers provide support for guest networks. This is a special configuration that allows guests to connect to the router but not to the private network. This is done by creating a second subnet.
Quality of service (QoS) traffic shaping helps limit bandwidth hogs. This fancy phrase means being able to throttle or limit certain types of connections. If there is a hard-core gamer or Netflixer in the house then these connections can easily use up the available connection bandwidth. Using QoS will limit the connection speed and bandwidth so other users are not affected.
Some routers include a feature for limiting access to the Internet at various times of the day. This might be useful for children.
Another possible feature is called parental controls. Originally intended to help parents limit what children can see on the Internet, this feature is useful for all users. There is a lot of undesirable content on the Internet. This type of feature can help protect users from accessing that type of content.
More broader in scope than parental controls is a basic firewall feature. While most computer operating systems support a software firewall, a router firewall goes further to protect the entire network of computers connected to the router. Most routers support some kind of firewall. Do not buy a model that does not.
Some caveats exist when buying a consumer grade router. Security tends to be an afterthought with many router vendors. Just search the web for various stories about router security issues. Here is an example of a recent story. These security vulnerabilities allow routers to be exploited and compromised from the Internet. For the conspiracy buffs, some of the security flaws seem deliberate or intentional, such as backdoors and WAN side open ports.
Another caveat is some vendors require connecting to the vendor’s “cloud” servers before allowing configuration changes.
Another caveat is some router firmwares are designed to “phone home” user data, which is a privacy concern. Even after implementing most security precautions, many devices are designed to data mine users.
Another caveat is planned obsolescence. After a few years devices no longer receive firmware updates, which leads to security vulnerabilities.
Be sure to research security before buying any specific model. Read customer reviews. More about router security next issue.
In summary then:
- Know what computers exist in the home or office.
- Determine the connection speeds of those computers.
- Decide how the computers will connect to one another.
- Decide how much future-proofing is desired.
- Decide what special features are desired.
Technical trivia: Before the World Wide Web existed and the appearance of the modern day web forum and social media, people communicated with one another through the Internet using a service called Usenet. People interested in specific topics formed newsgroups. The Network News Transfer Protocol (NNTP) was used to transmit messages. Usenet is a distributed discussion system, still in use today.
Next issue: Basic Router Security
The most common language in the world? Think again.
- Free Gift Phishing Scams (Notice 2020-001) - January 15, 2020
- Tech Support Phone Scam (Notice 2019-001) - March 14, 2019
- VPNFilter Router Malware (Notice 2018-007) - May 30, 2018