[GUIDE] Networking and You

tencent

This is written in the intent to answer all basic networking questions. Hit me up with suggestions on things that should be here or should be added.

1) What the flip is this crap?
-a)Basics
-b)Servers
-c)Clients
-d)Global vs Local

2) Common Hardware
-a)Routers
-b)Switch
-c)Modem
-d)My internet is faster than your internet

3) So Im on the internet, I want a network!
-a)Wired
-b)Wireless

4)Setting up my network
-a)Wired
-b)Wireless
-c)Static Networking

5) Troubleshooting your network
-a)New Installs
-b)Wireless Connectivity
-c)Linux Wireless
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1) What the flip is this crap?

-a)Basics
A network is a group of objects that communicate with one another. In the computer world networks are everything. The internet is one huge network which has millions of smaller networks which have networks inside of them and so on until it gets to you. Everything on a network must have a name. Imagine 10 bobs in one room all trying to talk to one specific bob. Obviously that wouldn't work so every network has a name. All these networks essentially are named by IP addresses. The naming of objects on networks does get more complex but that is beyond the scope of this. IP addresses are broken into 4 parts of XXX.XXX.XXX.XXX This is important because it sets uniformity and most importantly gives you a large possibilty of names. On your home network you my have seen 192.168.X.X quite often. This is because when IP addresses where concieved they decided to specify who can get what names. 192.X.X.X was essentially marked for all home networks and thats all thats truely important to you.

-b)Servers
Servers are just what they sound like, a distributer of goods. Servers are the life of the internet. They pass information to the clients and help establish rules and uniformity. Helping these servers are hardware such as switches/routers/hubs/etc.. All of these devices where designed with a specific function to aid Servers and clients to be able to communicate with one another.

-c)Clients
You are a client, while you request information and often send information you are not a host of it (aka server). You have an IP address or at least the network you are on has a global IP address. Clients can also be servers just as Servers can be clients. If your computer shares files and folders on your network your computer is acting as a server to the other computers on the network with access to those folders.

-d)Global vs Local
One mistake I see often is people confusing global and local names (IP's). If your computers name on your network is 192.168.0.2 then your router is 192.168.0.1. These both have names and they use those names to communicate with one another. Your router is essentially a messenger that uses your internet connection to get information requested from it and transport it back to the requestor on the network. Because of this the router is basically a wall. Everyone on the modem side is Global to the perspective of your computer while everything on your computers side of the router is Local. Every network works on this basic principle though again there are exceptions and special thing you can do to networks to make routers perform differently.


2) Common Hardware
-a)Routers
Again, routers talk to the modem for all the computers on the network and get the correct information back to the correct computer. Think of this like the mail room at the post office. They sort everything by state, next by the zip code, and finally the parcel is at your door. Routers work essentially the same way getting all the bits and pieces of what you need back to you until you get the whole piece of what you wanted.

-b)Switch
Switches are nothing like your wall switch. They allow all the computers pugged into it to talk to each other simultaneously. Many routers have a switch built into them and this is important for users wanting to setup file sharing. Not much else to them, the typical comercial switch has no options and is the easiest piece to setup on the network as theres not thinking or messing up that can be done.

-c)Modem
The modem is what talks to your ISP which is basically a big router. The ISP does the same thing your router does, lets you talk to servers in and outside of your ISP's network and then gets that information back to you. Modems either connect via usb or ethernet to your computer. USB modem connections pretty silly and just a bottle neck to most internet connections. Dial up internet can also be used on a network but this is an essentially dead technology to the home user so we wont touch on that. The two major internet modems for home users are Cable and DSL. Cable is rated to be much faster than DSL typically at least 2x faster than DSL. Both have their uses depending on where you live and either one is more than enough for general web browsing. A third type is emerging called fios and it blows the doors off cable and DSL without breaking a sweat.

-d)My internet is faster than your internet
Wow I hope you feel better about yourself, all the ladies are gonna dig you now. More seriously, Internet connections are based on speed by kb/s or mb/s for home users. kb/s is typically for dial up or DSL companies trying to sound really awesome fast. Cable and Fios are measured in mb/s. The important thing to note here is ping is much more important than bandwidth if you want to play games. Noteably they typically go hand in hand but sometimes they do not. For instance you can get satellite internet at upto 2mb/s (I believe) but if you play any games online your ping (time to respond to the server) will be at least 100 millaseconds. In games you want to be as low as possible to ensure you are keeping pace with the other players. Bad (high) pings can be associated to laggy game play, disconnects, or being in a fire fight and the next thing you know the camera is circling your corpse. As far as pings go, Cable is typically the best but depending on the area DSL can often provide better game play. Again FIOS blows the doors off both of them providing outrageous speed and conectivity.


3) So Im on the internet, I want a network!
-a)Wired
Wired computing is much easier to setup for the novice users and typically at least half the price. All new computers come with ethernet jacks standard so all you need is the router and the cables. Wireless can because quite expensive fast for decent hardware. For this reason I always encourage the use of wired networks where ever possible. Wired networks are 99% of the time plug and play right out of the box. If you have DSL you will need to setup your login options but that should only set you back a few minutes of time. Another note is that if your internet works when your computer is hooked straight to the modem but not when its modem, router, computer then you will want to call your service provider and they should be able to help you further as it is typically adjusting the MAC address their service to you is assigned.

-b)Wireless
Wireless... for a lack of better things to say, its trash. Complete trash and they should have slapped themselves retarded when they developed the security for wireless. Wireless routers work essentially no different than wired routers. They broadcast a name on a set channel and your computers can tune to that channel and name. The next step is the security. Being wireless means that anyone around your network can see your router now and steal or monitor your activity or connection. This can be a major risk if you live by someone with the know how or in any area with comercial traffic as everyone now days pretty much has a laptop with a wireless adaptor in it. The two types of encryption on wireless is WEP and WPA. WEP is the easiest to break and comes in 64bit and 128bit. If your router only supports WEP or if you can't get WPA to work across all of your devices uniformaly then just use 64bit because cracking 128bit only takes a minute or two at tops longer to crack. At 128bit you are causing more of a slow down in your network as well so its advisable to just use 64bit. WPA is most definitely more secure and "tougher" to crack but it is still crackable. Point of the story here is if you have something someone wants, don't rely on your wireless network encryption for security. Rely on encrypted folders and secure transfers such as SSL which provide much much more security than WEP or WPA.

4)Setting up my network
-a)Wired
Setting up a basic wired network is one of the easiest things you will have to do when adding hardware to your rigs. This is general rule of thumb for setting up a network.

Step 1 - If you plan to have an internet connection hooked to the network such as cable, ensure that your modem does have an ethernet connection and that when the modem is hooked up to your computer using the ethernet cable that the internet is functioning properly. This is vital for any needed trouble shooting. Also dsl users (maybe fios too, dont know how it sets up) will need to have their username and password logins ready so your router will be able to login to the Service Provider network that you use.

Step 2 - Now that your internet is assured to be working hit start and then goto run. Type in CMD and hit enter. In the command console type IPCONFIG /ALL and write down the MAC address listed. You will likely want this so you can update your router to reflect the mac address your computer used incase the internet does not function when everything is done being hooked up.

step 3 - Start wiring stuff up! Hook the modem ethernet cable to the router internet in plug and then use the spare ethernet cable that should come with your router using port 1 to hook up to your computer. Now with everything hooked up try either restarting your computer or disabling and reenabling your network card if you know how. Upon the restart your computer should now have internet. If the internet fails to work move down to the troubleshooting section of the guide.

-b)Wireless

-c)Static Networking
Assuming your connected using DHCP to your router (you just plugged everything in and the internet just worked omg wow) hit start->run. Now type in CMD inside the run dialog box and press enter. Command prompt should now load up so type "ipconfig /all" without the qoutes and hit enter. You should now have something like this.



Now leave that window open as you will need some of the information from it. Navigate to your control panel usually under Start -> Settings and if you are using XP you will likely need to click the link to switch it to classic view. From the control panel open up your network and dial up folder. There will be at least one option here and your wireless will likely be the last option. For me its connection 4 (I have 2 onboard nics, a nic, and a wireless. Always good to be connected) but it will likely be connection 2 or 3 for you. Open the appropriate connection and click the properties button.



From there select the TCP/IP connection and hit the properties button in the newest window.



Now click the radio buttons to allow you to input values into the form fields. Copy the information from the CMD window over to the "Internet Protocol Properties" window. You should now have something similar to this.


EDIT * Only enter in the dns one time not twice like the picture shows.. I didnt mean to do that =P

Your DNS will more than likely be far different than mine so don't worry if it is. Now just hit "OK" on all the open windows and close the CMD window. You may need to restart your computer but you should first try to disable the connection you just modified from the network connections folder and then reenable it or just reboot which ever is easier for you.

Congratulations you now have a static IP address which will likely solve your connect/disconnect problems. You may want to note that those windows are likely slightly different in windows xp and under win 2k (which I am using) will need a prog to setup for wireless correctly as win 2k does not have the wireless features of win xp.

NOTE *
I dont remeber where I saw it at, likely a forum member. Anyways I saw a great idea about changing your dhcp server range to a higher number than what your network could ever need incase you ever need to quick hookup another computer says a friends or something. Always good to prepair for the future.

Say you have 4 computers on your network. Follow the above guide to set them all static. Now leave your dhcp server enabled and find the dhcp settings in your routers login.



My dhcp server is never on.. only looks to be on for the sake of the picture but I set it to start at 50 and end at 50 meaning only one dhcp computer can have access at a time. Dont know why you would randomly have more than one computer needing to be hooked up except for maybe a lan party but you can just give all your friends the info to use a static ip anyways

5) Troubleshooting your network
-a)New Installs
-b)Wireless Connectivity
-c)Linux Wireless

montypythizzle

nice guide maybe some info on work groups and domains as i am confused about domains (network ones) and hmm people really want to know about how to make internet faster or confusing of bandwidth and through put and different wireless things and if u have a wireless g and in your task manager u see 54 mbps your really not getting that fast of connection from your isp
and how about some speed test sites
and maybe like diff type of servers ftp web dhcp dns da da da w00t servers and other..

tencent

thanks for the ideas, I had most of that in mind.

Grez

Nice guide, dude! This is a really good high-level overview. You should consider a guide for step-by-step basics on setting up a home network.

tencent

it'll be in here. Anyone want to sticky this at the top?

Grez

Done.

tencent

UPDATE : added in my guide for static ip setups.

Canavi

Nice job on static I.P.s

tencent

actually i wrote that about 2 months ago.. its buried in the network section.

Canavi

Ha, I still liked it :-).

Ashraf

Hm, that's a good guide. You forgot about security. Security is important and should be added.

I hope people would find it's very useful. ;)

asforme

In global vs private ip's don't forget about 10. networks and the less often used 172. class b.

Good job though, I think I've been inspired to try to write a guide and make some sort of a contribution to the community. Now I just gotta figure out what useful info I know?

asforme

Oh, one more thing, the best form of wireless security is not broadcasting your SSID. Most wireless routers allow it to be turned off. If people don't see you, they probably won't hack you. If you want to go a step further lots of routers allow mac address filtering. Yes mac addresses can be spoofed, but it would take one damn determined individual to want to hack into your hidden, encripted, restricted network.

Ashraf

Such as WEP. ;)

tencent

.... you can't be seriously. Not broadcasting your ssid is just a waste of time if you think its any kind of security measure. Even windows will let you connect to a "hidden" network without a problem. Further more anyone that wants to break into your network will have a linux running laptop more than likely and if your security protection is not having an ssid.. kismet will just laugh at you and map out everyone connected to your network anyways. Furthermore WEP and WPA is a joke as well since both can be cracked by just logging enough packets. Also just doing the equivalent of dos attacking a wireless comp on the network you can force that computer to repetively send the connection packets (arp) and then you have your WEP key in under a couple minutes.. often as quick as 5 minutes.

jackjo789

tencent, You are rocking!!!!!!!!
You gave great explanation of how to do networking.
It will be helpful to all to know how to do networking.
A computer network is a collection of computers and devices connected to each other. The network allows computers to communicate with each other and share resources and information.

Jack Johnson