Chapter 29: Designing a Windows-Based Local Area Network

Aocal area network (LAN) is a necessity for small offices and home offices with more :han one computer who want to share a DSL or cable broadband modem. Windows Vista provides all the features needed to connect your computer to a LAN-no other software is required (although you will probably need some hardware). This chapter introduces LANs, including what a network is and why you might want one. Most new networks use Ethernet technology, either with cables or WiFi. This chapter also describes what you need to do to install a LAN.

This chapter provides the background for the specifics covered in the rest of the chapters in Part V, configuring Windows for a LAN (Chapter 30), sharing drives and printers (Chapter 31), connecting your LAN to the Internet (Chapter 32), and network security (Chapter 33).

Note  

This chapter covers setting up your network from scratch. However, if you are adding a Windows Vista computer to an existing peer-to-peer network or upgrading a computer on a network from an earlier version of Windows to Windows Vista, the steps you need to follow are also found in this chapter (see the sidebar "Adding or Upgrading a Computer on an Existing Network").

Purposes of Networks

A network provides a connection between computing resources, a way to share hardware and files, and a paperless way to communicate. A local area network (LAN) is a network limited to one building or group of buildings . A LAN is a necessity in a small office/home office (SOHO) with two or three computers. LANs are already standard in large offices. Today's LANs can include computers wired via Ethernet cabling, via Wi-Fi, or a combination of both networking technologies.

Wide area networks (WANs) connect computers that are geographically dispersed, and the Internet-the biggest network of them all-is a worldwide network of interconnected networks, including LANs and WANs.

Wireless networks are also gaining in popularity in home offices and corporate offices, and even large cities are rolling out municipal Wi-Fi networks (think citywide wireless WAN), enabling local city businesses and citizens to access the Internet for free or a low fee from anywhere in the city that is covered by the Wi-Fi network.

Sharing Hardware

Without a network, each resource (hard drive, CD-ROM drive, printer, scanner, external hard drive, or other device) is connected to only one computer. You may have a hard drive on which your small company's main database or your family's music collection is stored, the color printer everyone wants to use, and the CD-RW drive on which nightly backups are made. Without a network, you can use a resource only from the computer to which the resource is attached. With a network and sufficient security access privileges, anyone using a computer attached to the network can print to the color printer or open the database, and the computer with the external backup drive can access all the hard disks on various machines that need to be backed up.

The low-tech way to share resources is what some techie types call sneakernet -take removable storage media like a USB thumb drive, copy the file you need to print or share, and walk it over to the computer with the printer or the person who needs to use the file. But sneakernet isn't very efficient-in the long run, you save time and hassle (";Dude, where did I leave my thumb drive?") with a network. In a SOHO, using a network and only one printer-to which everyone can print-is more cost effective.

Sharing Files

If you want to share files without the danger of creating multiple versions, you need a network, so every person who accesses the file uses the same copy. Some software (notably database software) enables multiple users to use one file at the same time. Other software warns you when a file is being used by someone else on the network and may even notify you when the file is available for your use.

When you work with files that are too large to fit on a floppy disk, moving them to other computers can be cumbersome without a network (unless both computers have a CD-R or CD-RW drive or you have a USB thumb drive with sufficient memory).

Sharing an Internet Connection

If everyone in your SOHO wants to access the Internet-to send and receive e-mail, browse the Web, or access Internet applications-all your computers need a connection to your cable or digital subscriber line (DSL) modem or business-class Internet connection (like a fast Tl line). This is where a specialized device called a router comes into play, which connects your LAN to an Internet connection. Chapter 32 describes how to use Windows Vista Internet Connection Sharing to connect a LAN to the Internet.