Guide to home networking

DIY Home Networking
Guide on how to setup your own home network with
simple parameters

Background
You’ve hooked up your computer to your modem/router
and your internet works. But have you ever wondered if you
could do more with your network?
In this presentation I will skim through the basics of
network management and some of the ways you can use
that knowledge.

First some jargonized information
●Most home networks will operate on Class C local IP addresses, as default with most routers.
●If you don’t know what that means here’s a brief overview of the different classes(x’s stand for
separate node ID’s on network), subnet masks can be changed for each class, listed are ones
that are popular for local use;
oClass A
In the 10.x.x.x range
Subnet mask of 255.0.0.0
oClass B
Anywhere between 172.16.x.x and 172.32.x.x
oClass C
In the 192.168.x.x range

What does a subnet mask do?
Subnet masks(or “subnet” for short) specifies which
IP binary digits are going to be used to identify a
network, vs which ones will identify the nodes. Since
255.255.255.0 is the easiest to work with on home
networks, we will continue working with it.

Physical Layout
This is the recommended layout I chose for most
home networks. Depending on your wants or needs
you can modify this to fit your needs.
What will happen is your modem or gateway will
connect to the Internet, then pass it onto a router of
your choosing(or if your modem has a built-in router
that meets your needs, use that).
Most routers nowadays are wireless(Have a WAP
built-in) and you can use them instead of picking up
a Wireless Access Point(WAP) (which is a device that
plugs into a wired network and then hosts a Wifi
hotspot)
The reason why I incorporated a gigabit switch is
because this will give you more ports to connect
nodes. If you don’t want or need a switch, you can
connect devices directly into the ports on the router.

What does a router do?
●Routers in short terms host their own sub-networks and make outside resources
available to the nodes(devices, like desktops, laptops, and smartphones) by passing
information through them in either direction, to the appropriate nodes.
●Essentially they act like a local post office to all traffic going to and from the
devices you have connected to them.
●Routers can do more advanced tasks if they’re full-featured like most Cisco models,
or run good enough firmware(custom firmware like DD-WRT comes to mind).
●Advanced tasks that some routers can do for example is specify a server or
filename to boot to via DHCP parameters. This will allow Desktop and Laptop PCs
to boot to an operating system hosted on a server or NAS. But I’ll have to save that
for another presentation.

WAN vs LAN
●The typical router will have one WAN port and four LAN ports.
●Wide Area Network(WAN) ports are typically reserved to use to connect to the
modem or gateway used to connect to the internet. This port is used to connect a
router to the outside of it’s own host network.
●Local Area Network(LAN) ports are used to connect a router to local nodes. If you
run out of LAN ports you can use a gigabit switch to connect more nodes to your
network.
●Pay attention to which ports you use. The good news is that they are typically color
coded and labeled(WAN ports sometimes have a globe icon etched above them).
●If your ports are not color coded or labeled, look for the divider. The WAN port is
typically separated from the LAN ports by a little wider of a distance. Usually there
is only one WAN port and four LAN ports on routers.

Virtual Layout
The Internet connection goes to the Modem/Gateway, which is assigned an IP
of it’s own; depending on how it is setup, the modem/gateway may pass some
of it’s responsibility to a router. Then there is a soft divide between the
WAN(outside) and LAN(inside). The modem or router gives itself an IP on the
local network, typically; 192.168.1.1
Then the modem serves as the DHCP server to assign IP addresses to nodes on
the local subnet. Think of these IP addresses as zip codes or streets. Every
packet of data has a port assigned to it and will guide it to the right application
or service on each node. The port acts more like addresses or house numbers.
On the next page we will contrast the virtual layout with the physical one.

Virtual/Physical Contrast
●This is a diagram
comparing local IP to
physical devices.
●The chosen addresses are
an example and you can
specify what ranges you
want to use

Example Parameters
The parameters used in this example are that the
router’s internal IP address is 192.168.1.1
The router’s DHCP pool is set to 192.168.1.17 and
up.
This means that IP’s between 192.168.1.2-16 is
reserved for static assignments, perfect for servers,
Network Attached Storage devices, and printers

Did you know?
●Going to your router’s IP address in a web browser will display a web page to
change it’s settings after you login.
oThe default username and password can be looked up on the internet
using brand name and model number.
Typically the credentials will be either of the following, most common
first:
●Username: admin; Password: admin
●Username: admin; Password: password
●Username: admin; Password: pass123
●Username: root; Password: root
●Some network printers will display a status screen and options to change
some parameters if you navigate to their IP address in a web browser.

Why have a server?
●Servers can provide services to your network that cannot be done using a home PC or NAS.
oExamples of these services include:
Media Server - You can use a service like Plex Media Server, to stream videos, music, and photos to
devices like PCs, game consoles, smartphones, tablets, and Smart TVs. All of the encoding is done on the
server to a codec each device understands to eliminate the codec catastrophe that can happen with direct
streaming.
File Share Server - You can use Samba(Windows share) or something like OwnCloud, to host files on
your server that will be accessible to devices on your local network.
Web Host - If you want to host an internal or external website, you may want to go with a server instead
of a NAS.
●What is an NAS and it’s advantages?
oIf you only need a file server, a NAS is good because it offers that, but not much more.
oNAS devices generally consume less power than a server.
oApplications made for NAS devices can sometimes add more functionality.
●What are the advantages of a server over a NAS?
oAbility to scale up their application to fit your needs.
oYou can add more functionality more so than a NAS device.
oServers are cheaper than they once were, and you can use Windows Home Server, or Linux as an Operating
System to save costs in software.

Network Printers
●Printers can be added to your network so they can be used
on all computers connected to your network.
●Most modern printers have either ethernet(wired
connection) or Wifi built in, allowing you to connect them
to your network without having to use a print server.
●You can also use a service like Google Cloud Print on some
printers to print over the internet.

Other things you can do with control over your
network
●Cache content and DNS resolutions when using a server as a router, proxy, or
DNS server.
●When using a server as a router you can shape traffic to prioritize some traffic
over others.
●Host local or internet game servers for games like Minecraft.
●Block content and establish strict parental controls if you have children and
you want to restrict what content you want them to have access to.
oInternet blocking through a network or server is not as easily defeatable
as software installed on each computer.

Links to services mentioned
●Plex Media Server
●Google Cloud Print

Thanks for viewing!
Please comment constructive criticism and suggestions
for future presentations.

Guide to home networking

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