Complete guide to home networking

• Article 37 of 53
• iCreate, August 2005
• View a PDF of the original article ~ 3.1MB

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As John Donne almost wrote, “No Mac is an island”. Even if life without the Internet weren’t next to unimaginable, we all need to exchange information and files, share peripherals and Internet connections without constantly switching plugs or moving devices, and roam about the house without cables trailing all over the place.

Well, we do, anyway.

Being able to set up networks of computers makes all of this possible. Whether it’s with wires or without, networking is the key to an interconnected and easier lifestyle. It can be completely cost-free, accomplished in just a few seconds and save you time, stress and money.

You’d be entitled to think that networking is hard and the realm of geeks. To a certain extent you’d be right. But home networks are a whole simpler. Apple and other vendors have gone out of their way to make it as easy as possible for you, and once you’ve started, you’ll soon find everything becomes a breeze.

Macs in particular are easy to network together and we’re going to show you how. We’re going to look at the equipment you’ll need (maybe none at all), the ways you can do it, what software you might need that can enhance your life, and what devices can be networked – either with help or without. If that’s not enough, we’ll show you how to get yourself networked when you’re away from home, whether that’s at a hotspot, in a hotel, a friend’s house or using a mobile phone.

GETTING STARTED
First off with any network is planning. It’s very easy to make things very complicated and very expensive if you don’t put in at least a little preparation time. So first ask yourself what you’re trying to achieve: are you simply trying to get all your Macs to communicate with each other and share files; do you want to share peripherals over the network as well; do you want to share a broadband connection?

That’s a few things to think about. What’s the main consideration? Money. The more you network and the more advanced your networking needs, the more it’s going to cost. So try not to be too ambitious initially. But if you try to spend too little right now, you could end up spending a lot more in the long run, so keep one eye on the future while you’re planning.

First off, take stock of your Macs. What networking capabilities do they have? Virtually every Mac made in the last eight years has Ethernet (wired) networking capabilities built in so you might well be blessed with instant networkability for all your Macs. Most Macs have also had FireWire built-in and a little known fact about FireWire is that it can be used by OS X 10.3 and later for networking just like Ethernet.

Wireless networking, on the other hand, has only been included as standard in Macs in the last year or so and only in certain Macs. If you have older machines, you’ll probably have to look at buying AirPort Extreme wireless networking cards for £50 or so. A further thorny problem is that Apple no longer sells the older AirPort cards: if you have an AirPort-only Mac and never bought the card, you’ll have to start scouting around the back of iCreate and eBay to get into wireless networking, although PowerMac users may be able to buy third-party PCI cards.

Very old Macs might well have neither Ethernet or AirPort built in and certainly won’t have FireWire: instead, they used something called LocalTalk for networking. This is now obsolete. As are those Macs. You know what we’re saying: it’s Mac mini time.

Now you’ve taken stock of your computers’ networking capabilities, you can decide how to create your network. If all your Macs have wireless capabilities built in, happy days! That’s all you need. You can create a wireless network straight away and all the machines will be able to join it.

If you don’t, but you only have two Macs with Ethernet or FireWire, you can crack open the discount Lambrini anyway. FireWire cables come in at £10-15 but the average Ethernet cable now costs between £2 and £5, so you can have a very simple home network up and running for less than the cost of a single issue of iCreate. In both cases, just plug your cable into the corresponding ports in the backs or sides of your Macs and they’ll automatically create a network and configure themselves to use it.

Once you have that network up and running, you can use it to transfer files using the Personal File Sharing and Windows Sharing system in the Sharing pane of your System Preferences, run a web site, and share your iTunes and iPhotos. But there’s also a host of peripherals you can share once you’ve connected them to your Mac. Any printer can be used by other computers once you enable Printer Sharing in the Sharing pane. You can share your digital camera or webcam using Image Capture in your Applications folder. If you have Roxio’s Toast, you can share a CD or DVD burner with other Toast users. Download SharePoints (www.hornware.com) and you’ll be able to share files stored on external hard drives or your iPod.

This is where you have to start thinking. Will you be wanting to do any of these things? If you are, then although wireless networking is a great way of creating a simple network with the minimum of effort, wired networking is still a lot faster, more reliable and cheaper as you try to scale the whole thing up to include more devices. If you’re at all impatient or you’re ambitious but on a budget, start thinking wired from the outset. If you’re not, stick with wireless. Of course, you can also combine the two to have a partially wired network with certain Macs, such as laptops, connected wirelessly.

DOING IT WITH WIRES
As we said, wired networking is easy. Just bung the cable in and off you go. Unlike wireless networking however, you start having to buy in extra equipment as soon as you need to add a third computer or device to the network. After all, if you’ve only one place for the cable to go, how do you connect one computer to two others?

What you’ll need is a ‘hub’. A hub will sit at the centre of your network like the hub at the centre of a bike wheel with all the spokes radiating outwards. Its function is to connect lots of devices together over Ethernet, for which it has four or more Ethernet sockets and potentially a fifth to connect it to another hub.

Hubs are reasonably cheap, starting at just over £10 for a basic model. They become more expensive as you add in more sockets, with 16-socket hubs fairly common in smaller offices, although you can “daisy chain” hubs together up to a point.

Hubs also become more expensive as they gain in intelligence and capability. Regular hubs will throw network traffic around all over the place, but ‘switching’ hubs or switches will decide which traffic should go where before passing it on: this reduces the amount of data going around the place and speeds the whole network up.

There are other varieties of hubs, too. ‘Routing’ hubs or routers (also known as ‘bridges’) will also be able to connect two networks together and decide which traffic belongs on which network.

Which is where we come to the Internet. The Internet is just one big network. It uses the same method of communication that your home network will. So, lo and behold, if you want your Macs to be able to access the Internet as well as your home network, you’ll need a router. Now that router needn’t be a hub. Your Mac has it within itself to be a router, too, at just the touch of a button: ain’t that clever?

In both cases, you’ll need some way of connecting to the Internet. Since you’re not Pipex and you don’t have Internet trunking cable clamped onto the side of your home, you’ll need both an Internet Service Provider and a modem to contact that ISP, whether you’re using dial-up or broadband. Your ISP may even provide the modem if you’re unlucky…

The modem is key here. If you have a USB modem, you’ll need to plug that into a Mac. Your Mac can then connect to the Internet. Using the Internet Sharing powers of OS X (see our ‘Walkthrough – Sharing an Internet Connection’ for details of how to do this’), your Mac can then let other Macs access the Internet by acting as a router for all the information.

This means several things: one, it saves you some cash, since you won’t need a separate router; two, it means that Mac will always have to be on when you want to access the Internet on any of the other Macs; three, it means your Mac is in danger of slowing to a crawl when lots of computers are trying to use the Internet at the same time. This latter problem isn’t helped by the skanky, under-powered USB modems that some ISPs give their customers; frequently, these modems will rely on their host computers to do a lot of the calculating work for them, which slows the host down.

So if you can afford it, invest in a separate router with a built-in ADSL modem. This needn’t be expensive. A four-socket Belkin router with modem comes in at a little over £30 and you’ll save that much money in electricity alone within a couple of years.

Since these routers work via Ethernet rather than USB, you’ll also be spared the constant arguments Mac users have with ISPs over why their modems don’t work with Macs. All Ethernet routers will work with Macs. End of story. Except when they only have Windows-based configuration software, that is, so look for “web interface” or “web configuration” on the box, just to be sure.

GOING WIRELESS
Once you start looking at wireless networking and shared Internet connections, some kind of router starts to become necessary. Yes, you can do the same trick with the Internet Sharing pane in OS X as with wired networking. But you get the same slowdown and unreliability – and then some.

So most people invest in some kind of wireless-enabled router (aka base station or wireless access point). Apple makes two: the AirPort Extreme Base Station (AEBS for brevity) and the AirPort Express. The AEBS can handle dozens of wireless computers, all trying to access the Internet at the same time. You can plug a USB printer into its USB port and have that shared wirelessly: you won’t have to have it plugged into a Mac and have that running all the time to be able to print. You can also extend your network using an external antenna or using the wireless distribution system (WDS). The latter requires another AEBS or AirPort Express – or more than one if you have a very large set-up.

The AirPort Express is no shirk either. It can cope with a dozen or so wireless clients and while it only has one Ethernet port and no modem, unlike the AEBS, it does have the extra ability to play music using ‘AirTunes’, which is a way for iTunes to stream its music to a Hi-Fi connected to an AirPort Express.

Both the AEBS and AirPort Express can use standard old AirPort networking (802.11b or WiFi to everyone except Apple), AirPort Extreme (802.11g) or a mixture of the both. AirPort’s older, slower and more prone to interference from mobile phones, microwaves, pieces of furniture, human beings, etc so Extreme is definitely a step up, although both pale in comparison to Ethernet.

If you’re thinking about wireless, you’ll need to take into account that objects and walls may reduce the range of your base station and that radio waves find it harder to go round corners than wires do. The maximum theoretical range for wireless is about 200 metres: you will never, ever achieve this.

One final point about the AirPort base station range: they don’t have ADSL modems built in. If you get your Internet connection via dial-up or by cable, that’s not a problem. Cable users can simply connect their base stations to their cable modem or set-top box using an Ethernet cable and away they go. Nice and Apple easy, huh? But if you get your connection via regular phone lines, as the vast majority of UK broadband users do, you’ll also need an ADSL modem. So, like them, you might want to think twice about buying an AirPort base station and look at one of the third-party wireless routers available that have ADSL modems built in. They’re cheaper, do more and can actually give you an Internet connection, but they’re not as user-friendly. They also don’t tend to offer the more secure WPA encryption for wireless networking, unlike Apple’s range. It’s your choice, but it’s no coincidence that the number of Apple wireless routers used by members of the iCreate team to connect to the Internet is zero.

NETWORKING OTHER DEVICES
With your computers all connected up to your network and your Internet connection shared among them, you might want to start looking at the other devices you can connect directly to the network. We’ve already mentioned how you can share printers, hard drives, etc via OS X, but there are various devices on the market now that have their own built-in networking capabilities. Mid-range and high-end printers almost all have Ethernet built in, while some even have wireless capabilities. There are also various file servers and hard drives, such as the LaCie Ethernet Disk mini, which can plug directly into the network and share their data without the need for a Mac. High-end scanners, typically those from Umax, also have network capabilities.

Most of us don’t have peripherals that pricey or that came with those capabilities, but it’s still possible in some cases to add the necessary to them. There are a variety of wireless and wired printer servers, including the AirPort base station range, that can connect to USB printers and then share them on the network. These are usually at least £80 and present the printers to you as Windows printers, so if you’re really toying with the idea for a home network, we’d recommend buying an AirPort Express instead – they’re the same price, Mac-oriented and can do a whole lot more. For an office network, they’re probably a bit more exciting than most IT managers like, but they’re still relevant and PCs can print to them with only a little bit of effort.

Sharing a scanner over a network is easy, provided it works with Image Capture (so that’s basically Epson scanners then). Simply open up Image Capture, go into its preferences and click “Share my devices”: this will also share any other Image Capture-compatible devices such as webcams, digital cameras and so on. Clicking on “Look for shared devices” at the same time will enable you to use scanners, etc shared by other Macs with Image Capture. If your scanner doesn’t work with Image Capture, that’s basically it then, since most of the USB scanner servers available, of which there are but a handful, only work with PCs and not very well at that.

If you’re keen on networked peripherals, it might well be worth looking into multi-function devices that build fax machine, scanner and printer into a single unit. These invariably have networking capabilities and can save their scanned output onto file servers. The printer will be visible on the network and you’ll get a fax machine as well. Brilliant.

Pushing the envelope a little is the networked fax. True, you can already fax from OS X and share that faxing capability with any other OS X 10.3 or 10.4 user over the network. But the same principles of workload for the poor Mac apply. Plus OS X’s faxing software can be a little flaky at time. A networked fax server can do a whole load of things more and connect to more than one phone line, so if you do a lot of faxing and everyone else does, a network fax is worth looking at, even if it is a relatively expensive purchase. You might get lucky and find your multi-function fax/scanner/printer offers network faxing capabilities as well. Be sure to get one that works with Macs though.

Lastly, there’s a new set of consumer products that are network-enabled and that work with Macs. We’ve highlighted some of the best in the “Hot networking” sidebar.

INTERNET EVERYWHERE
Once you’ve built this stonkingly good network, as soon as you leave home or the office, it’s all absolutely useless to you. It’s there, you’re not. Fortunately, there are ways to get Internet access almost everywhere now.

WiFi hotspots are becoming ubiquitous. These are open wireless networks that you can join, usually for a price but sometimes for free, provided you have an AirPort or AirPort Extreme card in your laptop. When in the presence of a hotspot, your Mac will helpfully point out its presence and ask if you want to join it. Say yes, and you’ll be able to join the network. At the paid-for hotspots, open up Safari or any other web browser and you’ll be redirected to a page where you can enter credit card details to pay for your time on the web.

The trick is finding these hotspots. There are various Internet sites, such as Jiwire (www.jiwire.com), that list WiFi hotspots, but that’s no use unless you have Internet access already. There are also pocket WiFi locators, available from firms such as Kensington, that will alert you when they locate WiFi networks. This is much better than walking around in a strange city with your laptop open, hoping to find a signal.

More often than not, however, you’ll just have to keep your eyes open, looking for familiar names. “BT Openzones” are quite prevalent in the UK, particularly in service stations, pubs and airports. “T-Mobile hotspots” are the other big name to watch out for: they’re also popular in airports as well as Starbucks, but are more popular overseas, particularly in the US. Otherwise, look out for the word “WiFi”.

If you’re in a hotel, you’re unlikely to get WiFi access in your room, although there are always exceptions: Holiday Inns, for instance, are quite good for WiFi, as are Swiss hotels. More likely is a data port that you can plug a modem cable into and use dial-up (forget about it) or a high-speed Internet connection that uses Ethernet. Always, always, always take an Ethernet cable with you. Certain Spanish hotels, for instance, offer free broadband-quality Internet via an Ethernet socket in the wall, but you’ll have to have brought your own cable.

You can then, if you’re feeling irritated by cables, connect your AirPort Express to the Ethernet socket. Yes, one of the great things about the AirPort Express is that it’s small enough to sling into your bag, take it with you and then use for WiFi access wherever you happen to be. Its greatest asset in this regard is that it supports “Profiles”: you can save different sets of preferences in it, so that you can have a “Home” profile, a “My mate Imhotep’s house” profile, a “Hotel” profile and so on. And since it doesn’t need a modem to take advantage of an existing Internet connection, it’s perfect for creating your own WiFi point in a hotel.

If you’re out of luck with WiFi, can’t find a data port in your tiny B&B and your Ethernet cable is at home, it’s time to turn to the mobile phone. Provided you have a GPRS or a 3G connection and some way of connecting from your laptop to your phone, you can usually use it as a modem. GPRS is only as fast as a 56Kbps dial-up connection, at its peak, but 3G is faster than broadband in most cases. However, 3G is still not widespread, has expensive tariffs and coverage is patchy, so you’ll get more mileage and save yourself a lot of money by sticking with GPRS for a while.

In the olden days, infra-red or USB cables were de rigeur for connecting laptop and mobile phone. You can still use them, but now Bluetooth is the name of the game. If you have it in both your laptop and your phone (and it’s worth buying the £40 adaptor from D-Link that’s available from the Apple store if your laptop doesn’t have Bluetooth built in), you can pair the two devices up.

You’ll need two other things though: GPRS/3G settings so your Mac can use your mobile phone provider as its ISP; and suitable scripts for your phone so your Mac knows how to talk to the ISP and the phone. You can get both of these from the excellent Ross Barkman at www.taniwha.org.uk. Follow his instructions then try out the connection at home to make sure it works. If you’re travelling abroad, save the details about foreign ISPs’ settings somewhere, since you’ll have to use those.

If you’re full of cash, then you can get high-speed data cards that plug into your laptop and access the 3G or GPRS mobile phone network directly. You’ll need a laptop that can take PC cards. Currently, only the PowerBook 15“ and PowerBook 17” do, but almost all the pre-titanium PowerBooks had PC card slots. iBooks have always been PC card slot-free, unfortunately.

Some of these cards are quite nifty, since they often include wireless networking capabilities as well. But they’re pricey, coming in at nearly £200 in some cases, and are frequently incompatible with Macs. Vodafone is the only surefire provider of a Mac-compatible datacard, so we’d usually recommend getting a Bluetooth-compatible phone and an adaptor for your laptop if necessary, instead of a datacard. It’ll be cheaper, you’ll have one fewer thing to remember when you’re travelling and you’ll be able to use those nifty headsets as well.

Being able to access the Internet at any time is becoming more and more necessary, both for work and leisure activities. With more and more people also having more than one computer at home, networks are becoming a necessity, even if many don’t realise it. Hopefully, you’ll now be able to set up your own network. Your Macs don’t need to be islands.

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