OK Networking 101 lesson! First off, refer to the illustration below to see how the physical connections are to be made. Keep in mind nothing is to scale or anything like that, it's simply to get the idea across.
Now, you need a little lesson in IP-Addresses. I won't go into much detail here but you should at least know the basics. There are two main types of IP addresses.... public and private. An IP address is basically the virtual 'address' or 'phone number' of a networking device. Routers all have their own IP address, computers... modems.. even cell phones and gaming consoles. The list goes on and on. "IP" technically stands for "Internet Protocol".
An IP address looks like this: 192.168.000.157 (AKA 192.168.0.157) Each three digit number is between 000 and 255. Why this is gets a little more complicated so just accept the fact that this is how it is. Typically, on a home network the first three sets of numbers (192.168.0 in my example) is the network itself. The last set of numbers (.157 in my example) is that specific computer. Basically, if you networked a bunch of computers together and they all started with 192.168.0... and each of them had a different number for the last set... then they would all be able to talk to each other. If one of the computers were set to 192.168.001.231 (AKA 192.168.1.231) for example, it would not be able to communicate because it would be on a different network...even if it was physically connected.
OK.. not to get too confusing here, but you'll see something called a "subnet-mask" in your network settings. Typically this will be 255.255.255.0. It's best not to change this, as it tells your computer which part of the IP address is the network identifier, and which part is the client (computer) identifier. As long as this is 255.255.255.0, my above explanation holds true.
NEXT: Like I said about public vs. private IP addresses. Your internet service provider (ISP) will assign a public IP address to your modem. It will look something like this: 24.217.118.43. This is something you cannot change... only the ISP has control over this. NO TWO PUBLIC DEVICES CAN SHARE THE SAME ADDRESS WITHOUT CONFLICTING WITH EACH OTHER. Your modem will forward this address to your router. Your router will now have two IP addresses.. the public address assigned by your ISP, and the private address for your home network. You'll see the terms WAN and LAN. WAN is "Wide Area Network" and is essentially the public side of the internet, and LAN is "Local Area Network" which is the private side (your home network).
You will never see a public IP address that starts with 192.168 because this is reserved for private networks. Because of this, by default almost all routers use this for the private IP address: "192.168.0.1". You've heard of NAT? This stands for "Network Address Translation" and allows information from your private network to travel to the public network and vice-verse. Because it has to do this translation at the router, your 'private' network is hidden from the public side of things and the router can block certain things from getting through.. especially to a specific computer, which is why NAT routers are very good firewalls.
If you are not running a server from one of your computers (not likely given your lack of expertise... no offense), then you really don't need to worry about the 'advanced' features of the router. You will simply plug it in, set up encryption, turn on the wireless side, and you'll be good to go. Fortunately, consumer-grade routers available today make that pretty easy through setup 'wizards' or menus. While this varies from router to router, it's all usually the same process.
Next is DNS. This stands for "Dynamic Name Service" and basically translates a name into an IP address. So when you type in
www.google.com, your computer asks your router where that is. Your router says "I dunno let me look." Then your router connects to your ISP and asks them. If they know they tell your router which tells your computer. If they don't know then they connect to another DNS server on the internet to find out. A DNS Server is basically a public virtual "yellow pages". It says... "oh yeah.. google.com is 47.62.178.251 (example)" then the ISP server says "GREAT!" and tells this to your router, which then tells your computer and so forth.
Lastly, you need to know about DHCP, or "Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol". The router will use DHCP to automatically configure your computers' network settings. Here's how it works. If a computer has DHCP turned on, when connected physically to a network it shouts out "HEY! MY NAME IS COMPUTER BOB! I NEED AN IP ADDRESS! CAN ANYONE HELP!". Any listening DHCP Servers (your router for example) will shout back "HI BOB! I AM YOUR DHCP SERVER! MY IP ADDRESS IS 192.168.0.1 AND YOUR IP ADDRESS IS 192.168.0.2". Your computer will then set its own IP address to 192.168.0.2 and then this time connecting directly to the router instead of shouting everywhere will say "Hi Mr. Router! This is Bob again at 192.168.0.2. Radio Check! How do I get out to the internet?" and the router will say "Hi again Bob! Five by Five! You sound great! I am your gateway to the internet so just connect to me at 192.168.0.1 and I will forward your packets and DNS requests to the appropriate places. If I can't resolve a DNS name for you then you can try connecting to 24.203.167.72 yourself maybe you'll have better luck than me! Good luck!" This process is known as a "handshake".
First, you'll hook up everything physically. Second, using a computer that is hard-wired to the router, you'll need to setup the wireless and security. You'll start by opening a web browser (internet explorer, firefox, opera, etc..) and instead of a website address, you'll type in the private IP address of the router. Refer to the owner's manual, but this is usually 192.168.0.1. From there you'll see a bunch of menus and on screen instructions to do whatever you need.
You'll want to turn DHCP on (probably on by default), and you'll want to verify that your router has been given the appropriate IP and DNS addresses from your ISP. Basically, if it isn't 0.0.0.0 then it has been configured already. If you have to set up PPPOE (basically a name and password to connect to your ISP) you'll put this information into your router as well, however these things are usually handled at the modem itself these days.
If you were running servers, you'd have to set up exceptions in the DHCP settings of your router, as servers use manual settings and you don't want your router handing out an IP address that is already being used, but in your configuration I don't think you need to worry about this.
You'll also set up a name for your network so you can find it on a wireless list. This name is known as a "SSID". Secure something Identifier.. it doesn't matter LOL. You'll also want to set up wireless encryption. There are three main types: WEP, WPA, and WPA2. WEP being the least secure and WPA2 being the most you want to use the strongest security you can that all of your computers support. If you have an older device that can only connect through WEP, you're kind of stuck using that (but it's better than nothing). You could technically turn security off altogether, but then someone could connect from down the street and use your internet to conduct illegal business... or even hack into your computers and that's just not worth taking a chance on in my mind.
Basically when you set up the security, you'll setup a 'catchphrase' or 'password' and like all passwords, you want a combination of lowercase and capital letters, and numbers. I would advise against the use of spaces and other symbols as some network devices don't jive well with that sort of thing. With WEP I think you're stuck with 5 characters, but with WPA2 I think it's 256 (I could be wrong). Then you'll use the network settings of each computer on your wireless network and put in this password to make it work.
And.. that's it! You should be set up at this point! Without knowing the specific brand and model of router you plan on using, it's hard to get more exact than this, but I hope it was helpful at least!
