Well, I know this post is not related to any network tips.. but it is important enough to get a post in here !
With the modernization of living and life getting more fast paced, do you know if you are moving around in circles ? If you find that you don't have time or the energy to chase your dreams, perhaps you are planning everything wrongly.
A right plan will set you off in the right direction to help you achieve anything your mind can dream off. I have set up a new website at LifeGoals which deals with personal goal setting, time management and other life skills.
If you are interested in gaining these skills, do head over there now !
Monday, May 19, 2008
Friday, February 8, 2008
Advanced Router Featues | Home Network
Today we are going to talk about some of the hidden features that you may have in your router that greater increases your effectiveness of your home network. Some of you may have it, and some of you don't. For those of you who don't have the features in your home network router, don't worry, this post is still a good informational read for you so when you buy your next router, you will know what to look out for.
Quality of Service
Quality of service which is also more commonly known as QoS, is a function many more advanced home router may have. Basically, when a router have QoS functionality, it has the ability to allocate a portion of guarantee-ed traffic to a certain computer. For example, let's say you have 2 computers at home. One of them you use it for office work and downloading big files while the other you use it for real time video conferencing. Now, when you are going to do video conferencing with another party, this uses a lot of traffic in your home network, but you also don't want your big file transfers to interfere with the video conferencing traffic. In this instance, you can allocate a certain amount of bandwidth to be going to the computer doing the video conferencing. The computer doing the file download will not be allowed to use more then the allocated bandwidth for it. In this way, the router makes sure that there is always a certain amount of bandwidth allocated to the video conferencing computer.
Static Routing and Port Forwarding
Another common feature found in home network routers is the ability to do Port Forwarding or more commonly known as NAT or Network Address Translation. Some software especially those P2P file sharing software, needs to listen and communicate on a certain port. These software have a lot of problems working behind a router because the computers behind the router have private IP as posted in the previous post. So the home network router allows you to specify a particular port to be mapped to a certain computer. When the traffic comes into that particular port, it is forwarded immediately to that computer. For example, if one of your computers behind the home network router has the IP address 192.168.0.5 and you need port 6776 to be served with the computer, you specify port 6776 to be mapped to 192.168.0.5 in the home network router setting. When a traffic from the Internet arrives at your home network router and the port is 6776, it will be transferred immediately to the computer at 192.168.0.5. In this way, it is as if the computer at 192.168.0.5 is connected directly to the Internet.
Quality of Service
Quality of service which is also more commonly known as QoS, is a function many more advanced home router may have. Basically, when a router have QoS functionality, it has the ability to allocate a portion of guarantee-ed traffic to a certain computer. For example, let's say you have 2 computers at home. One of them you use it for office work and downloading big files while the other you use it for real time video conferencing. Now, when you are going to do video conferencing with another party, this uses a lot of traffic in your home network, but you also don't want your big file transfers to interfere with the video conferencing traffic. In this instance, you can allocate a certain amount of bandwidth to be going to the computer doing the video conferencing. The computer doing the file download will not be allowed to use more then the allocated bandwidth for it. In this way, the router makes sure that there is always a certain amount of bandwidth allocated to the video conferencing computer.
Static Routing and Port Forwarding
Another common feature found in home network routers is the ability to do Port Forwarding or more commonly known as NAT or Network Address Translation. Some software especially those P2P file sharing software, needs to listen and communicate on a certain port. These software have a lot of problems working behind a router because the computers behind the router have private IP as posted in the previous post. So the home network router allows you to specify a particular port to be mapped to a certain computer. When the traffic comes into that particular port, it is forwarded immediately to that computer. For example, if one of your computers behind the home network router has the IP address 192.168.0.5 and you need port 6776 to be served with the computer, you specify port 6776 to be mapped to 192.168.0.5 in the home network router setting. When a traffic from the Internet arrives at your home network router and the port is 6776, it will be transferred immediately to the computer at 192.168.0.5. In this way, it is as if the computer at 192.168.0.5 is connected directly to the Internet.
Thursday, February 7, 2008
Router Functions | Home Network
If you have setup your home network yourself, you will have went to your local computer store and bought a home router so that you can share the Internet access in your house. So what's the function of a router ?
A router is a network component that basically routes traffic from one network to another network. Imagine this, your home network is your own private network and the external Internet is another huge connected network of computers. So a router takes the traffic from one of your computer in your network and pass it to which ever servers that you want to access out there on the Internet. A router is sort of like a bridge to allow you to talk to other networks.
How does it know which traffic goes to what computer ? A router is a very smart device. When you access a webpage like Google, it notes down what is your IP address of the computer that is making the request. This could be a private IP we have spoke of in the last post. It then knows that you are making a request to view Google so it connects you to Google, taking note of which IP has made the request. When Google servers responds, it checks its internal list and remembers which IP address made the request and transmits the information back to the computer that made the request in the first place.
A router can handle multiple network connections this way by taking note of which computers want to access which servers and routing information to and fro between them. This is way you can share the Internet access in your house because your router is working hard examining the traffic between all your computers and the servers on the Internet.
A router is a network component that basically routes traffic from one network to another network. Imagine this, your home network is your own private network and the external Internet is another huge connected network of computers. So a router takes the traffic from one of your computer in your network and pass it to which ever servers that you want to access out there on the Internet. A router is sort of like a bridge to allow you to talk to other networks.
How does it know which traffic goes to what computer ? A router is a very smart device. When you access a webpage like Google, it notes down what is your IP address of the computer that is making the request. This could be a private IP we have spoke of in the last post. It then knows that you are making a request to view Google so it connects you to Google, taking note of which IP has made the request. When Google servers responds, it checks its internal list and remembers which IP address made the request and transmits the information back to the computer that made the request in the first place.
A router can handle multiple network connections this way by taking note of which computers want to access which servers and routing information to and fro between them. This is way you can share the Internet access in your house because your router is working hard examining the traffic between all your computers and the servers on the Internet.
Wednesday, February 6, 2008
Getting an IP automatically | Home Network
In the previous post our home networking series, we have had an overall of what IP address is and how we can find out our own IP address when we are connected to the Internet. But if you think about it, if there are so many computers on the Internet, how does each machine get its own IP address and who gives them ? How about those on our home computer network ? Do we have to manually assign IP address to each of them ?
If you are connected to the Internet directly, I want you to try this exercise. For a couple of days, try to find out your IP address. After you turn off your computer, find out your IP address again. Chances are your IP address is not the same. Have you ever wondered why that is so ? And who gives you the IP address and how do they know when to give you your IP address ?
The answer lies in an Internet technology called DHCP or Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol. What this protocol does is that it automatically issues IP address to valid computers which ask it for an IP address. The administrator sets up a range of IP address for the DHCP to use. When a computer joins the network, it asks the entire network to give it an IP address. The DHCP server will respond to this computer and gives it an IP address.
The range of IP that an administrator might set may be a private network range in the case of a home network such as 192.168.0.1 - 192.168.0.10 or it may be a bigger range in the case of an Internet service provider like AOL.
If you are in your home network and you can get an IP address automatically, it can either be that you are connected directly through a Cable Modem or an ADSL modem which talks to your Internet service provider router which gives you an IP address. However, if you are behind a home network router, your router may have DHCP built in.
What your router is actually doing is it is giving your PC an IP address within its configured range of IP address inside the router. Most probably it will start with 192.168.0.X. Most of the home network routers on the market has DHCP functionality and if there's any PC on your home network that requires an IP address to get onto the Internet, your router will issue an IP address to that computer.
One thing to take note is that most of the people who own a home network router bought the router with the wireless capability. This is highly convenient for the user because he can move around the house and still have an IP address to be connected to the Internet. One danger is that if you do not secure or set a WEP key password to your router, the router will assume everyone who joins you network can use your Internet access, this will also mean your neighbour or any passer bys. This is very important. YOU HAVE TO SECURE YOUR WIRELESS NETWORK !
In the next instalment, we will look at how a router actually works and how does it know which PC request for what information on the Internet even if there are more then 1 computer in your home network.
If you are connected to the Internet directly, I want you to try this exercise. For a couple of days, try to find out your IP address. After you turn off your computer, find out your IP address again. Chances are your IP address is not the same. Have you ever wondered why that is so ? And who gives you the IP address and how do they know when to give you your IP address ?
The answer lies in an Internet technology called DHCP or Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol. What this protocol does is that it automatically issues IP address to valid computers which ask it for an IP address. The administrator sets up a range of IP address for the DHCP to use. When a computer joins the network, it asks the entire network to give it an IP address. The DHCP server will respond to this computer and gives it an IP address.
The range of IP that an administrator might set may be a private network range in the case of a home network such as 192.168.0.1 - 192.168.0.10 or it may be a bigger range in the case of an Internet service provider like AOL.
If you are in your home network and you can get an IP address automatically, it can either be that you are connected directly through a Cable Modem or an ADSL modem which talks to your Internet service provider router which gives you an IP address. However, if you are behind a home network router, your router may have DHCP built in.
What your router is actually doing is it is giving your PC an IP address within its configured range of IP address inside the router. Most probably it will start with 192.168.0.X. Most of the home network routers on the market has DHCP functionality and if there's any PC on your home network that requires an IP address to get onto the Internet, your router will issue an IP address to that computer.
One thing to take note is that most of the people who own a home network router bought the router with the wireless capability. This is highly convenient for the user because he can move around the house and still have an IP address to be connected to the Internet. One danger is that if you do not secure or set a WEP key password to your router, the router will assume everyone who joins you network can use your Internet access, this will also mean your neighbour or any passer bys. This is very important. YOU HAVE TO SECURE YOUR WIRELESS NETWORK !
In the next instalment, we will look at how a router actually works and how does it know which PC request for what information on the Internet even if there are more then 1 computer in your home network.
Tuesday, February 5, 2008
Types of Internet Address | Home Network
As discussed before in the previous post on Internet Address On Home Network, there are actually different kinds of IP addresses on the Internet.
When the Internet was in still in its infancy, sites were assigned addresses from one of these address classes namely Class A, Class B and Class C. What makes them different from each other is the number of IP addresses each class can hold. However, the bigger Class A networks are only a handful while the smaller Class C networks are plentiful. So for historical purposes, here are some information on each various kinds of network.
Class A - There can be 16.7 million host existing on this Class of network.
Class B - There can be 65K host existing on this Class of network
Class C - There can only be 254 host existing on this Class of network.
So enough for this history lesson, how does this relate to our home networking ? Well, the addressing scheme still persists in a loose sense today and while we don't really follow them anymore, they can be a reference point when we are setting up our home network.
The Internet Assigned Numbers Authority which is a body set up to monitor and issue specifications on the type of IP address that can be used, has reserved the following 3 blocks of IP address for private networks which incidentally refers to our very own home network.
These are :-
I usually use 192.168.0.1 and 192.168.0.2 and so on for the number of PCs that I have on my local home computer network. Then I label each machine with their respective numbers so I can easily share files and communicate among them.
You must be thinking oh gosh, this is so much work to issue one by one. Not to worry, in the next instalment of this blog, I will be talking about a feature commonly found in home network router which automatically gives you an IP address for each of the computers in your own home network. This feature is called the Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol or DHCP. Interested to know more ? Stay tuned !
When the Internet was in still in its infancy, sites were assigned addresses from one of these address classes namely Class A, Class B and Class C. What makes them different from each other is the number of IP addresses each class can hold. However, the bigger Class A networks are only a handful while the smaller Class C networks are plentiful. So for historical purposes, here are some information on each various kinds of network.
Class A - There can be 16.7 million host existing on this Class of network.
Class B - There can be 65K host existing on this Class of network
Class C - There can only be 254 host existing on this Class of network.
So enough for this history lesson, how does this relate to our home networking ? Well, the addressing scheme still persists in a loose sense today and while we don't really follow them anymore, they can be a reference point when we are setting up our home network.
The Internet Assigned Numbers Authority which is a body set up to monitor and issue specifications on the type of IP address that can be used, has reserved the following 3 blocks of IP address for private networks which incidentally refers to our very own home network.
These are :-
- 10.0.0.0 - 10.255.255.255 (Biggest number of host)
- 172.16.0.0 - 172.31.255.255 (Medium number of host)
- 192.168.0.0-192.168.255.255 (Smallest number of host)
I usually use 192.168.0.1 and 192.168.0.2 and so on for the number of PCs that I have on my local home computer network. Then I label each machine with their respective numbers so I can easily share files and communicate among them.
You must be thinking oh gosh, this is so much work to issue one by one. Not to worry, in the next instalment of this blog, I will be talking about a feature commonly found in home network router which automatically gives you an IP address for each of the computers in your own home network. This feature is called the Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol or DHCP. Interested to know more ? Stay tuned !
Internet Address | Home Network
For the first informational post to this Home Network blog, we are going to talk about Internet Addresses or IP address for short.
Each computer that is connected to the Internet, whether you are in the office computer network, or at home, or maybe at your local Starbucks, you are issued with unique set of 4 numbers that identifies you on the Internet. Its like your own telephone number which uniquely identifies you amongst all the other citizens in the country. That's how other computers find your computer on the Internet and also among your home computers in your home computer network. An example of this Internet Address looks like this : 192.168.0.5 or 10.1.5.30 ..
So how do we find out what's our own unique IP address ? Simple. Follow these steps if you are using Windows XP :-
In the next post, we will learn more about the different kind of IP address there are on the Internet. This is similar to different extensions for the different states in the country. When you see a certain combination of IP address, you can roughly tell what kind of IP address it is. Did you know that your IP address in your home network is different from the IP address in the Internet ? Well, just a little teaser for you there.
Till then, stay tuned.
Each computer that is connected to the Internet, whether you are in the office computer network, or at home, or maybe at your local Starbucks, you are issued with unique set of 4 numbers that identifies you on the Internet. Its like your own telephone number which uniquely identifies you amongst all the other citizens in the country. That's how other computers find your computer on the Internet and also among your home computers in your home computer network. An example of this Internet Address looks like this : 192.168.0.5 or 10.1.5.30 ..
So how do we find out what's our own unique IP address ? Simple. Follow these steps if you are using Windows XP :-
- Click on the Start button
- Click on "Run"
- At the newly appeared box, type "cmd"
- A black window will appear. This is called the Command Prompt window. It allows you to type commands that will give you more information on your computer.
- In the black Command Prompt window, type "ipconfig" without the quotes.
- Your unique IP address will be displayed
In the next post, we will learn more about the different kind of IP address there are on the Internet. This is similar to different extensions for the different states in the country. When you see a certain combination of IP address, you can roughly tell what kind of IP address it is. Did you know that your IP address in your home network is different from the IP address in the Internet ? Well, just a little teaser for you there.
Till then, stay tuned.
Welcome to Alvin's Home Network Tips
Welcome Everyone !
This is my first post on this Home Network blog and I'm really excited. This Home Network blog was specially setup to help people figure out how to go about setting up a home network and also a way to document my own findings when setting up my own home network.
I will be posting new articles on the various routers and network settings for your computers on your home computer network. Before long, you will be able to share files and communicate with other computers in your home and how to network 2 home computers.
You will also be able to identity the various network components that make up the network and how does everything work together.
And of course the all burning question, how do we share the internet access in the house ?
Stay tuned !
This is my first post on this Home Network blog and I'm really excited. This Home Network blog was specially setup to help people figure out how to go about setting up a home network and also a way to document my own findings when setting up my own home network.
I will be posting new articles on the various routers and network settings for your computers on your home computer network. Before long, you will be able to share files and communicate with other computers in your home and how to network 2 home computers.
You will also be able to identity the various network components that make up the network and how does everything work together.
And of course the all burning question, how do we share the internet access in the house ?
Stay tuned !
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