|
Contents
Introduction
Networking doesn't have to be hard
Wireless neworking
Wired networking
The cost of networking
Introduction
If you are a typical Australian business or family you will have more than one computer scattered around the office or home. If they're not connected together, you would have to buy a printer and a modem for each computer. On the other hand networking your computers together lets you share printers, the internet and files. Indeed the original network was between two mainframes so as to share a printer which at the time cost 10s of thousands of dollars. Once that initial network infrastructure was in place it was an incremental change to add file sharing.
Networking doesn't have to be hard. Nowadays networking computers and network devices, such as printers, is relatively easy. Essentially we connect a blue ethernet cable from a computer to a switch, and then another computer to the same switch, and then again until all the computers are connected together. Nowadays the computers will typically automatically generate an ip address which uniquely identifies them on the network. Printers, files and internet connections may then be shared across the network. | |
