How to Hook Up a Wireless Router

Laptops and other portable devices have become quite popular over the past few years. The reason that people purchase these devices is for their portability. However, if you want this portability in your home and want access to the Internet you will need to hook up and install a wireless router. Hooking up a wireless router is really easy and something you can do in only a few minutes.

After purchasing your laptop or other portable wireless device you will want to purchase a wireless router. This unit can be purchased at any electronic store and can probably be purchased at the same place and at the same time that you purchase your portable wireless device.

Once you have purchased a router, here are the steps to prepare to set it up:

1. Find an ideal central place in the home to install the wireless router so the signal can be evenly disbursed to every room in your home.
2. Once you have chosen the spot to permanently keep your wireless router, remove the router from the packaging.
3. You should make sure that everything you need is in the box. You will need the router, a set-up CD, a network cable, and a power adapter to supply power to the unit.
4. Once you have checked to make sure everything is there, you will want to run the set-up CD in your computer.
5. When the screen pops up asking you if you want to set-up the wireless router choose "Yes" and then follow the prompts on the screen.
6. All this CD is used for is to walk you step-by-step through the process to successfully set-up the wireless router to work with the computers and other devices in your home that allow access to the Internet.
7. Choose the language you wish the directions to be supplied in from the drop down menu that will appear on the next screen.
8. Agree to the terms and license agreement for use to proceed through to the next step.
9. You will then be prompted to allow the router to check for your Internet connection. Choose "Yes' to begin running the check.
10. When your computer indicates that the Internet connection check has been proven successful, you will then proceed to set-up your router.

Cables & Setup

The next steps will tell you how to hook up all of the cables properly:

• You will want to disconnect the Internet cable from the back of your computer and plug it into the back of the router.
• The wireless router ports are usually color-coded for your convenience.
• The Internet connection cable will only fit into one port on the back of the router and the port is color-coded yellow.
• Plug the Internet cable into this port and then plug the network cable into the proper connection on the back of the computer and on the router.
• The network cable should be blue in color and should plug easily into the blue color coded ports on both your computer and the router.
• When you are done with this step, click next on the screen to proceed to the next step.
• Hook up the power adapter to your router to supply power to the wireless unit. The power supply will be plugged into the port right next to the blue network wire and then plugged into the wall.
• Once the unit has power, click the "Next" button.
• The set-up disc will configure your computer and when this process is done a message will be displayed indicating that the configuration has been completed.
• When this message has been displayed your wireless router has been connected successfully. Hit the "Next" button to exit the set-up and then begin using your wireless router connection. 

Now you know how to hook up a wireless router and you can begin using the Internet anywhere within your router's reach.