It s a Great Time to Connect Your LAN to the Internet


It's a Great Time to Connect Your LAN to the Internet

In the 1980s, only big corporations and universities had Internet connections, and then, a single 64Kbps connection was probably shared by hundreds of users. Now, accessing the Internet is as much a daily requirement as the morning paper. We expect to have instant access from any keyboard we can get our fingers on, and personally, I get grumpy using anything less than a 400Kbps connection. That's progress, I suppose.

Because you now have your computers all tied together with a nifty local area network (LAN), it seems silly that each user should have to use a modem to gain Internet access individually. No worries: You have a host of options for shared Internet connections. You can use a high-speed connection to serve the entire LAN, or you can share a modem connection made from one designated Windows XP computer. Either way, shared access makes online life simpler and safer for everyone on the network.

A shared Internet connection can actually provide better protection against hackers than an individual connection. In this chapter, I'll show you why. I'll also cover your Internet connection options, and will discuss the pros and cons of each.

TIP

You should also read Chapter 21, "Network Security," for more details on protecting your network from hacking.




Special Edition Using Microsoft Windows XP Professional
Special Edition Using Microsoft Windows XP Professional (3rd Edition)
ISBN: 0789732807
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2003
Pages: 450

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