NETWORK TECHNOLOGY

We all expect businesses to have networks, but what’s surprising is that millions of homes have networks too - almost ten million American households, in fact. Home networks do everything from sending e-mail to controlling stereos and lights. Networks are so popular because they allow you to share information with those inside and outside your home.

A network allows you to

• share files between computers. You can pass spreadsheet files, word processing files, picture files, and so on back and forth.
• share a single broadband Internet connection.
• share printers between computer. This could mean that you could buy a better quality printer and share it rather than buy two less pricey printers.
• play multi-player games in a social setting (called LAN parties).

The most popular type of networking technology is Ethernet. Ethernet is a standard which specifies rules about how hardware should be built, and software should be developed to allow computers to share information. It involves hardwiring components together.

The most usual home network configuration is to connect all the computers to a router with Ethernet (Cat 5) cable that has RJ-45 connectors. Then you can connect a printer to one of the computers. To add a broadband Internet connection, you just connect the cable or DSL modem to the router too with Cat 5 cable.

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If you don’t want wires everywhere you can use wireless technology. The most popular wireless system is WiFi, which was developed for business, but is widely used in home networks too. IrDA (Infrared Direct Access) is another standard and is used almost exclusively to share files between handheld computers and laptops. IrDA has also been used to send information to wireless printers from laptops, but was never really popular.

As well as wiring your components together, you also have to configure your system. That means you have to name the PCs so that the network operating system can distinguish them. You have to set up file sharing and/or printer sharing on all the computers. You can find out more on how to do this at HowStuffWorks.

There's lots more information available on wireless devices and networks. Here are a few of the resources you can use.

• PC Magazine at www.pcmagazine.com
• PC World at www.pcworld.com
• Tech TV at www.techtv.com