Appendix E. Introduction to Setting Up a SOHO Network

SOME OF THE MAIN TOPICS IN THIS APPENDIX ARE

Assessing Your Requirements: What Do You Need?

SOHO Network Topologies

Backup Solutions for a SOHO Network

Most of this book has dealt with high-end technologies, but a significant portion has been directed toward the small office/home office (SOHO) audience. The reason for this is twofold. First, from computer consultants to eBay sellers and to many other types of home businesses, small home-based business has been booming. The Internet has led to the blooming of many new businesses that only the Web can provide or use to entice customers. These types of businesses lend themselves to the small office setting and, more economically, to a portion of a house. A single computer is very often insufficient when a small business begins to grow past the entrepreneur who founded the company, however. When you have two or more employees who need to access a computer, you'll save money by installing a low-cost network instead. This scenario assumes that the employees will need to frequently use a computer.

If you just turned to this chapter because you wanted to set up a network quickly, you can usually do so by following the directions included with one of the many "kits" that provide a small network-in-a-box solution, although this convenience usually comes at a premium.

If you want to understand your SOHO network so that you will be better able to plan the network as well as troubleshoot it, some of the other chapters that would make good reading before this one are the following:

• Chapter 7, "Network Interface Cards"

• Chapter 8, "Network Switches"

• Chapter 15, "Dial-Up Connections"

• Chapter 17, "Digital Subscriber Lines (DSL) Technologies"

• Chapter 18, "Using a Cable Modem"

• Chapter 54, "Troubleshooting Small Office and Home Office (SOHO) Networks"

• Part V: "Wireless Networking Protocols"

You don't have to read these chapters to get value out of the following content, but familiarity with the listed chapters will make you pretty much a whiz at quickly determining the cause of a SOHO network problem.