If you have one or more computers in your home then you can benefit from a wireless network in a number of ways.
Today it is not uncommon for every person in the household to have their own laptop, notebook or desktop computer. Children use them as an educational tool and mom and dad often bring their laptop home from work.
The biggest advantage to setting up a wireless network is to eliminate some of the tangle mess of wires associated with each computer.
A simple definition of wireless is that it offers a communication method for the transfer of information over a long or short distance without the use of wires. But that doesn’t happen magically. Wireless adapters (either built-in or attached) are required for each computer and then generally a router is used at the internet access point.
Even though this article is specific to wireless computer networks, many people already use wireless in the home for such things as cell phones, baby monitors and security systems.
Beyond the elimination of wires there are few other ways that a wireless computer network can make your life easier.
Save money by sharing just one printer with everyone Be free to use your computer on the deck, in the kitchen or anywhere else inside or outside of your home Save money by sharing one backup device with everyone Perhaps you have a temporary health problem which requires you to be bedridden, but you would still like to get some work or other things done on your computer while somewhat out of commission It is much easier to share files with others on the network If our Laptop has a wireless adapter then you will be able to take advantage of free wi-fi at the library, coffee shop, in the airport terminal and at a friends house You will also be able to take advantage of the newest and latest wireless technology found in digital cameras, video cameras and multi-media receivers
Setting up a wireless network is not complex but be sure that you review and setup the proper security for your network in order to keep others outside your home from also using your network. They may join you unintentionally. Just the other night I was using my laptop just to do a little offline work and all of a sudden my computer was connecting to the network. As it turns out my neighbor across the street from me had just cranked up her wireless system and I was automatically connected to it. She had not properly setup her wireless router security.
Don’t fear, your network will be secure if you setup your security properly.
By: Jackie Beem
Posts Tagged ‘Backup Device’
Why Have a Wireless Network in Your Home?
January 7th, 2010Improving Network Performance – An Overview of Network Availability Design
December 28th, 2009
Today’s companies, particularly those involved with banking and Internet hosting, require their network to be available 99.999% of the time. When the network isn’t available for employees, clients and business partners, the cost can be thousands of dollars per minute. Diversity or failover is a key component of any high availability strategy. It describes a backup device or link that is available should the primary device or link be unavailable.
Today’s e-commerce web hosting facility are designed with diversity for circuits, routers, firewalls, links, modules and servers. Each number shown corresponds to a single point of failure that is provisioned with some backup or diverse connection. Each server is dual homed to different switches should a Layer 2 switch or server link fail. The Layer 2 switches are connected with a Gigabit trunk. As well the Layer 2 switches are connected to multilayer switches with Gigabit trunks. That allows for link or switch failure. There is module diversity at all campus switches with dual supervisor engines. If the primary supervisor engine fails, the secondary activates and traffic is diverted across trunk lines to the adjacent switch once the spanning tree algorithm is run and the trunk ports are in forwarding mode.
Firewall failover is provided with a link between them that will detect if one of those is unavailable. Traffic is then routed through the active firewall. The routers are connected with a link that will detect when one of the devices is unavailable (HSRP). There are separate telecom demarcations at this facility, which provide diverse local loop circuits to different central offices. There are dual WAN circuits to different Internet Service Providers from those central offices as well.
High availability designs must consider the failover time at each point in their network. If a network application will timeout after 10 seconds then any failover point must be 9 seconds or less. For instance, spanning tree protocol (STP) will run when there is a topology change such as a switch or link failure. Design your network such that the link speeds, spanning tree protocol version and switch topology do not add an excessive failover time.
1. Different Internet Service Providers
2. Central Office Diversity with Diverse Local Loop Circuits
3. Router Diversity with Hot Standby Router Protocol (HSRP)
4. Firewall Diversity
5. Switch to Firewall Link Failover with Gigabit Trunking
6. Switch and Link Diversity with Gigabit Trunking
7. Switch and Link Failover with Gigabit Trunking
