Wireless Home Networking in Easy Steps

If you have more than one computer at home, you'll soon find yourself wanting to share facilities - either disk drives, printers and other devices or services such as access to the Internet and to music and photograph collections. The answer to this need is to connect the computers in a home network. This book explains the types of home network that may be available to you, outlines the advantages and the drawbacks associated with each, and identifies wireless networking as ideal for the home environment. It takes you through the planning and preparation stages for your wireless network, explains what equipment and applications will be needed, and covers the steps necessary to set up and maintain your wireless network at the appropriate level of performance. It shows you how to share your network with visitors and their wireless-enabled laptops, without compromising your privacy or your data. It also helps you access wireless network and Internet facilities when you are away from home, using remote access, mobile broadband and cellphone Internet connections.
The main emphasis is on laptop and desktop computers running Windows Vista, but there is some discussion of other networking environments including the new Windows 7 Homegroups. The approach is task-based, avoiding technical jargon, defining activities that you want to carry out or setups that you want to establish, then taking you through the stages required to achieve your desired wireless networking system.