Introduction:

In this section, we will take a look at some of the steps in installing and configuring
networks. There are several things to Keep in mind while reading this section as follows:
 A+ technicians only handle minor things with regards to networking, so we will
not go very in depth on this.
 The configuration examples below are for Windows XP . The steps involved will
likely vary in other operating systems.
 In Windows, there are a number of different ways to access a particular window
or screen. Many of the windows below can be accessed using the control panel
and other methods. This tutorial only shows one possible way to access each of
these screens. You should know the other methods as well.

Network Devices:
A network is composed of computers, servers, printers, and other devices. We have
already discussed cabling and the types of connectors used on networks, but what do they
connect to? The computer, printer, etc. (also known as a client) will have a network
interface card (NIC) that one end of the cable plugs into. The NIC can be built into the
motherboard or can be an expansion card. In either case, it will need to have the correct
driver loaded like any other expansion card.

On most Ethernet networks, there are hubs or switches that serve as the central location
that all of the clients plug in to. On very small Ethernet networks, the devices plug into a
hub. On larger networks, there is usually a wiring closet with at least one switch. Often,
the network devices plug into a wall jack that is wired to the switches in the wiring closet.

On even larger networks, routers are often needed to divide the network into different
segments. Routers are also used as a gateway to the outside world (i.e. connection to
ISP).

Dial-up Connection:
This type of connection is being used less frequently all the time with the emergence of
faster and better broadband options. However, you may still need to know how to deal
with this type of network connection. Dial-up and ISDN connection use a modem which
converts digital signals from your computer to analog for transmission over phone lines.
On the receiving end is another modem which converts the signal back to digital. From a
physical standpoint, setting up this type of connection is as simple as connecting a phone
cord from your computer to the wall jack.

The easiest way to configure this type of connection is to right click on My Network
Places and select Properties. Next, click on Create a New Connection which will launch
the New Connection Wizard. This wizard can be used to set up a wide variety of
connection types including the ones below that are described manually. Once we
complete the wizard, a new icon appears in our Network Connections window as shown
below.
The dial-up icon was not there previous to completing the wizard. Now we can go in and
configure our dial-up connection. To do this, right click on the dial-up connection icon
and select Properties. You should now see a window like below:
From here you can configure the modem itself, the connection options, protocols,
security, internet connection sharing (discussed in a later section), and other settings.

Local Area Network Connection:

It should be clear by now that there are a wide variety of network types, connections, and
protocols. Too many for us to cover all of the possibilities here, however, we will go
through a couple of examples of very common scenarios.

Once your client is physically plugged into the network, you then need to set things up on
the software side. In never versions of Windows, this has become pretty simple. For our
first example, we are going to set up a connection on a LAN. To get started, right click on
the "My Network Places" icon on the desktop and select "Properties". This will bring up
the network connections dialog box shown below.
As you can see in the image, this window lists your current network connections and their
status. Here we have a LAN connection that does not have a cable plugged in, a wireless
connection that is currently connected, and a 1394 net adapter which is for a firewire
network connection.

On the left side, you should see "Create a new connection". When you click this,
Windows launches the Network Connection Wizard which allows you to configure your
cable or DSL connection, dial-up or VPN to a corporate network, and peer-to-peer
connections such as serial or infrared.
After you have completed the wizard, your new connection should appear in the Network
Connections dialogue box. Now the network needs to be configured. To do this, right
click on your new connection and click "properties". You will then see a window that
looks like this:
From here, you can configure your network card (NIC) by clicking on the configure
button, although in most cases nothing needs to be done here. This will take you to the
same place as viewing the NICs properties in Device Manager.

Next we may need to configure our protocol(s). In this case, our network is using TCP/IP,
however if you need to use a protocol that isn't there, click on the "Install" button. This
will bring up a list of protocols that can be installed. If you still don't see the one you
need, then you probably need a disk that contains the installation files for that protocol.
This should be very rare. In any event, first highlight the "Internet Control Protocol
(TCP/IP)" and click the "properties" button and you will see the screen below.
If our network has a DHCP server, then we probably don't need to configure anything at
all and should leave the "Obtain an IP address automatically" radio button selected.
Checking the other radio buttons will allow you to manually enter IP address, subnet
mask, default gateway, and DNS Servers. Once this is done, you should have a
connection to your network.

Shared Connection With ICS:

In the above example, we connected to an existing LAN. What if we want to connect a
single computer to a DSL or cable connection? This is as simple as connecting the NIC
on the computer to the DSL router or cable modem and following the configuration
instructions from the broadband vendor. But, what if we need to connect a few computers
to a broadband connection? One option is to get a router and run NAT - the other is to let
Windows solve the problem. Windows 2000 and XP include a service called Internet
Connection Sharing (ICS). This allows one computer to be connected to the internet, and
the others to share the connection. One caveat of this configuration is that the host
computer must have 2 network cards installed unless you are using dial-up - one to
connect to the cable modem or DSL router and the other to connect to the LAN.

To get started, you must have 2 connections in your Network Connections. First, right
click on the cable modem or DSL connection and select properties. This will bring up the
Local Area Connection Properties window that we saw in our last connection and seen
below:

Next, you need to click on the advanced tab. Here you simply check the box that says,
"Allow other network users to connect through this computer's internet connection".
Next, we need to configure the clients. This is as easy as going to our TCP/IP properties
window shown earlier and making sure that the connection is set to use DHCP. In other
words make sure that the "Obtain an IP address automatically" radio button is selected
and all other fields are clear.

Wireless Connection:
The next type of connection we are going to look at is a wireless connection. Wireless
connections are somewhat plug and play and it is fairly easy to set up a basic connection.
The first step is to connect the wireless access point (WAP) to a computer using the
ethernet cable that came with the WAP. Almost all WAPs have an internal web page that
can be viewed by entering the default IP address that it is programmed with. This is
usually something like 192.168.1.1 and the default username is usually something like
"admin" and "password" respectively. Check the documentation that comes with the
WAP for this information. Once logged into the web page, you can configure a wide
variety of settings for the access point including IP settings, SSID, wireless channel,
WEP and WPA security, and more. The first thing you should do is change the SSID to a
unique identifier for your network. You may need to change the IP settings depending on
your situation. Next, it is a good idea to set up security. WPA2 is the best available,
although some access points only support WPA. After all of the settings are configured,
connect the WAP to the network as appropriate.
Now, we need to configure our wi-fi client to connect to the access point. Windows
includes a wizard that simplifies this process, but we are going to look at the manual
method. To get started, first right click on My Network Places and select properties. This
will bring up the Network Connections window that we saw in previously discussed
connections. There should be a wireless connection icon that will appear after you install
the wireless network adapter on the computer. Right click on this icon and select
properties. This will bring up the Wireless Network Connection Properties window that is
very similar to the Local Area Connection Properties window we saw earlier, and you
can configure your TCP/IP properties for your wireless connection in the same manner
described earlier.

The major difference between this window and the Local Area Connection Properties
window is that this one has a Wireless Networks tab that when clicked brings up this
window.
The next step is to select your preferred wireless network. Your network will show up
using the SSID that you configured on the WAP earlier. Once selected, click the
properties button which will bring up this window:
In this window, you can configure your security settings depending on what selections
you made when configuring the WAP. After all of these steps, you should be able to
connect to your wireless network. You can check your connection's "health" by going to
My Network Places and double-clicking on the wireless network connection icon which
brings up this window.
This shows your signal strength, connection speed, and other information that is useful
for troubleshooting when there is a problem. If you want to see which networks are
available to connect to, simply click on the View Wireless Networks button which brings
up this window:
Here you can see which wireless networks are available to connect to and manually
connect to them.