Hardware Reference
In-Depth Information
Chapter 17. Local Area Networking
Defining a Network
A
network
is a group of two or more computers that intelligently share hardware or soft-
ware devices with each other. A network can be as small and simple as two computers that
share a printer or as complex as the world's largest network: the Internet.
Intelligently sharing
meansthateachcomputerthatsharesresourceswithanothercomputer
orcomputersmaintainscontrolofthatresource.Thus,aUSBswitchboxforsharingasingle
printer between two or more computers doesn't qualify as a network device; because the
switchbox—not the computers—handles the print jobs, neither computer knows when the
other one needs to print, and print jobs can potentially interfere with each other.
A shared printer, on the other hand, can be controlled remotely and can store print jobs
from different computers on the print server's hard disk. Users can change the sequence of
print jobs, hold them, or cancel them. And, sharing of the device can be controlled through
passwords, further differentiating it from a switchbox.
You can share or access many different types of devices over a network, but the most com-
mon devices include the following:
• Printers
• Storage drives
• Modems
• Cameras
• Media players/recorders
• Game consoles
Entire drives or just selected folders can be shared with other users via the network.
In addition to reducing hardware costs by sharing expensive printers and other peripherals
among multiple users, networks provide additional benefits to users:
• A single Internet connection can be shared among multiple computers.
• Electronic mail (email) can be sent and received.
• Multiple users can share access to software and data files.
• Files and folders can be backed up to local or remote shares.
• Audio and video content can be streamed to multiple devices.
• Multiple users can contribute to a single document using collaboration features.
