How To Set Up Your Home Router
Everyone who's ever bought a new PC knows that there's more to setting it up than just taking it out of the box and turning it on. The same is true of your home router. Putting together a home network isn't trivial, but it doesn't have to be overly difficult, either. Hardware manufacturers are making it easier for even non-technical users to put together home networks. New routers come with clearly labeled ports, in some cases, color coded, making it simple for users to connect everything. Many routers have basic configuration preset while still at the factory, which simplifies things even more.
Despite the ease of setting up, don't be fooled. Just because you've plugged everything in and it seems to be working doesn't mean your network's performance and security are as good as they could be. I'll give you give you the basic steps you need to follow to properly configure your home router.
Selecting a Router
By far the most important element of your home network is the router. So it's worth investing time researching your options before deciding on one. A good place to start looking is our list of the best wireless routers.
As PCMag.com readers, most of you doubtless have some type of home network already. Depending on your router's age, you don't necessarily need to upgrade to new hardware. As long as it functions reliably and supports WPA2 encryption, it should be fine. However, there are significant performance improvements to be found in the latest generation of routers, so it's worth considering an upgrade if you are worried about network speed. If your router is more than a few years old, you may only have WEP for security—if so, upgrade right away. WEP is no longer secure.
If you received a router from your ISP, here's a word of warning. Large ISPs such as Time Warner Cable and Verizon typically provide customers with routers as opposed to modems. The majority of these routers are not as feature-rich as some of the routers you could purchase on your own. Also, some ISPs make it difficult for customers to access the configuration interface. Some ISPs even charge you extra if you want to use certain features. For example, Time Warner Cable here in New York charges users for turning on the router's built-in Wi-Fi network.
We urge you to consider purchasing your own router. Two of our favorites are the D-Link AC3200 Ultra Wi-Fi Router (DIR-890L/R) and the Trendnet AC1750 Dual Band Wireless Router (TEW-812DRU). They're somewhat expensive, but they are two of the very best consumer routers on the market today.
One last caveat—even though most routers work just fine with any wireless device, you may need to pair the router with a wireless adapter optimized for that model to achieve the best performance. Check your documentation to see if your router falls into this category.
Getting Online
Now that you have a router, you need to get it connected and online. If your service provider gave you a modem when they activated your Internet service, this should be pretty simple. Just follow these steps:

  • Turn off your modem,
  • Unplug the modem's Ethernet cable from the PC,
  • Connect that cable to the WAN or Internet port on your new router,
  • Power on your modem (wait for a minute or two),
  • Next power on your router (wait for a minute or two),
  • Now use another Ethernet cable to connect the PC to your router's LAN port, and
  • Turn on your PC.
By default, most consumer routers are set up to use DHCP to automatically assign an IP address to your computer. So if everything worked right, you should now be online.
If you are using an ISP-supplied router instead of a modem, things are a bit more complicated. First, you reconfigure the ISP's router to operate in bridge mode before you connect it to your new router. Bridge mode means the old router doesn't do anything to the network traffic and just passes it along to your new router for processing. While you can do this on your own, some providers will do it for you remotely once you make the request.
Once the ISP supplied router is in bridge mode, just follow the above steps to get your new router online.
Accessing the Management Console
With the router and PC physically connected, you can now begin customizing the router's configuration. Most routers these days are managed via a Web browser and are shipped using a default IP address, administr