One of the most common tasks of home networking is setting up wireless routers. With Linksys being a very popular brand I have decided to write a step by step guide on setting up a Linksys wireless router. Please be aware that the layout of the configuration pages may vary slightly from model to model, however the concept will always remain the same, as will the terminology used.

To begin with you should understand that there are generally two types of Linksys wireless routers, DSL/ADSL and standard. DSL and ADSL routers require connection to a phone line and a username and password provided by your internet service provider. Standard ones plug directly into your cable modem and or media converter (This is because your internet will usually be delivered by a coax cable and will need converting to Ethernet). I will try and cover both options in this guide.

Firstly let’s get familiar with the back of a typical Linksys router, again your model might vary but the connections will be the same as well as the labels.

The back of a typical linksys wireless router

Firstly on the left is a WAN port, this is the port that connects up to your cable modem via a normal Ethernet cable. If you have a DSL/ADSL router then this WAN port might say DSL instead and will be slightly smaller (rj11). The four ports in the red rectangle are your LAN ports; they are used to connect up devices to your network via a cable instead of wireless. The port on the right is the uplink port; unless you are connecting multiple routers together you don’t need to worry about this! If you are using a cable modem then at this point you can connect a cable from your router’s wan port to your cable modems Ethernet port.

When you first get your router you are going to need to connect to it via an Ethernet cable to configure it, once you have configured it the first time you can access the configuration afterwards via wireless (providing you have setup the wireless network!) Typically most Linksys routers are shipped with the ip address of 192.168.1.1 and to connect up to this via a cable you will need to an ip address in the same range on your computer. So, click start > control panel > network connections. Right click your local area connection and choose properties. Double click tcp/ip from the middle section and click the circle box that says “Use the following ip address” Now configure your address to be 192.168.1.20 and your subnet mask to be 255.255.255.0. Ignore the other settings for now; you don’t need those at the moment.

Once you have configured your address load up internet explorer and type into the address bar: http://192.168.1.1 You should then be prompted with a username and password login, by default most Linksys routers will have their username and password set to ‘admin’ for both, but double check the documentation you get with it just in case.

Once you have logged in you should be presented with a configuration screen. The two things that we need to configure to get you online are your internet connection setup and your wireless network. To start with click Setup at the top and then ‘basic setup’ you should have a screen like the one below:

If you are getting your internet connection from a cable modem then you should leave the top drop down box as Automatic Configuration. If this is the case then your router should be allocated an external ip address and be ready to use. If you are using DSL/ADSL then you will need to change the drop down box to pppoe (point to point protocol over Ethernet) you will then need to specify your username and password that was provided by your internet service provider.

You should also enable the DHCP server at the bottom, you can leave the default values as they are (first address starts at 100 and maximum of 50 address leases)

At this point your router should be connected to the internet and you’re ready to use it, however we still don’t have any wireless! So next click the wireless tab at the top of the configuration page, you should see a screen similar to the following:

Under the basic settings page you need to choose a name for your wireless network, this is the name that will be broadcast so you can identify that it is your network. Once you have picked a name make sure the “Broadcast ssid” option is set to enable. Next click the wireless security tab and you should see something like this:

This part is crucial, I wrote an article on the dangers of unsecured wireless networks just in case you are considering skipping this step! Also I would like to strongly advise you to NOT use WEP here, it is very insecure and can be hacked quite easily with only a small amount of knowledge. For maximum security use WPA or WPA2 personal and make sure you choose a long complex phrase, one with plenty of characters of both lower/upper and numbers.

Once you have setup your security (make sure you write the key down!) click on save settings. The router might need a reboot at this point, if so do it. Once it comes back online you should be ready to go. On your pc or laptop browse your wireless networks and you should see yours listed. Double click it and then you should be prompted to enter your wireless key. Once authenticated your Linksys wireless routers DHCP server should issue you an ip address and you should be ready to start browsing!

Feel free to contact me using the contact page if you’re still struggling.