Also, bad cables are not uncommon, so have a
few extras around in case any of those lights don??™t light up.
Shop around when looking for cables. Most of the huge mega-computer
stores charge too much for cables; you can often find longer, better cables at
a fraction of the price (sans the fancy packaging) by shopping at smaller
mom-and-pop computer stores.
Finally, if your cables are to pass through walls, you may want to install
category-5 wall jacks for the tidiest appearance. Note that these accessories
can be expensive and cumbersome to wire properly, and are typically unnecessary
for all but the most compulsive neat-freaks among us.
350 | Chapter 7: Networking and Internet
Set Up a Wireless Router
If you??™ve read other solutions in this chapter, you??™ve probably seen routers
mentioned several times (if not, drop back to the ???Terminology Primer??? section
to read up).
A router allows you to connect your computer (or your workgroup) to the
Internet, while simultaneously protecting you with its built-in firewall. A
wireless router does the same thing, but also adds a wireless access point,
which allows you to connect any number of WiFi devices to each other and
to the Internet.
A typical WiFi setup was shown in Figure 7-3 (see, no wires), but you??™ll
probably want something closer to the setup shown later in Figure 7-20, in
which a wireless router provides Internet access to all your computers.
Here??™s how to set this up and configure the security measures that should??™ve
been enabled out of the box:
1.
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