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Until recently, home networks were primarily the realm of
technophiles -- most families either didn't need or couldn't
afford more than one computer. But now, in addition to using
computers for e-mail, people use them for schoolwork, shopping,
instant messaging, downloading music and videos and playing
games. For many families, just one computer is no longer enough
to go around. In a household with multiple computers, a home
network often becomes a necessity rather than a technical toy.
If you're thinking of networking the computers in your home, you have several options to explore. In this article, you'll learn about the different types of home computer networks, how they work and what to keep in mind if you're considering creating one.
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A home network is simply a method of allowing computers to communicate with one another. If you have two or more computers in your home, a network can let them share:
- Files and documents
- An Internet connection
- Printers, print servers and scanners
- Stereos, TVs and game systems
- CD burners
The different network types use different hardware, but they all have the same essential components:
- More than one computer
- Hardware (such as a router) and software (either built in to the operating systems or as a separate application)
to coordinate the exchange of information
- A path for the information to follow from one computer to another
Once you have the components of the network you can start to put things together.
To help you get started we have complied a brief explanation
home networking starting from the outside world (the Internet)
and concluding with your home network.
- Internet: Your internet connection is provided
to you by an Internet Service Provider (ISP) and comes to
your house via one of several methods such as Dial-up, ISDN,
DSL, cable, or satellite. As a home user the most important
thing to know is that any of these connections to the internet
will come to your home and connect to a device called a
Modem.
- Modem: .The modem is a device which interprets
the communication language of the internet into something
that your computer can understand. If you ever lose your
internet connection and need to call your ISP the modem
will be the first thing that they will look to as a source
of the problem. In a single PC environment you would connect
the modem to the computer with either a CAT-5 network cable
or a USB cable. At this point you would be finished with
your set-up and -- happy networking. However, we are interested
in configuring multiple computers or devices so we have
a few extra steps. Take a look at your modem. There is only
one USB or one network (Cat-5) port. So how do we connect
it to multiple devices? A router.
- Router: A router is a network component that allows
multiple devices to communicate with each other within a
network and to allow communication to outside networks,
such as the internet. Essentially, the router is the single
component that makes the “network”. To get our
network set up we connect all of the devices we would like
to communicate with each other (computers, printers, PlayStation®,
etc.) using the router. The connection can be a “wired”
connection using CAT-5 network cables or can be a wireless
(or “Wi-fi”) connection. Additionally, the router
will be connected to the modem using the port on the router
labeled “upload” (or something similar) so that
all of the devices on the network can access the internet.
Once we have all of the devices connect we can then enable
the network
- Network: To officially create the network we then
configure the router to allow communication between all
of the devices. Configuring is usually done with an installation
disk provided by the routers manufacturer but if you want
to configure the router manually you have several options.
The simplest method is to enable the Dynamic Host Control
Protocol (DHCP) service on the router and to set each network
device to accept DHCP. Most "network ready" devices
such as printers or stand alone network drives come configured
to accept DHCP from a router. Once they are connected you
simply need to run their install disk on the host computer.
Instructions on configuring your router should be shipped
with your router and by default your computer will be configured
to accept DHCP. If you want to allow wireless devices to
connect you will also need to enable the wireless feature
in the router, again, check the instructions shipped with
the router. You may have already done this with the installation
disk for the router and you should have a security key and
all of the other.
At this point you should be able to access the internet from each of your computers
and you are now ready to set up your devices to talk to each other. After all that
hard work there are several things to do with your network with the most prominent
being File Sharing and Network Printing.
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