After placing the final configurations on your wireless home network and securing your system, you are now ready to access all of the new features of your system! But what are the perks and capabilities of this network? Most users agree the main advantages surround the ability to share, redundancy, and storage as the key advantages to installing a wireless network and home server.

A shared internet connection allows for multiple computers in your household to be connected to an internet connection and share the bandwidth capabilities. Each computer must be recognized by the router and have network compatibility to all use the internet connection at the same time. The downfall being that the more computers connected could mean the slower connection received by each PC. If you plan on including at least 3-4 other computers it is recommended that connections of at least 512 kbps be installed.

The ability to share files between computers is also an excellent advantage. Each user has the ability to choose which files can be shared and gives the other PC access to the file within seconds. Files such as videos, pictures, music, documents, and programs all have the ability to be shared on a wireless home network. A central printer is also a chief benefit for many households. The wireless network provides access to the printer from any computer on the network without the excess use of network cables lined up to wherever each computer may be placed in the house. The same share principle is applied because the computer the printer is connected through can be accessed by any other computer as if it was connected to a computer itself. This advantage saves from having multiple printers installed in the house. This sharing principle is not only limited to printers but also many other peripherals such as scanners, digital cameras, web cams, and even external hard drives and CD/DVD drives.

Data redundancy is also a very important feature for data backup and sharing. Many people traditionally save their information to CDs, disks, jump drives, etc. In a wireless home network a user has the ability to back up their data on another computer in your network. Precious photos, music, videos, and files are worth saving twice and even in a separate location. Even external hard drives are worth looking into if there are certain private files that you may wish to store in more than one location.