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What a Home or Small Office Network Can
Do for You
Ten
years ago, or even five, the words "computer network" gave most people
visions of science labs, huge bureaucratic offices, or at least windowless
rooms where folks wearing pocket protectors hid from the rest of
us—especially if you'd just mentioned being the proud owner of a new home
PC. But, like that new PC, networking has crept from the lab and the
office to the home.
Today, many households have at least one computer for each member. And the
"rest of us" are starting to realize that with computer networks we can:
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Share one Internet connection. Everyone can surf—at the same time.
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Share printers and other hardware. Like many scanners and other
peripherals
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Share files. Without walking back and forth or waiting for e-mail.
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Play games together. Humble your parents, amuse your kids.
Even if you're a relatively new PC owner, you may already know that
networking your computers lets you do these things. What you might not
know is how affordable and straightforward it is to set up a network at
home.
You might not think you need
one, even if the benefits sound good. But if you have a busy household or
small business, you should seriously consider networking. Networks need
some hardware that doesn't come with your PC, and setting up a network can
take up a big part of the day. But consider the advantages carefully. A
modest investment of time up front can come back to you many times over.
Small businesses have the most
obvious need for a network: Work slows down when people need to share
files, or printers, or an Internet connection. Buying more hardware (like
printers) or Internet connections is costly, sharing files by physically
walking them back and forth takes time, and e-mail is woefully inefficient
for sharing files. A network is usually the only realistic solution.
Home computer users don't always see the
need for a network as urgently as business owners do. It can take months
before it's clear to everyone, for instance, that there will always be a
dispute over who gets to use the Internet or printer right this minute.
And the benefits of simple file sharing may not become really obvious
until you've had them so long you take them for granted: you don't have to
go upstairs to help with homework, you don't have to make time to sit
together to review paperwork, you can enjoy anyone's music and pictures
without taking up space on multiple hard drives or getting up from your
computer.
The advantages of file sharing
grow more evident as more things—taxes, for example—go from being
paper-based to computer-based. In programs like Microsoft Excel and Word,
you can edit documents without losing the original content. Without even
being in the house at the same time, two people can have a detailed
discussion about anything filed on a computer. Conveniences like these
take on greater significance in projects that give everyone headaches—and
can eliminate hurdles like, "we just haven't had the time to sit down
together..."
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