Thinking of installing a WLAN? Welcome!

Let me start by saying from the beginning, this is NOT an advertisement for any particular device or company. I simply relate my experiences and make some general recommendations. My first attempt at creating a wireless local area network (WLAN) was just so I could access the internet from anywhere in my three-story house. I connected my cable modem to a directional wireless router and adjusted the antennas for adequate coverage on all floors.

Then I made sure the LAN was secure by assigning a strong password to the encryption feature of the router. Everything was good. He could go anywhere he wanted in our house and access the internet. Over time, I populated each floor with multiple PCs, conveniently located so I could log in whenever I felt like it. My family also liked the convenience of being able to connect to the Internet with whatever portable device they had. Just for convenience, I placed a wireless printer on each floor and connected it to the WLAN. Everything was going well.

But one glaring problem was that I still used each PC locally and sharing files between computers was a nightmare.

Then I found out about “MyCloud” from Western Digital. Quick as a rabbit, I bought a 2Gb “MyCloud”, apprehensively connected it to my router via its Ethernet port, and then linked it to each of my remote computers as a separate drive.

What a rush! This is incredible! Now I have remote access to all my projects and files from anywhere in my house! I am a believer!

When setting up your home WLAN, you may also want to consider adding Western Digital’s “MyCloud” or similar remote wireless server as a fully remotely controlled repository of information. Linked to your home network, and behind your router’s firewall, it’s the perfect place to put all your important files (and in my case, almost all of them). Accessible from anywhere in your home, through any device connected to your LAN, it is a perfect way to share information and have access to that information.

Before investing in MyCloud, you had to remember on which machine you had saved your files locally. Now I can log in from any of my machines and have immediate access.

You may find that another company’s product fits your lifestyle better than Western Digital. It’s okay. The gist of my advice is that you consider a remote data and information service that is under your full control.

Now, I’m not completely paranoid about “cloud servers” outside of your router’s firewall, they have their place, but I abhor paying a fee to access my own personally created files.