Allan Didier

Allan Didier

Computer Science Teacher
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Allan Didier > Mr. Didier’s Classes > Computer Maintenance > Maintenance Projects > Networking Intro

Networking Intro

The notes below will walk you through the basic steps to set up your own wired Ethernet network in the class. 

Required Hardware

  1. 2 computers with OS and ethernet (RJ45) cards. You can use the classroom “server” if you need a second computer. 
  2. A switch. 

Steps for setting up a network Windows.

The following steps will walk you through setting up your own Ethernet network. You will notice there are a lot of steps involved. Yes! But when I connect my phone to Starbucks network I just click the Network icon and choose the “Starbucks Wifi”. I may have to put in a password, but it’s really easy to connect my device to another network. That is because the people who set up the network initially made it this easy to connect devices to the network. You are now that person setting up that network and will notice that is it not easy. If you had to follow these steps every time you had to connect to a Starbucks network, you wouldn’t do it. This is why Network Administrators get paid big money – to make it easy for people to connect to networks.  

  1. Hardware check
    1. Check Device Manager for the proper network card or network adapter. 
    2. Install the driver if needed for the network card.
  2. Connect your computer to the network.
    1. Use an ethernet cable to connect the computers to the switch.
    2. Make sure the lights are flashing on and off on both the network card and the switch port. The switch port will often flash orange initially and then change to green when the connection has been properly established.  
    3. Windows should report that a network cable has been connected in the taskbar.
  3. Set the Computer Name
    1. Go to the System control panel
    2. Find the button for the computer name.
      1. The computer name must be unique: no other computer on the network can have the same name. Often you need to change the name even when you re-install the OS.
      2. Set the workgroup to Maintenance. Capitalization does not matter. 
    3. Reboot
  4. Set the IP Address and other TCP/IP Settings
    1. These settings can be a pain to find as they are buried in Windows.
      1. Go to the Network Control Panel.
      2. Find the Screen with the Local Area Connection.
      3. Click on the Link for Local Area Network Properties.
      4. Click on the Properties button. 
    2. In the Network Properties tab, open the TCP/IP v4 Properties.
      1. The IP address must be a unique number for any device on the Internet. It is just like a phone number. Every phone in the world has a unique phone number. Every device on the Internet has a unique IP address.
      2. The computer uses the IP address. Humans use the computer name that you set earlier.
      3. IP address: 192.168.0.x.
        The         IP address must be unique for every device on the network. Mr. Didier will give you the “x” number.
      4. Gateway (Router): 192.168.0.1
        The Gateway is the IP address of the router, the device that connects this network to the next network. It is normally the first device on the network, thus the .1 address. We don’t have a router in our network, but put it in anyway.
      5. DNS Server: 192. 168.0.2
        The DNS server converts between IP addresses and computer names. It is normally one of the next addresses on the network. 
      6. Subnet Mask: 255.255.255.0
        The subnet mask is a little more complicated but has to do with the IP address. You can study this more later.
    3. Turn off the Firewall
      1. Go to Control Panel – Network – Network and Sharing – Firewall
      2. Turn it off. It blocks the local network.
      3. The Firewall blocks computer on the network from seeing your computer. On your home computer, you want this turned on as you don’t want computers from the Internet hackers. On a network like here or at school, we turn this off so that other computers on the network can see your computer. The schools’ router has the firewall to protect the school computer from Internet hackers. 
  5. Test the network. 
    1. After you configure everything, you need to test the network to see if things are working properly. We will do this two different ways. 
    2. Command prompt
      1. Run the command prompt. Start – Run (Search) – cmd
      2. type: ipconfig
        1. This should spit back out the IP address setting you typed in from above. 
        2. Use this to confirm that your computer’s network settings are correct.
      3. Ping
        1. This command is used to test network connections. You “ping” other devices on your network to test if your device can see other devices on the network.
        2. The command works by typing the word “ping”, space, and then the IP address of the device you want to connect to.
        3. ping 192.168.0.x (the device you want to ping)
        4. ping 192.168.0.3 . .3 is our class server.
        5. This should ping the other device 4 or 5 times. If the device is found it should report something like
          1. Pinging 192.168.0.3 with 32 bytes of data:
            Reply from 192.168.0.3: bytes=32 time=4ms TTL=57
            Reply from 92.168.0.3: bytes=32 time=4ms TTL=57
            Reply from 192.168.0.3: bytes=32 time=4ms TTL=57
            Reply from 192.168.0.3: bytes=32 time=4ms TTL=57
        6. If your network connections are not set properly you will get the following message:
          1. Pinging 192.168.0.3 with 32 bytes of data:
            Request timed out.
            Request timed out.
            Request timed out.
            Request timed out.
    3. Windows Explorer
      1. You can also check your network connections though Windows Explorer.
      2. Open Windows Explorer (the yellow folder in the taskbar or search for Explorer). Use Windows Explorer, not Internet Explorer. Internet Explorer is used for searching the Internet. Windows Explorer is used for searching the computer and local network.
      3. Go to the Network tab on the left side of the window.
      4. Look for other computers on the network
      5. Server is called LAHS-PC,
      6. You can also force the computer to look for another device on the network.
        1. In the “address bar”, to access the server type: \\192.168.0.3
        2. You can also type: \\LAHS-PC
        3. Make sure you use \\ not  //. \\ is a command to look for the device on the local network. // is a command to look for the device on the Internet, i.e. it asks the router to find the device.
      7. Without a proper DNS server, it can take several minutes for your computer to find the other devices on the network. If you don’t see devices show up, you can force Windows Explorer to see the devices by typing their IP addresses in directly (see above).