Network your PCs (NNN September 5, 1998)

With new computers priced under $1000 (soon under $600), and used/refurbished ones going for as little as $200, increasing numbers of households have almost as many PCs as they do tvs. (That pricing model debunks the pop-pundit notion that home computers are among the defining lines between the rich and poor in America.)

Networking two or more PCs enhances their usefulness for less than the cost of a printer. In fact, sharing printers is a prime benefit of networking, along with sharing, copying, and backing-up data between systems. A peer-to-peer network, where each workstation is both client of and server to the others, is not an overwhelming task for anyone handy with installing cards and configuring software.

Step one: decide how to connect your network -- coaxial cable (10 Base-2), or twisted pair (10 Base-T). Coax is cheaper, requires no hub, and is good enough. If you expect to tap a laptop into the network, a 10 Base-T system with hub is imperative. It also has (theoretically) faster performance, because it sends/receives data simultaneously, while coax sends/receives sequentially. Use Category 5 cable for your 10 Base-T network, which is required if you start with, or later upgrade to, 100mbps (megabits-per-second) Fast Ethernet network cards/hubs. (10mbps equipment is fast enough, but I recommend thinking ahead to future needs, especially when, as in this case, the cost difference is small.)

Step two: buy a network interface card (NIC) for each computer. Many NICs have both BNC (coax) and RJ-45 (twisted pair) connectors, but you must choose between PCI and ISA slot connectors. If you have a PCI slot open, use it. NICs can be "slot-sensitive," so if the network doesn't work try moving the card to the next slot.

To get up and running fast buy a kit, such as those from LinkSys, NetGear or 3Com, which include everything (except, perhaps, a sufficiently long cable) for networking 2 computers. Prices are typically between $100 - $300. Retail cable prices are outrageously high, so look for discount vendors (NNN, Aug. 15).

For a straight-forward guide to setting up your 1st network see www.linksys.com/support/faqs/howbuild/default.htm.

Security alert: consider protecting your network from exposure while on the Internet, by deploying a firewall product such as @guard (NNN, Aug.29). If you have cable Internet access, consult your provider, or your neighbors may be sharing your network, and your private files.

I almost forgot step 3: allow for the "futz factor." Windows' network configuration applets are anything but intuitive.

If all this sounds a bit daunting, watch for forthcoming products incorporating new technologies, like those of Tut Systems (www.tutsys.com), which claim home network solutions via your regular phone lines.

Visionaries suggest that instead of buying and storing programs and data on our drives, the Internet could become a giant network server from which we would download application components, and to which we would send/store data, as needed. Whether or not that utopian vision ever comes to pass, local networking of PCs, once the sole province of large corporations, is now practical for homes and small businesses.

Bob Metcalfe invented Ethernet in 1973. 25 years later, we're almost ready to say that the network is the computer.

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E-mail: jerry@maizell.com