home networking tutorial with Microsoft Windows

This tutorial will explain how to set up a small computer network for file and printer sharing using NetBEUI.  It can also be used as a troubleshooting guide if your network if it is not functioning.  The navigation choices on the bottom of each page will help tailor this tutorial to your needs.  You can also skip around the tutorial using the article navigation bar on the left hand side of the screen.  Links within this article can take you to other parts of the site to explore certain terms and technologies deeper.

The first thing you must decide is what kind of network you need and how it will be connected. This sometimes called your network architecture. The major points to keep in mind while making this decision are 1) ease of cabling 2) network speed and 3) price.

Computers can me connected together with many different network types, but the three most common are Ethernet, PhoneLine (HPNA) and Wireless Ethernet (WiFi or 802.11b). If you do not know what kind of network you need, read over our “Choosing a network type for your home” article. You can also view our collection of network diagrams if you are unsure how to hook everything up.

For many people, network speed is the least important issue. Most cable and dsl connections only transfer at about 1.5Mbps (1 and 1/2 an Mbps). Any of these network types transer much faster than that so your speed bottleneck will always be your Internet connection itself.

	SPEED	COST	Wiring Ease	Perhipheral Availablity
Ethernet	Fastest 10 or 100Mbps	Least Expensive	Difficult if computers are in different rooms	Many and inexpensive
Phoneline HPNA 2.0	Moderate up to 10Mbps	Moderate	Easy of phone jacks are close to computers	Few and moderately priced
WiFi Wireless Ethernet	Moderate up to 10Mbps	Most Expensive	No Wires	Moderate amount, moderate to expensive prices

Since Ethernet is both the fastest and least expensive, ethernet networks are the most common network type. The rest of this article will talk about Ethernet networks but keep in mind, they all work the same once you plug everything in.

  Wireless Ethernet (soon)

home networking tutorial with Microsoft Windows