Consider these scenarios:

In both of these situations, the users can solve most of their computing problems by connecting their PCs to form a local area network, or LAN. In its simplest form, a LAN is a collection of computers, connected by cables, that can share resources with each other, such as files, printers, and Internet connections.

In the early days of PC networking, there had a be a separate computer functioning as a dedicated server, and the process of installing the network software and configuring each PC to communicate with the others could be lengthy, difficult, and expensive. As a result, networks were only found in medium to large businesses. Today, however, networking capabilities are built into most operating systems, and the process of installing the required hardware has been greatly simplified by the introduction of Plug-and-Play technology. PC networking is now a practical, affordable computing solution for the smallest businesses, and even for the average home.

In the scenarios that began this chapter, you read about some of the most common computing problems that networking can solve. One of the original reasons for the development of local area networks was the ability to share hardware devices like printers and disk drives. As networking technology developed, more applications were found for PC LANs, to the point at which there are now a wide variety of network services that you can implement for your home or business. Some of these services are as follows:

Printers are ideal candidates for device sharing, because most people use them only occasionally. It is rare for one person to be continuously printing page after page all day long. If a business was to supply each user with their own printer, the devices would be idle a vast majority of the time. In addition, the expense of buying multiple printers would force most businesses to sacrifice output quality, print speed, or other features in an effort to economize. Under normal use, one good quality printer can service ten or more people, as long as they have convenient access to it.

There have been many alternative methods for sharing printers over the years. Switchboxes, for example, can connect multiple computers to a single printer, but these suffer from some serious drawbacks. First, the connections use standard parallel printer cables, which are limited in the length they can span effectively. Second, someone has to manually set the switch to enable a specific computer to print. This means that only one person can use the printer at a time. Solutions like these are clumsy and ultimately inconvenient.

When you connect the computers using a network, the printer can be hundreds of meters away from the computers using it, if necessary. A networked printer also uses a technique called spooling that enables multiple users to generate print jobs at the same time. If a person prints a document while someone else is using the printer, the document waits in a queue until the printer is free. A network also enables users to monitor the progress of their print jobs. If the printer should run out of paper or malfunction in some other way, the users can be notified at their workstations that there is a problem.

In the first scenario, a network would allow the children to print out their documents on their father's printer right from their computer. However, the network would also solve the problem of getting the kids' large document files to the other computer. Copying files to floppy disks and carrying them to another computer, often referred to with a distinct lack of affection as the sneakernet, is an annoying and difficult method of getting data from one system to another. As increasingly complex applications produce ever larger document files, the process becomes even more unwieldy, since the files may not fit on a single disk.

On a network, users can make their entire hard drives or specific directories available for sharing by other network users. By mapping a share to a drive letter, it is possible for a user to access the files on other computers using a file management tool like Windows Explorer, the DOS command line, or an application. The procedure for opening a word processor document on another machine, for example, is no different from opening it on a local drive. You select a file name on the drive letter of your choice and the system reads the file from its remote location and opens it. When you are finished working with the file, the application saves the changes you've made to it back to the remote drive.

This opens up the computing environment to all sorts of conveniences, such as the following:

• Users can work from the same pool of documents or give others access to their documents, simply by telling them where they are.
• Users can share the CD-ROMs in their drives with anyone on the network.
• Supervisors can examine employees' work at any time from their own workstations.
• All of the computers on the network can be backed up using a single tape drive connected to one computer.
• Applications and software can be quickly and easily installed on multiple systems from a shared network drive.

Because people may not want to share their files with all of the users on the network, it is possible to control access to shares through the use of passwords.

Many applications include features intended to support networked computers. These features fall into several categories, including the following:

Shared Applications

Client/Server Applications

Games

The popularity of the Internet has revolutionized the personal computer industry, but the desire to give every computer Internet access has resulted in logistical problems in homes and small businesses. For standalone computers, individual dial-up connections are the standard solution. This is fine for a single machine, but when multiple users want to connect, having separate modems and phone lines rapidly becomes impractical.

A home might have a second telephone line for modem communications, and a small business might even have two or three, but the continued expense of two extra lines for a home and eight for a small business (as would be needed in the scenarios described earlier) is difficult to justify. This does not even include the price of the modem and ISP (Internet service provider) account required for each computer.

When you network the systems together, it is possible for all of the computers to share a single Internet connection. One computer is equipped with a modem, or better yet, a higher-speed connection using ISDN or a cable network, and the other systems all send their Internet traffic through the connected system. This is not only more economical, but also more convenient for the network users.

When a business has information to share with its employees, whether it takes the form of human resources documents, product catalogs, technical information, or anything else, an intranet makes to possible to publish documents for viewing in a standard web browser. An intranet is essentially a web site intended for use on an internal network instead of the Internet. By running a web server on one of your network's computers, you can publish web pages containing documents and applications just like those on an Internet web site.

Email has become a ubiquitous business tool, and a very common form of communication for individuals and families as well. Connecting your computers with a network makes it possible to send and receive email messages with other users in your home or office and, with a single Internet connection, users all over the world. In addition, many email products incorporate other network-based functions as well.

For example, group scheduling applications enable users to view and interact with the appointment schedules of other users. A supervisor can determine the best time to schedule an employee meeting and then add it to everyone's schedule, thus informing them of the meeting time and preventing them from scheduling a conflicting appointment.

With a modem or Internet connection, you can configure your network to be accessible from remote locations, so that users can work from home or while travelling. All standalone PCs can provide remote access via modem, but with a network, a user with a computer at another site can connect to one machine and access resources on any network system.

Years ago, to connect a PC to a network, you had to purchase and install a separate client program. Today's operating systems nearly all have networking functionality built into them. Windows 98 is particularly well-suited to a network environment, because it includes a suite of network applications as well as the core operating system itself.

Computer networking is an extraordinarily complex subject, but Windows 98 does a particularly good job of insulating the user from many of the nuts and bolts details. As you will learn later in this book, networking professionals use a theoretical model for networking functions called the OSI Reference Model that has seven layers, with each layer defining functions or protocols that work together to provide network communications.

Windows 98 simplifies this model by consolidating the functions of the seven layers into four types of software modules: network adapter drivers, protocols, clients, and services. In many cases, using these modules is simply a matter of selecting them for installation. While the modules may be highly configurable, using dialog boxes and registry modifications, most of them (with a few notable exceptions) will not require any configuration in order to function.

A group of Windows 98 systems connected by a network interacts as equals, or peers. All of the computers are capable of sharing their resources and of accessing the resources of other systems. This provides a great deal of flexibility in creating a network environment that provides easy access to the material you want to share and protects the files that you want secured.

Thus, to extend the scenarios given earlier, the kids can be granted access to the printer on Dad's computer, but cannot open, modify, or delete the files for his work presentations. In the realty office, users can share printers and gain Internet access, but still maintain their own private correspondence.

Accessing shared resources on a Windows 98 network is no more difficult than accessing local ones. Users can browse through the shared resources using the Network Neighborhood or the Windows 98 Explorer and map drive letters to specific shares. Then, they can use the drive letters in any application or the DOS command line to reference the shared drive or directory. Printing works the same way. To use a network printer, you install a printer driver using the Add New Printer wizard, just as you would for a printer connected to the local machine, except that you specify a network share instead of a local printer port (LPT).

Windows 98 incorporates many network applications into the operating system, including the following:

Internet Explorer 4.0

Windows Messaging

Microsoft Mail Server

Outlook Express

Dial-up Networking

Dial-up Networking Server

NetMeeting

Front Page Express

Finally, the best reason for using Windows 98 as your network operating system is that you're very likely using it (or Windows 95) already. Windows 98 is installed on most of the new computers sold today and millions of users have become accustomed to it.

The endless debates about the virtues and faults of various operating systems will no doubt continue as long as there is more than one product available, and Windows 98 is certainly not without its shortcomings. It can be argued that other operating systems are more stable, more secure, cost less, and have better user interfaces, but Windows 98 is at this time the most ubiquitous and possesses all of the features needed for basic local area networking.

The process of connecting PCs into a local area network is not extremely complex, especially with today's Plug-and-Play network adapters and the ready availability of networking products. However, only you can judge whether you have the skills and the confidence to perform all of the tasks yourself. The following sections describe the basic tasks involved in building a network and the skills you will need to accomplish them.

If you've never opened a PC's case before, you need not be intimidated by all of the parts inside the machine. Computers are modular devices that typically consist of eight to twelve separate components, all installed in a metal or plastic case. Even the largest computer manufacturers buy their circuit boards, disk drives, and other components from various manufacturers and assemble them into a finished product.

Connecting a PC to a network requires that you insert an expansion card called a network interface adapter (or network interface card, or NIC) into a slot in the main system board, or motherboard. The process requires no tools other than a Phillips screwdriver to lock the card in place and possibly to open the computer case. In fact, you may find that getting the case open is the most difficult part of the operation. Once installed, the end of the NIC is visible through the back of the computer. This is where you will plug in the network cable.

When it comes to setting up a simple network, installing the NICs can be the most intimidating part to the uninitiated. The inside of a computer case looks far more complex than it actually is, and if you see an expansion card installed once, you will probably lose all trepidation about doing it yourself in the future.

At its simplest, cabling the network is nothing more than a matter of buying prefabricated cables and plugging them into the computers and the hub. At its most difficult, the job involves pulling bulk cable through walls and ceilings and then punching down the individual wires in the cable to the connectors on both ends. The degree of difficulty depends on the layout of your network site and how sensitive you are about exposed cabling running through your home or office.

If your site requires a complex, internal cable installation, then this is the one element of the entire network deployment that you should most consider outsourcing. Pulling cable can be a dirty, difficult job, and making the connections requires specialized tools and skills that are probably not worth acquiring for a single, small network installation. However, for a home or business network where the computers are all located in one room, and where you can run the cables along the baseboards, this is the easiest part of the network installation.

Once the hardware for the network is installed, you must install the software components for the Windows 98 operating system. All of the software components needed for basic networking functionality are included with Windows 98, with the possible exception of network adapter drivers. If the NICs you install are very new, you may have to use the drivers that ship with the card or obtain them from the manufacturer. If you purchase good quality cards that support the Plug-and-Play standard, your computer should be able to detect the NIC when you start the system, install the appropriate drivers, and automatically configure them.

Installing the rest of the networking components is basically a matter of selecting them from a list. There are a few decisions you will have to make beforehand regarding the protocols you will use on your network, because all of the computers must be configured the same way.

Virtually the only networking module that requires manual configuration is the TCP/IP protocol. If you intend to provide Internet access through a shared connection, then you must assign each computer a IP address to uniquely identify it to the other systems on the network. Apart from this, the software installation process is simply a matter of choosing the right modules, as described later in the book.

Using your network once you have installed all of the components is a matter of selecting which resources on each machine you want to share and who you want to be able to access them. The amount of planning and effort this requires is based on your users' needs. For an informal two- or three-person office, you might just want to grant everyone access to everything, which greatly simplifies the process. If more security is required, you will have to plan more carefully.

Another consideration is the capabilities of the computer users. For unsophisticated users, it might be best for you to configure the shares on their machines and connect to the shares on other systems beforehand. This leaves the users with a fully pre-configured system on which the networking functionality is virtually transparent. For people with more computing experience, you may be able to let them work things out on their own or point them to the appropriate help files or support documents.

Once you have the basic Windows 98 networking services installed and configured and all of your machines are communicating, you can begin to think about installing additional services. You can, for example, set up an internal email post office in just a few minutes. More complicated services, such as a shared Internet connection, may be more complicated and take longer. Building your own intranet can be an extended project that takes days or weeks. Setting up the web server is simple, but creating the content can be very time-consuming.

Of course, you can perform all of these tasks gradually, as your schedule allows. Once you have satisfied your basic reasons for installing the network, such as sharing files and printers, you can take your time with the rest.

Additional services are also where you often begin to incur additional expense. Windows 98 includes the software for setting up a post office for internal email, and a basic web server, but other networking applications require third-party products. Sharing an Internet connection requires additional software, for example, as do databases and other client/server applications.

If you research your purchases and plan your network carefully, the process of installing and configuring the hardware and software components should not take very long. You can plan on anywhere from 30 to 60 minutes for each PC to install the network card and the Windows 98 networking modules. The amount of time for the cabling will depend on the number of workstations, how many rooms they are in, and whether the cables will be exposed or inside the walls.

Networking two or three computers in the same room should take about two hours for the basic setup tasks. A 12-node internal network in several rooms could require as much as a full day for the cabling and another long day for setting up the computers. All of these estimations, however, depend on the experience and skills of the people doing the work. If you are familiar with the process of installing expansion cards in a PC, this part of the job should take no more than five or ten minutes per computer. A person that is handy with tools can shave some time off of an internal cable installation.

The cost of installing a network is another large point of divergence. This book is not about pushing the limits of networking technology; it is more concerned with providing users with basic networking services as easily as possible. However, it would be wrong to direct you towards the cheapest and most convenient networking solution when you might find it insufficient for your current or future needs. For that reason, my tendency is to recommend that you spend a bit more money to get quality equipment that will provide excellent performance for years to come. Network interface cards run from $75 to $100 apiece, while an 8-port Fast Ethernet hub should cost $175 to $200. Adding a prefabricated cable ($20) brings the cost per computer anywhere from $115 to $145.

The cost of the software needed for basic network connectivity is $0, since these capabilities are built into Windows 98. Additional network applications can be quite expensive in some cases, however, and may be priced according to the number of users you will have. It is, of course, possible to spend a lot more or a lot less when building a LAN, but compared to the cost of even one additional printer, networking computers need not be an expensive proposition.

If you exercise a reasonable amount of common sense and follow the procedures outlined in this book, there is not much chance of you actually doing any damage to your computers by installing your own network, so there is little to be lost by trying. If you require assistance in the setup process, or if you want to outsource the entire project, help is available, but you may have to pay for it. Free technical support for hardware and software products is rapidly becoming a thing of the past in the computing industry. In addition, networking is a complex subject that many companies would rather avoid whenever possible. As a result, don't expect to receive a lot of help from the vendor of your computers when it comes to setting up a network.

The manufacturers of networking products such as network interface cards, however, usually supply limited support that will be enough to get you through the installation process, which is probably all you'll need. Large companies like 3Com and Intel will usually also have extensive online help documents available on their web sites or include troubleshooting documentation with their products.

By far, the best and cheapest source for general help in the networking process is the Internet. There are a great many web sites devoted to Windows 98 and its networking functions, as well as Usenet newsgroups and IRC channels. At these sites, you can often post specific questions and receive quick, reliable answers (most of the time).

Finally, you can hire a consultant to perform all or part of the installation for you and to support it afterwards, but you can expect to pay an hourly rate as high as $200 or more for this. With the possible exception of an internal cabling job, however, this should not be necessary. Since we are not talking about the design and installation of a large, complex network, you might also want to contact some of the computer training centers in your area where people study for the MCSE (Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer) exams. There should certainly be some students glad to have a few hours work at a reduced rate.

The basic procedures for setting up a small Windows 98 network are not very difficult. This book provides enough background material for you to understand roughly what is going on when computers communicate, but concentrates more on the nuts and bolts of planning, building, using, and maintaining your network. PC networking is no longer the exclusive realm of engineers and technicians. Anyone can do it. Even you.