Home » Business & Finance » Online Shopping » Shopping for a Home Network

Shopping for a Home Network

© Maureen Fleury

I've had a home network for at least 7 years and recently upgraded it. Even back then, I saw the need for a home network in order that my entire family had Internet access. We started out with one computer and then bought a couple more as we all found that we wanted more time on the computer.

Not only does a network allow shared Internet access, you can also share files with the other computers on your network. This is particularly handy for my high-school kids. I don't have to buy them a printer because they can send their print job to my printer. It saves us having to buy a printer for each computer or running around with diskettes. I can also look and see what my kids have on their computer.

My first network was configured with a hub. My computer was designated the server and directed the signal to the hub. Each computer needed an ethernet card (my computer needed two of them) and connected to the hub through network cables.

Here is a simple explanation:

Cable/phone outlet in wall -->modem -->my computer (ethernet card #1) -->outgoing connection to hub (ethernet card #2) -->hub -->connections to all computers through hub ports

I operated under this system for years because at the time, this was the only hardware that was readily available for home networks. There were some downfalls to this configuration. With having my computer as the server, it had to be left on when other users wanted to access the Internet. If something went wrong with my computer, it could bring the network down. I also needed 2 ethernet cards instead of 1. Computer viruses were easily passed from my computer to the others. If my computer was being used for downloading, it would slow down the access to all computers. Prior to having Windows XP, I had to buy software for operating a home network.

I recently bought a router which is newer technology.

Here is how it is configured:

Cable/phone outlet in wall -->modem -->router port -->connections to all computers through router ports

I used the same cables so that was a blessing. Instead of plugging my modem connection into my computer, I plugged it into the router (only a foot away from where it had originally been located). I then plugged in the existing cables to the other computers.

The software came with the router so I used my computer for installing it. All I did was follow the easy instructions and within minutes it was set up.

The copyright of the article Shopping for a Home Network in Online Shopping is owned by . Permission to republish Shopping for a Home Network in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.