The World Of Networking

By Author: Sunil Punjabi
Total Articles: 2565
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Home Networking is a service that was launched quite recently. Networking in offices has proven to be quite useful in terms of reducing cost and time spent on exchanging information. Setting up home networks was unheard of because people did not require more than one computer or sometimes couldn't afford it either. With the drop in computer prices lately, it wouldn't be surprising to have households with 5 computers for a family of only four. The tremendous applicability of the computer too has created more reasons to buy a computer like listening to music, watching movies, working at home or just for browsing.

Having more than one PC at home invites the idea of setting up home networks. The advantages of doing so are plenty and this has led many families to look into Networking quite seriously. If all the computers at home are connected, you will not require individual Internet connections for each of them as you can make use of one connection for all the terminals. Sharing music, movies or any other file can be done in no time as all the computers will have constant access to any file ...
... on any of the computers as long as the files belong to the sharing folder. Hardware components like printers, scanners, CD burners, TV cards, etc. can be made use of from any computer as long as they are connected to the main server. Many gamers will resort to Networking so they can play multiplayer games with their friends on LAN.

There are different ways to link computers at home. Your current setup may include a cable or DSL modem linked directly to one computer. To network the computers, you can connect your modem to a hub and connect both the PCs to the hub via a network card. This is relatively easy but requires an IP address for each computer. The IP address charges vary from service provider. Another option applied to home networks is to setup a network between all the computers in the household and then choose an administrator, which will require network software to be installed on it. From the administrator, you can connect your Internet connection, which can be used at all terminals.

The most common solution to home networks is to connect the modem to a router, which is then connected to the hub. Then network cables originating from the hub will then reach the terminals and provide them with Internet access. This method does not require additional IP addresses and the costs related to them. It is relatively safer as all the PCs can be protected with a firewall. However, the initial set up cost for this Networking is slightly on the higher side.

home networks are not simple enough for an amateur to set up by himself. It requires the guidance of an expert. Professionals are aware of the hardware and software components that need to be shared in the network and are better judges of which type of Networking setup to implement in a given situation and requirement.

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