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FREAKIN' COMPUTERS MAN!
by James Lehman
Here's a neat subject... I can't believe I didn't think to write about
this earlier. If you have two or more computers in your home, why not
set up a LAN? A LAN is a Local Area Network. Even if you only have
one set of terminal devices (keyboard, monitor, and mouse) you can
still get a lot of extra benefit from having another computer hooked up
to your main station. Lets say that you upgraded your system a while
ago and your old box is sitting in the corner collecting dust. Or, a
room mate just moved in who has a computer too. For as little as $20
you could get the parts you need to connect the two computers
together in a network. The bottom line is that two computers in a
network has a synergistic effect and is worth more than twice the
benefit of just one computer.
Networking requires that each computer has a special card
installed into it called an Ethernet Adapter. They can be had (if you
really look around for a bargain) for as little as $10 each. There are two
different cabling standards and a lot of Ethernet cards support both.
There is BNC coax and twisted pair. BNC coax is the older of the two
and is actually cheaper to run, but may not be compatible with some
other devices that you might want to add to the network later. It looks
a little bit like a cable TV wire. With BNC coax, you can string one
computer to the next, in a line, sort of like Christmas tree lights.
Twisted pair is the newer standard. It looks like an extra wide
telephone wire, with a clear plastic modular plug doohickey on each
end. It requires that you also have an Ethernet Hub. This is a little box
with a number of ports on it that you plug each computer into in
what's called a star pattern. That is to say that the computers are not
connected one to the next in a line but each one to the central hub.
That's where the added expense comes in. A hub will cost you more
than $50, even for only a four ported one. The only real difference
between the two types is when you have more than two devices in the
network. Then, twisted pair is better at routing data to exactly where it
needs to go. The BNC coax standard is called 10Base2 and twisted
pair is called 10BaseT. The maximum length of wire that you can run
for either of them is about 200 meters (600 feet); total in the case of
BNC, per each in the case of twisted pair. The data transfer rate is 10
megabits per second. That's screaming fast! With a little network,
where there is almost no competition for data transfer, you would
hardly notice that it takes any time at all.
OK, what can you do with it? Well, for one thing you can share
drives. That means that each computer in the network can have equal
access to all of the drives in any of the systems. (hard, floppy, CD,
whatever). It's like the drives are actually part of each system; as
though they were sitting right inside the same box. You can also
choose not to share a certain drive or directory or make them
password protected. So, you can save a lot of space, because you
don't need to keep redundant data on all of the computers. This also
means that you don't need to buy expensive backup systems for each
computer. If one computer has a backup device, you can use it to
backup all of the data on the network. And once and for all, you can
give up the old "sneaker net"; transferring files from one system to
the other with a stack of floppies and your Keds! Another great
advantage is that you can print to a
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