NIFTY NETWORK DEVICES | Home Networking Annoyances: How to Fix the Most Annoying Things about Your Home Network

You can equip your network with some rather cool devices and features, some of which I consider to be almost as important as the basic necessities. In this section, I'll discuss some of these devices.

ROUTERS WITH FIREWALLS

If you're using a router, you can protect your network from Internet intruders at the router, instead of installing a software firewall on each computer. However, router firewalls prevent only incoming intrusions and do not prevent computers from sending data out to the Internet.

Outgoing data is a problem if a computer sends data to some computer on the Internet as a result of a virus designed to collect files. When an unauthorized software application tries to send a file to a computer on the Internet, software firewalls ask users whether they want to allow the transmission. Router firewalls never ask because they permit all outgoing transmissions (the same is true of the Windows XP built-in firewall). Don't use a router firewall unless your computers run antivirus software, and you update the antivirus software regularly.

PRINT SERVERS

Instead of connecting a printer directly to a computer, you can use a print server (a standalone hardware device) to connect the printer to your network. The print server becomes a network node, the same way a computer is a network node. After you connect your printer(s) to the print server, you connect the print server to your hub or switch to make it available to all the computers on the network. It has a name and IP address just like the computers, so you can easily access it.

Using a hardware print server to share printers on a network, instead of the standard printer-sharing features offered by Windows, provides the following benefits:

Location: You can put your printers in a convenient place for all users on the network.
Speed: Print servers move data faster (they're not victimized by the overhead of other processes that a computer might be experiencing).
Availability: The print server is available all the time, while a printer attached to a computer is available only when the computer is running.

If you're using a wired print server, use the RJ45 port (the LAN port) on the back of the print server to attach it to your network hub, switch, or router. Use a standard Ethernet Category 5 patch cable to make the connection.

If you're using a wireless print server, connect the print server to an Ethernet device (a hub, switch, router, or computer) to install the drivers and configure the print server. After you complete the setup and configuration, the print server uses its antenna to communicate with your wireless network.

Note: Print servers are available for both parallel and USB port printers.

Print servers come with software installation CDs, which walk you through the process of setting up the device. You have to install printer drivers for the print server to use, and then you must install the printers (as network printers located on the print server) on the network computers.

STANDALONE HARD DRIVES

You can buy a standalone hard drive that connects to your hub, switch, or router and becomes a network node that all the computers on the network can access. It's always available, providing file storage space independent of a computer (which might not be turned on).

Note: Hard drives that connect to the network as independent nodes are known as Network Attached Storage (NAS) devices.

You can use the NAS device as a backup drive for all the computers on your network (see Chapter 8 for information about backing up). NAS is also a handy place to store large music and video files.