DIY Tech: Making the most of your router

摘要

WITH A BIT OF TINKERING, A HOME WIRELESS ROUTER CAN DO MORE THAN JUST BRING A COMPUTER ONLINE. Not so long ago, most home wireless routers were one-trick ponies, rarely used for anything other than bringing PCs online. Today, a router hooked up to a well-managed home network can connect all sorts of devices. In my house, I've got four computers, three TVs, three game systems, a DVR and a Blu-ray player-all linked into the network. If an always-on data stream is a network's lifeblood, a router is its heart, pumping life throughout the system. The typical rig may not be quite as extreme as mine, but the fundamentals of setting up a router on a home network are always the same. With just a little bit of tinkering, anyone can secure a network from hackers (something too few people bother to do), make a router work faster and more reliably and even unlock a few surprising features. And you can do it all in under 30 minutes.