Hi folks! I just found your forum today and after looking through your stickies (yes, I did just feel weird typing that) and doing a search or two there are a couple basics that I'm hoping a kind soul or two might help with.
First just a word or two re: where I am coming from... I don't know networking well at all- but as a person closing in on 40 I grew up with technology and spent lots of time as a tech before my current life as a public school teacher.. I have always built my own computers and have been alive and involved long enough to remember logging into BBS's before the internet existed... I am running Windows 7 64 bit on a decent machine now and would like to understand home networking better without investing all of my free time for weeks or months on the subject.
My motive for the current interest arises from the fact I just purchased a Cisco E4200 to replace a 6 year old router - I finally bought a Playstation 3 when the wife declared war on my desire to get a few arcade cabinets for the man cave LOL.
The PS3 was not playing nicely with my router and a Netgear range extender was a NIGHTMARE !
Here I am! Now that I have this decent router I figured it was time to take advantage of the technology and optimize our home network to take advantage of our wireless devices- though not many- a couple of IPODs, the PS3, 2 laptops, the desktop, and hopefully soon a printer for the whole house and the ability to watch home movies/photos on our TV's and eventually set up a jukebox to access from either the TV's or in the man cave.
Here are my 2 questions-
1) Instead of asking about everything individually, I'd sure appreciate where you folks might point me to a good resource to learn the fundamentals so I'm not asking a bunch of dumb questions without the background knowledge to understand the answers.
2) What are the most important basic "tweaks" to improve my network connections- speed, range, etc.? I've seen some contradictory info on combining radios/channels and such and I'd really appreciate any advice on the most important improvements- if any.
So far, the function and setup of this router has been outstanding. Very easy, a nice looking piece of equipment, and it seems to be working well (I have only had it for a day but great so far).
Thanks so much to anyone that takes the time to respond- I am active on several blogs and I know the time involved to answer basic questions from Noobs, it is very much appreciated by me. Thanks again!
First just a word or two re: where I am coming from... I don't know networking well at all- but as a person closing in on 40 I grew up with technology and spent lots of time as a tech before my current life as a public school teacher.. I have always built my own computers and have been alive and involved long enough to remember logging into BBS's before the internet existed... I am running Windows 7 64 bit on a decent machine now and would like to understand home networking better without investing all of my free time for weeks or months on the subject.
My motive for the current interest arises from the fact I just purchased a Cisco E4200 to replace a 6 year old router - I finally bought a Playstation 3 when the wife declared war on my desire to get a few arcade cabinets for the man cave LOL.
The PS3 was not playing nicely with my router and a Netgear range extender was a NIGHTMARE !
Here I am! Now that I have this decent router I figured it was time to take advantage of the technology and optimize our home network to take advantage of our wireless devices- though not many- a couple of IPODs, the PS3, 2 laptops, the desktop, and hopefully soon a printer for the whole house and the ability to watch home movies/photos on our TV's and eventually set up a jukebox to access from either the TV's or in the man cave.
Here are my 2 questions-
1) Instead of asking about everything individually, I'd sure appreciate where you folks might point me to a good resource to learn the fundamentals so I'm not asking a bunch of dumb questions without the background knowledge to understand the answers.
2) What are the most important basic "tweaks" to improve my network connections- speed, range, etc.? I've seen some contradictory info on combining radios/channels and such and I'd really appreciate any advice on the most important improvements- if any.
So far, the function and setup of this router has been outstanding. Very easy, a nice looking piece of equipment, and it seems to be working well (I have only had it for a day but great so far).
Thanks so much to anyone that takes the time to respond- I am active on several blogs and I know the time involved to answer basic questions from Noobs, it is very much appreciated by me. Thanks again!
