Setting up your home network can be tricky if you have multiple computers or devices and peripherals, as many Lifehacker readers do. To help you get organized, our friends at How-To Geek have put together a guide for planning and mapping your home network.
The guide suggests taking an inventory of all your devices, starting from your router to all the wired and wireless devices that will connect to it. Then take a physical tour of your network and map everything out. (We suggest Diagramly for a quick map or Lovely Charts for a very pretty map, but there are many other flowchart programs you can use for this purpose, or you could draw by hand.)
How-To Geek also explains some networking basics, helps you choose security, and consider naming schemes, file sharing, and keeping a record of all your devices.
Once done, you should have an organized home network that was easier to put together—and should be easier to maintain—than if you hadn't planned first. Photo by Niki Odolphie.
How To Plan, Organize, and Map Out Your Home Network | How-To Geek
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