Anyone set up a wireless network in their home?

I keep playing with the idea of setting up a small wireless network for our two computers and one printer. The hope would be to be able to connect to the network and the Internet from any room but not have such a strong signal that the teenager next door or his friends could catch the signal. The sales clerk did tell me that we could set up the network where our computers transmit a password to protect us from that. Is that true?

The one major worry I have is our home's construction. The house was built with a huge steel support beam that goes the entire length of the house. We know it impacts radio signals as when we drive our car into the garage and the radio passes under the beam we often lose the signal. It's also tricky to get a radio station clearly in much of the house.

Do you think the beam would impact the signal to and from a wireless router?

Are the wireless routers all that hard to set up and is there one any of you would recommend over another?


(hope I put this in the right place, not sure where else it would fit)

Michelle, it is not that hard to setup a wireless router but you should be careful about security. In that area you can do two things :

1) Setup your router with a WPA2 128 bit key encryption (is the password thing the sales guy told you)

2) Lock the router to work only with your devices. Most wireless routers have an option for that.

Do you think the beam will interfere with the signal like it does with regular AM/FM radio signals?

Maybe it will, but I don't think it will disable the network. In the worst scenario you will have lower signal than usual but this is ok.

Thanks for your input. Guess I just have to try it and see how it goes.

I have WIFI inside the whole house while all walls are from steel/concrete.

if you place the router near a window, the signal will find the way arround the house ;)

That's good to hear Olaf. Based on where I planned on putting the equipment it will be near two windows that face different directions.

How far out into the yard does the signal go? Have you tested that?

outside the house a signal might have a reach of 200 meters (never tested that my backyard is only 10m.)

Will definitely have to password protect everything then with a 200 meter signal. I doubt our neighbors would do anything malicious but with Adsense and PayPal accounts involved it's better to be smart about things.

Imagine if someone will park by your house and start surfing child porn on your wifi network ...

Here I thought I was being overly paranoid about a teenager and you take it to a whole new level. Gee thanks. lol

What I mentioned is the reality :(

Thanks god... not overall on this world

This is really a great initiative, your home will be a networked a world

I too install wireless system  in for home and connect 2 desktop system and 1 laptop. some time signal drop. Your post is very valuable for me.