Networking

This is a page about computer networking.

Introduction

The aim of this, is to guide you though the different options open to you when creating a computer network. This may be connecting two computers together, or connecting hundreds together.

Before You Buy Anything

Don't just go to PC World and pick up the first or cheapest thing you see, there are various decisions you need to make first in order to create the perfect network for you.

The Basics

The simplest form of a computer network is two computers connected together. With this, you can share files, printers and even an internet connection! You could have a computer in the study, and the kids could have one in their room, connecting the two together would mean the kids can print their homework out, without you having to invest in another printer, or maybe you have a black and white laser printer in the study, and a photo quality one in the kids room, networking the two machines together will mean you can print to either printer, from either computer.

Types of network

The two main types of networking are wired and wireless. Just because you start with one, does not mean you can't then have the other, they co-exist perfectly! in fact, they are totally transparent to one another, one computer on a wired connection can happily talk to another on a wireless connection in the same network (if it is all set up correctly, of course!)

Wired

Two Computers

The easiest network to set up is a two computer wired network. You will need to make sure both your computers have a network card installed, these are becoming more commonly supplied built in to new computers, you need to look for a port on the back like the second connector on the top row here

There is a smaller connector that is very simalar, this is a modem connection, fo connecting the computer to the telephone line, this is NOT the same.

A Modem connection will have either 2 or 4 little gold contacts inside, a network connection will have 8.

Plugging a telephone line into a network connection will damage it (as the telephone connector is smaller, it will fit in the larger network socket - don't do it!

If you don't have this connection, you may have one installed as an add-on card, you are basically looking for the same 8 pinned connector shown on the picture above.

If you can't find one, all is not lost, adding one is fairly easy.

The best way to add a network socket, is to install a new card inside your PC. This will require you to take the side/top off the machine. If you are happy to do this, then you need to make sure you have a spare PCI slot in the computer.

First thing to do is shut-down the PC. Once the PC is off, you need to take the side or top of the machine, as there are so many types of computer case, I won't go into this here.

Once you get the side off, you should see the motherboard (the large board that everything connects to)

On this motherboard, you will (hopefully!) see some (usually white) slots like this.

You can see, one of the white PCI slots already has a card in, the other one is empty. If you can see an empty one, then you can add a PCI network card!

Now you need to check what type of card you need, the smaller computers usually use half height cards, the larger use full height (the normal type)

If you look at the picture below, this is a full height card.

The height of the metal plate to the right should be about 12cms, some of this plate will go below the main board, so the hole in the back of the PC will be about 10cms.

If you have a half height card, the plate will be about 8cms and the hole about 6cms.