NCT Information

Virtual Private Networks, or VPN for short, allow employees to securely connect their desktop or laptop computers to the office network from any location in the world using a regular Internet connection.

If you are working from home, you can connect to the corporate network over VPN and you’ll have immediate access to your emails, internal web pages, network drives, and stuff that is otherwise only available from computers within the office premises. Some VPN clients also allow screen sharing and remote access to facilitate communication among team members.

If you regular need to connect to your home computer(s) from the office or if you have a group of friends and family members with whom you share files quite frequently, you can consider setting up a virtual private network between all these computers.

While businesses generally invest in VPN solutions for companies like Cisco, we can create own VPN for free using Gbridge – this is a software only solution that is available for all versions of Windows and the best part is that it uses your Google Account for authentication.

Once you install this application*, sign in with your Gmail or Google Apps account. Then enter a hostname for your computer; this is what your computer will show up as to other computers that will connect to the VPN. Your hostname must be 8 characters long or less and include only letters, numbers, and/or dashes.

 If you are using a DNS service like OpenDNS that does automatic typo correction, you may see a notification saying that it is interfering with Gbridge. You can either add an exception for Gbridge, or simply let Gbridge automatically raise its virtual adapter’s binding order to override this.

You’ll now see a list of all your Google Talk friends listed in the Gbridge window, as well as a list of folders that you are current sharing. You can share files as well as chat with your friends directly in Gbridge. They do not have to install Gbridge to chat with you, but will need the software to access your shared files from their computer.

Gbridge has a sample folder shared by default, but can easily add others from the SecureShare tab. Simply select a folder and choose friends with whom you wish to share that folder with. They’ll now will be able to browse the contents of that shared folder as well download files using a web browser.

In addition to file sharing, Gbridge also let you to remotely access your other computers (or that of your friends) over VPN. You can do this via the built-in VNC client (called DesktopShare) or through Windows Remote Desktop. The latter option is only available if you are on XP Pro, Vista Business or Windows 7 Professional.

Simply select the DesktopShare option on the computer that you wish to control, click “Configure Gbridge DesktopShare,” select who should access that computer and add a password. These people can now remotely access and control the computer.

Alternatively, create a common Google account and use it on both the computers – you can then remotely control the other computer without DesktopShare.

With GBridge, you can sync selected folders that you always have the same file on all your computer. This option may also be used to backup files on a remote computer.

Gbridge requires Windows 2000, XP, Vista, and Windows 7 but there’s no support for Mac or Linux machines. The application uses unsigned drivers, and while this will only prompt a security dialog in 32 bit versions of Windows, it won’t install in 64 bit editions since these require signed drivers.

Gbridge is otherwise a brilliant solution. You can stream MP3 files, show photos and video without uploading them anywhere, remotely fix a problem on your friend’s computer, access your home files from office or even unblock restricted sites. All this using your Google account.

Alternatives may include Opera Unite, Purple Nova and Team Viewer.

Setting up a wireless home network is pretty simple now. Get a wireless router, connect the Internet port of the router to your broadband modem and then connect any of the numbered LAN ports to the desktop computer through an Ethernet cable.

Wireless G (or 802.11g) routers offer fairly good Wi-Fi signal strength but if you plan to transfer large files or stream videos around the house, you may well consider switching to a slightly more expensive Wireless N (or 802.11n) router – these offer better signal strength and higher data transfer speeds than Wireless G routers.

There’s however one problem with Wi-Fi signals emanating from your wireless router – they only have a limited range. The wireless signal strength will degrade as the distance between the router and your laptop increases and it will further weaken if you have too many brick walls in the house or if your computer is located on a different floor than the router.

If you too have a problem getting Wi-Fi signals in every corner of your house, here are some tips (and accessories) to help you extend the range of your wireless network.

1. Install the DD-WRT* firmware on your wireless router – this might help increase the range of your Wi-Fi router by a few meters if not more.

To increase the signal strength, you can increase the router’s transmit power and also disable both frame burst and afterburner (the settings can be accessed from the router’s web dashboard). If DD-WRT firmware is not available for your router, try the Tomato firmware on your router.

2. Most routers have omni-directional antennas so they emit wireless signals in all directions (just like a light bulb).

That’s fine if you have placed the router in a central location but if the router is in some corner of your room or against a wall, consider adding a home-made reflector behind the antennas of your router.

3. InSSIDer is a free utility that can help you detect the presence and strength of wireless networks. Install InSSIDer on your laptop, walk around the house with your laptop to determine the wireless signal strength at various places and, based on this information, you can quickly find a more suitable location for the router.

4. Ideally, you should place the router at a height in  some central location and away from other cordless devices. Make sure that the router is not placed near something metallic (like an almirah or window grills) as that will weaken the wireless signals. Avoid mirrors as they can reflect the wireless signals away from the desired direction.

5. Wireless routers generally ship with omni-directional antennas but you can replace them with more powerful uni-directional antennas and that will keep the signal from getting broadcast in all directions.

If you can’t find a compatible directional antenna for your router model, consider a booster antenna that’s omni-directional but will still boost both the range and strength of wireless signals.

If your router is placed on the ground floor of your home, the Wi-Fi signals will be very weak or may not even reach the basement computer or the printer upstairs. The situation will be no different if you work in a fairly large premises or if there are too many walls in the area.

In that case, here are some hardware device that you can consider to extend the reach of your Wi-Fi network:

Option 1. You can attach a WiFi Repeater (also known as Wireless Range Expander) to your router and quickly expand the coverage of your wireless network without using any cables.

The Repeater should be placed within the range of your existing router and it will reflect the signals to other areas where the wireless reception was earlier poor (or totally absent). The Repeater can connect wirelessly to both routers and access points (see #3 below).

Option 2. (This is my current setup) You can get another wireless router and connect   it to your existing router using an Ethernet cable. The advantage is that this setup comes pretty cheap and the Internet speed stays almost the same even for computers that are accessing the web via the new router.

You can get a 100 feet long Ethernet Cable (also known as Cat5 or LAN or RJ45  cable) for less than $10 and wireless routers start at $20.   Here’s a detailed guide on how you can connect two routers together.

Option #3. You also have the option to use an Access Point instead of a router to extend the WiFi range but that’s often not required because Wireless Access Points can be more expensive than equivalent routers.

The other advantage with a router is that is has extra LAN ports so, in future, you can connect more wired computers for sharing files or you Internet connection.

Option 4. If you have an old desktop or laptop computer, you should consider adding  an external (USB based) wireless adapter or upgrade the internal network card to improve the wireless reception (and thus Internet speed).

More tips on Home Networking:

Update: Eugene Dimarsky says that option 2 can be amended with a more expensive, but prettier option. Instead of running a cat5 cable, consider a homeplug bridge – also known as powerline network adapters – allowing you to use the power lines in the house to connect the two routers. I’ve done this about a dozen times in different places and it works very reliably with no cable mess. It does cost an extra $80 or so, but for many it is worth the expense to keep things neat and ‘wireless’.

Let’s say you have one internet connection at home that you want to share across all your desktop and laptop computers, your Wi-Fi enabled mobile phones, tablets, video game consoles (like the Xbox), digital photo frames and any other wireless devices that you may have at home.

How do you do this?

The easiest way to setup a wireless network, as we all know, is with the help of a router – just attach a wireless router to your modem and any Wi-Fi enabled gear, that’s located inside the signal range of your router, will be able to connect to the web using that lone Internet connection.

Now consider a slightly different scenario – you have all these Wi-Fi enabled devices at home but there’s no router. Well, there’s no reason to buy one because you can still easily setup a wireless network as long as your computers have a wireless network adapter*.

Most new desktops and laptop computers are already equipped with internal network adapters so you are ready to go without a router.

If your computer doesn’t have built-in wireless capabilities, you can either buy a USB network adapter that plugs into the USB port of your desktop or go for a wireless adapter that directly plugs into your notebook’s PC Card slot. Desktop users can also opt for an internal wireless PCI card but you’ll have to open the computer case in order to install this network adapter.

Now that you have everything in place to create a Wi-Fi network, let’s actually build one.

For Windows XP and Vista users

If your main computer, that is already connected to the internet, is running Windows XP, Vista or even Mac OS X, you can set up an ad-hoc Wi-Fi network and the other wireless devices can then connect to the web via this ad-hoc network (also called a computer-to-computer network).

Wired Connection In, Wireless Connection Out

It’s an easy process. To set up an ad-hoc network in Windows Vista, go to Network and Sharing Center from the control panel, select “Set up a connection or network” and choose “Set up a wireless ad hoc (computer-to-computer) network”.

Make sure you select “Save this network” option else the ad hoc network will be removed if no other computers / devices are connecting to the network.

Turn on Internet Sharing in the next screen and now your other home computers can connect to the ad hoc network just like they would connect to any regular wireless network. Setting up an ad hoc network in XP takes a couple of extra steps but also make sure the host computer is running at least XP SP2 or SP3.

For Windows 7 users

If you are on Windows 7, you can instantly turn your  computer into a personal Wi-Fi hotspot without having to configure anything. All you need is a free software called Virtual Router and the computer connected to the internet must be running Windows 7.

[*] Virtual Router works will all editions of Windows 7 except the Starter edition because Microsoft has disabled the Virtual Wifi feature in that particular edition.

 

Using the virtual router is simple – just run the program on any Windows 7 computer, assign a password and that’s it. In the above example, I used the Virtual Router to connect an iPod, an Ubuntu Linux laptop and a Windows desktop to the Internet via a Windows 7 notebook where that virtual router software was running.

As new devices join the Wireless network, their assigned IP and MAC addresses instantly appear in the Virtual Router window. And you can click the “Stop Router” button anytime to deactivate the hotspot and disable Internet sharing.

To set up Ad Hoc networking, your main computer needs to have an Ethernet based Internet connection as well as a Wireless (WLAN) network adapter. In the case of Virtual Wi-Fi, the Ethernet card is optional so you can turn a laptop into a hotspot even if your laptop itself is connected to a Wireless network and not to an Ethernet cable.

Computers and other wireless devices in ad hoc networks must be within 30 feet of each other but there’s no such restriction in the case of Virtual Wireless networks.

Ad-Hoc wireless networking is available on Windows XP, Vista and Windows 7 while Virtual WiFi, which is much easier to setup, is available on Windows 7 or Windows Server 2008.

Related: How to Connect Two Computers Without a Router

[*] Intel’s Centrino 2 processors include a technology called My Wifi that can also turn your wirelessly connected laptop into a personal Wi-Fi hotspot but the interesting part is that this supports Windows Vista as well in addition to Windows 7.