How to Build and Maintain the Best Home Network

This article covers strategies for building and maintaining a fast, reliable, and secure home network.

Don't Skimp

Getting the most out of your home network requires investing in high-quality hardware and additional software and keeping up with the latest industry trends.

Upgrade Home Internet Service

Most internet providers offer a range of service plans at different price points. Subscribing to your provider's basic plan might save a few dollars each month but ultimately cost you much more in terms of time and convenience. Even small increases in data rates can shave valuable minutes off long downloads or make it possible to stream entire Netflix movies without annoying glitches.

Here's what to do:

• Get familiar with the high-speed internet services available in your area. Ask neighbors for recommendations, search on DSLReports.com, and watch for advertisements of any new providers opening for business. Among the many home internet connection alternatives, fiber is especially desirable.
• Upgrade your internet service plan to the best available, changing providers if necessary. The best home internet service isn't necessarily the one with the largest Mbps rating (the most bandwidth). The network latency (sometimes called ping) of internet connections has an equal, if not greater, effect on responsiveness. Network reliability—services with minimal downtimes or sudden major performance degradations—is also essential.
• Subscribe to a business-class internet service if one's available. In return for a higher price tag, business internet customers receive better technical support and more plan options such as higher upload speeds. These plans also usually don't impose bandwidth throttling or caps.
• Use cellular internet as a fallback option during outages with your home's primary service. Subscribe to a data plan that supports tethering if you want to share the internet access of a smartphone across the entire network, effectively turning the cellphone into a modem.

Keep Hardware Up to Date

New hardware products arrive on the home networking scene frequently. Understanding the new capabilities they offer is essential to planning future upgrades. Your existing home network equipment can function and provide good enough support for many years, but maintaining the best home network setup requires frequent updates.

The best home networks use both wireless and wired networking methods. Broadband routers serve as the centerpiece of these home networks, supporting both Wi-Fi and Ethernet connections. These routers have gradually evolved in form and function over the years and continue to add new capabilities.

Broadband modems plug into these routers to enable the router and the home network for broadband internet service. Products that integrate a broadband router and modem into a single package—called an internet gateway—offer similar functionality in a smaller physical footprint.

Some peripheral equipment on a home network (such as a network printer) connects through Wi-Fi or Ethernet, while other equipment connects using Bluetooth wireless or USB. Each kind of home network device offers a slightly different user interface and setup procedure for making these connections, although most devices connect with Wi-Fi.

These all follow the same basic principles: The device must locate the router, have the correct security settings to be eligible to join the network, and obtain a valid IP address.

Here's what to do:

• Use routers that support the latest standard version of Wi-Fi (currently, Wi-Fi 6). If your network includes more than one client connected through 5 GHz Wi-Fi, use a tri-band Wi-Fi router.
• Determine whether your home network should have a single router only, whether you should use a two-router setup, or whether you need a mesh network system. The best option depends on the home situation.
• Install broadband router and broadband modem hardware separately; do not use internet gateways. Managing these as separate units gives you more router models to choose from when you upgrade.
• Learn and follow best practices for home network setup, including where to place routers.
• Upgrade the router every year or two to pick up the latest and greatest technology. Although modem technology does not change nearly as often as on routers, watch for new developments and be ready to upgrade your modem when your provider upgrades its network (applicable especially to DOCSIS cable modems).

Maximize Value of the Home Network With Additional Options

The best home networks employ an automatic backup system. Home network backups make copies of data stored on different devices in the home and save it in a different location. Online backup services automate the process and provide a cloud storage environment, but you can also build a robust home backup environment using Network Attached Storage devices, a good alternative solution for people who may be uncomfortable sending family photos to remote data centers.

Wireless webcams have improved in video quality and reduced in price over the years to the point where no good home network should be without one. Installing and enabling webcams for either indoor or outdoor surveillance is not difficult and helps bring peace of mind.

Home automation systems existed even before Wi-Fi, but the two are now heavily integrated. Programmable control over home lighting using the home network is one example of the convenience that home automation can bring. Wi-Fi connected smart thermostats that can be managed through a smartphone, even while you are away from home, are convenient and can save money on utility bills.

Households have different opinions about which network applications are most important to them. Consider the many possibilities on the market and prioritize which ones your family wants to set up first. Continue extending your home network with new applications every few months—the development of a home network is never truly done.

Don't Cut Corners on Network Security

Nobody likes spending time on their home network security setup, but it only takes one security incident to cause significant problems. Home network security starts with Wi-Fi network security technologies such as WPA2.

When you unpack a new router and plug it in for the first time, Wi-Fi security might be disabled. Households can potentially install and run their Wi-Fi networks without activating appropriate security safeguards.

All network routers lock their configuration settings behind an administrator user account. You must know the administrator username and password combination to log in. To simplify this process for the initial home network setup, router manufacturers give products standard default usernames and passwords. They are well-known and published on the internet, and here are the default passwords for commonly used routers:

• Linksys
• NETGEAR
• D-Link
• Cisco

Another standard security mechanism, network firewalls, protects a home network from malicious traffic from the internet. Broadband routers contain built-in network firewalls and keep them enabled by default. Computers often also have their own firewalls (such as Windows Firewall) in place.

Most modern home routers include support for guest networking. Setting up a guest network only takes a few minutes and is an ideal way to open up your network to household visitors without compromising your security setup.

Here's what to do:

• Learn and follow best practices for wireless home network security. From careful password management to enabling WPA2 with a good choice of keys, err on the side of overprotecting rather than under-protecting.
• Ensure that the router and any computers connected to the internet have a firewall. There are many free firewall programs available for installation.
• Use guest networks whenever possible to accommodate visitors rather than give them full access to the home network. Turn off guest networking when not using it to avoid unnecessary security risks.