Setup a wireless network at home

For me and my wife, the Internet has been part of our lives. Because we each have a computer that needs to access the Internet, I have tasked myself to setup a wireless network for our house so that each of us can access the Internet simultaneously using our computers.

To setup the wireless network, I needed at least the following:

1. Broadband Internet connectionI subscribed to one of the local Internet service providers in our area. Choosing an appropriate provider was easy since there was only one available in the area
2. Wireless router / gatewayFor the router, I chose to buy Linksys’ WRT54G wireless router. Being a very popular brand/model and not to costly at about 50 dollars, the Linksys WRT54G is very well supported by users worldwide. You can also upgrade/modify the firmware WRT54G to suite your needs.

   After buying the Linksys router, I quickly installed a version of the dd-wrt firmware available on the Internet. The dd-wrt firmware allows me to have a DNS server, DHCP server, QOS bandwidth manager plus a lot of other stuff on the router.

3. Home serverI have configured a computer wherein the family can store files, my wife and I can put web site development work and other stuff on a central server. This allows us to access the files on the network and makes it easier to backup important files.

   The computer is an Intel Core 2 Duo server with half a terrabyte of storage space, a dvd writer optical disc and 1GB of memory. This should be enough power to function as a file and web server. I am also planning to use it as our VoIP PBX server (more on this later).

4. RJ45 connectors and Cat5 network cablesAlthough we plan to connect to the network using wifi, I want to connect the server directly to the router. This will maximize the bandwidth that the server can deliver over the network. I would also want to be able to put up wired work areas in case I need a direct connection for my notebook.
5. RJ45 crimping tool and other toolsOf course, I need some tools to put them all together.