To start, the name of your router and wireless networkare different.
First, you gotta make a few basic setup decisions.
Once youre there, the first thing you want to do is select an SSID.
Pick whatever name you want; itsyourwireless web connection.
If you arent, see to it its set to allow connections from these devices.
The Channel option gets interesting.
Wevetalked about this previously, and its easy to do.
You dont want to be the personthat causes grieffor everyone elses connections, let alone your own devices.
Finally, if youre asked to mess with your transmit power, resist the urge to modify anything.
Is that it?
If youre just looking to get your wireless web connection up and running, youre pretty much done.
Lets touch on a few more that might be interesting to look at (or know about).
And when you do, none of your existing devices will be affectedonly your guests.
Its a great feature to explore if youre feeling share-y with your wireless connectivity.
That said, this is probably a feature that most people wont bother with.
Cloud-based access
This ones tricky.
This option is big.
Your ISPs DNS is probably slower (and potentially less secure / more snoopy) than what youcouldbe using.
NAT
NAT stands forNetwork Address Translation.
Youre probably aware that you have local IP addresses that differ from the IP addresses out on the internet.
Port forwarding relates to this because, by default, nobody on the outside can access your local machines.
QoS
QoS stands for Quality of Service.
This sounds great on paper, but it might not actually do very much for you in practice.
IPv6
If your router allows you to turn on IPv6most modern routers shouldyou should do it.
Its seamless to use, assuming your ISP supports it.
You probablywont see any speed bumpswhatsoever, but youll be helping to keep your web link future-proofed.
We cant all live in IPv4-land forever, after all.
Why is this important?
Thats it for your routers admin pageat least, the major options you better know about.
Well next tackle your wireless routers performance.
This story originally ran in 2011 and was updated in February 2020 with more current information.
