Home Networking Guides

Troubleshooting a network can take myriad forms. But most problems tend to repeat themselves over and over again. The first step is usually distinguishing between a software issue and a hardware issue. Unless you have specific reasons to question some other aspect of your system, start troubleshooting by checking the hardware on your network. One of those reasons might be that you've just installed some new software that affected network settings.

Home networks are less expensive and easier to set up than ever. But sometimes the knowledge needed for building them isn't accompanied by guidelines on how to secure them from hackers. In some cases, those guidelines are simply ignored. In either case, that's a data disaster waiting to happen.

It's certainly possible to be paranoid about security. That excessive concern is just that, excessive. But a certain amount of caution is wise, not paranoid. Security is like medical insurance. You don't need it often, but when you do you'll need it badly. If you don't have it, the consequences can be severe.

A network is like a simple spider web, the basic reason that the Internet is often called the world wide web. It's a series of lines (called routes) that have intermediate and end points (called nodes) that connect devices ie servers and hosts together. Those connections and routes are what allow the devices to share, input or output information across the network.

Along those routes, signals flow that contain information of interest to the network users in the forum of packets. Like a trapped fly that tugs on a part of the web, the disturbance is sent down the line, through nodes, to the spider or host at another point on the web. Unfortunately for the fly, the spider often sends back a reply.