Networking Options

By: Scott Hendison   �   Published: March 2002

If you have more than one computer in your home or office, then the chances are you have been considering networking them together. A network is any two or more computers that are �connected� and can communicate between themselves.

When you are dialed in to the Internet over a phone line, in essence, you are being temporarily networked with the computer at your ISP. This allows you to browse the internet, send and receive e-mail, use instant messaging, and do many of the same things you could do while you�re on a regular LAN (Local Area Network).

With a network, all sorts of communication are possible. You can share files and folders. You can share printers. You can scan a picture on one computer, and save it over to another computer. You can play networked games too, competing against each other across the room or across the world.

In my home, I have three computers. One is my own, one for my wife, and one just for my kids. We don�t share many files or do anything too productive with our home network, but we do share a high-speed Internet connection. Being networked allows us to all use the same Internet connection at the same time. It will also allow me to monitor what websites my kids go to without leaving my own computer (when they get to that age). My son and I can also play games with each other, both racing around in our own vehicles, one our own computers, but on the same track together.

From home, my wife and I can both remotely access our work computers with a single click. This brings up our actual desktops at work, where we can see all of our icons, and even run programs that we may not have installed at home. It�s quite amazing.

At work, our network is a bit more sophisticated. We use an actual �server�. That means we dedicated one computer for storing all the important documents, and all the other computers can open, change, or add to those documents whenever necessary. The server also runs our POS (Point of Sale) system, with every other computer using its data as we �ring up� customers. By using a server, it gives us one efficient manageable file system to backup regularly. (You DO back up your data, right?)

There are several ways of networking two computers together. The most common way is with a Fast Ethernet card, or 10/100 card, using special Ethernet cable. The cards are under $20 and nearly any computer since 1995 or so has the room to install one.  Many new computers come with these 10/100 Ethernet cards now as standard equipment. Be sure you get one in your next computer as surely as you get a sound card. You will need it someday.

Another networking option is one I chose for my home, called HPNA. This is a standard developed by the Home Phoneline Networking Alliance. Can you guess what that means? It means that I didn�t have to string any cables from my basement two floors up to my wife�s office! The equipment is about double the price at $40 per card, but using my existing phone lines means every phone jack in my house can be a potential connection.

Yet another networking option is to go wireless. I frequently go onsite to customer homes and businesses setting up their computer networks. In the past year, as the performance has improved and the prices have dropped, I have done several wireless networks. They are amazing. When I set up my HPNA network, wireless was way out of my price range. Four years ago, just a fast Ethernet card was nearly $200. Now a wireless network card is less than half that.

Wireless networks have some potential security issues, and there can be interference from other wireless devices in your home, but wireless is the way of the future. These products are getting better and better, and running cable through walls can get just as expensive and time consuming.

Most businesses have networked computers, but most homes don�t. However, nearly half of the homes that have a computer have more than one. Soon that number will be much higher. The convenience and benefits of networking at home are no longer out of reach technically, financially, or logistically.

Copyright 2002, All Rights Reserved