How to setup wireless home network

You have got a new laptop and want to set it up wirelessly with the router that you already have with you. And you also have a network printer which you would like to use wirelessly. So, how would you do that? Here is some technical support to do it yourself.

Before proceeding, check out whether you have the following:

1) High speed internet connection
2) Wireless access point in working condition, i.e. the router has a solid green light on it.
3) Integrated wireless network adapter or PC card or USB adapter card connected properly. The wireless button of your notebook is turned on. It should be a glowing tower symbol with emitting waves.
4) The SSID that is the network name and the Pass-key for the encryption type (WEP or WPA) has to be known properly.
5) You should be logged in as the administrator.

Wireless Set up

Power on the computer and go to the control panel in the Windows systems. You should find the operating system’s own wireless setup wizard utility and you should run that (The HP network assistant is yet another way of doing it). The instructions thereafter are pretty self explanatory and easy to understand. Only make sure that the “encryption type” should be WPA-PSK, at least for better security and put in the SSID correctly. Give the password key, which is used in the router’s page. Once the computer has been successfully put on the network, check on the network connections page (the name depends on whether you are using XP, Vista or Windows 7) whether the wireless network adapter is showing as “connected” or not. If not then right-click on the wireless signal icon in the system tray, located at the bottom right corner of the computer screen. Click on “view available networks” and then connect to the desired network. The moment you get connected to your network, you can do an “ipconfig” and a “ping” at the command prompt to check the settings. After everything seems to be okay, go for setting up the wireless printer. This can be done in the following way.

Wireless Printer Set up

Run the wireless setup wizard from the “setup” menu of the computer and then use the CD that came with the printer to install the software on the computer. The installation software might request you to put the network details once again but this time for the printer. However, the C4500 and c4700 wireless versions of HP require you to temporarily connect the printer to the computer with a USB cable for a network connection to take place. Contact a help desk specialist if it seems to be complicated. It will make things easier for you. Make sure that firewalls are not blocking any installation.