The Need for Home Networks

The reasons for setting up your home network are varied. The one you are probably most concerned with is cost. Rather than having two or three DSL or cable connections in your home at two or three times the cost, you can share one connection, which is probably fast enough for everyone in your household. Other reasons for networking your home include the following:

• Share the home's Internet connection between mom and dad's computer and that of their children— Many families now have multiple computers and all want Internet connectivity. (This is probably the most common reason for networking.)

• Share peripherals such as printers, CD-ROM burners, and scanners over the network— You don't have to have one printer for each computer. Computers can share one printer over the network just as in an office environment.

• Use network applications— These include databases or financial applications over the network.

• Share data over the network through folders or shared hard drives— You no longer have to FTP files back and forth or copy them to floppy disks to share data.

• Implement security on one gateway computer— This can protect the rest of the environment.

• Enable privacy of information by not having to share one computer to perform all Internet functions— You don't want the kids using your computer in all likelihood.

• Play games over the network— Just about every major new PC game comes equipped with Internet capabilities. Most games, such as Half-Life, Quake, and Unreal Tournament, can be played by multiple users over a network.

You definitely should take advantage of all the benefits available to you through a home network. If you have at least two computers in your home, you can network. Saving money is as good a reason as any to design and implement your home network.

The cost of computers has also dropped significantly enough to make it feasible for many homes to have more than one computer. Softwareto run these computers has also dropped enough to enable you to network and secure your home. Physical hardware has never been cheaper. The ability for home users to implement both hardware and software has been made simple by new technologies. Where once it was easy to share a floppy disk between computers, now you can just as easily share a whole hard drive or folder. With this type of sharing, however, you must be concerned about security. The same way that a floppy could be stolen and all your data copied, so can that shared folder be accessed and copied over the network.