How to Build a Small Network Using a Broadband Router

Configuring The Computers

All computers on your network must be configured to obtain their network configurations automatically from a DHCP server (which is your router). This is the default Windows configuration, but is always good to check if your computers are correctly configured.

To configure your computers, click on Start, Settings, Network Connections, the screen shown in Figure 7 will appear. Double click the network card that is connected to the router.

Figure 7: Network connections.

On the screen that will show up, click on Properties. The screen shown in Figure 9 will appear. Double click on Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) and the screen shown in Figure 10 will show up.

Figure 8: Status of the network connection. You should click on Properties.

Figure 9: Network card properties.

Figure 10: TCP/IP configuration.

On this screen you should select “Obtain an IP address automatically” and “Obtain DNS server address automatically”. This will make your computer to ask your router which configurations it should use. Don’t forget to click on Ok if you needed to change anything on this screen.

Now that your computers are correctly configured, you should configure your router.