For a simple home or small office network, you can choose among four types of network connections:
• 10/100BASE-T Ethernet over CAT-5 cables—These
cables look like telephone cables, with a fatter version of a telephone
modular connector at each end. This networking scheme is dirt cheap and
ultra-reliable.
• 802.11n or -g wireless networking—Wireless
(Wi-Fi) networking sends data over a radio signal, so no cabling is
necessary. It’s easy to set up, but it can’t be used over long
distances, and in some buildings the signal might not go as far or as
fast as the advertising leads you to believe it will.
• Phoneline or powerline networking—You
can purchase network adapters that send data signals between your
electrical outlets, or between telephone jacks that are wired to the
same phone extension. In most cases, though, you may be better off
using wireless.
• 1000Mbps (Gigabit) Ethernet over CAT-5E cables—These
cables look like CAT-5 cables, but they are capable of carrying the
higher-speed signals required by Gigabit Ethernet. The higher speed is
great, but only worth the extra cost if you routinely back up hard
disks or copy huge video files over your network, and if the
devices you’re copying to and from can keep up with gigabit speeds.
(Many can’t.) We talk more about this in the following sections. You’ll
often see Gigabit Ethernet referred to in computer specs as
10/100/1000Mbps.
For most homes and offices, a combination of
10/100 Ethernet and wireless is a winning combination, but any of these
four options will provide perfectly adequate performance.
Note
You might have heard these connecting boxes called hubs.
Hubs and switches do the same job of passing data between the network’s
computers, but hubs use an older technology.
In the following sections, we go
over each type in a little more detail. Then, we discuss additional
network features you might want to consider, such as printing and
Internet connectivity.
1. 10/100BASE-T Ethernet
10/100BASE-T Ethernet networks use unshielded
twisted-pair cabling (commonly called UTP or CAT-5 cable) run from each
computer to a device called a switch or router, as shown in Figure 1.
Figure 1. A 10/100BASE-T network connects each computer to a central device called a switch, router, or hub.
Tip
Most home routers, which are used to share a
broadband Internet connection and to establish a wireless network,
include a switch, and most people can base their network on one of
these.
Whether or not you’re going to set up a
shared broadband Internet connection, we recommend that you buy a
wireless Internet Connection Sharing router instead of a plain switch,
just to get the wireless networking and DHCP services it provides . On sale, these routers can cost no more
than a plain switch. I’ve even seen ads for $20 routers with a $20
mail-in rebate.
The 10/100 part of the name means that the
equipment can run at 100Mbps, but it can automatically slow down to
10Mbps if it’s connected to older 10BASE-T equipment.
The cables look like telephone cables, and
the connectors look like fat versions of telephone modular plugs, but
it’s a dangerous comparison, because the electrical properties of the
cables and connectors are specifically tuned for networking, and
ordinary telephone cabling will not work.
These networks require that you use cable
designated “CAT-5” or better. They have labels on the wire that state
this clearly. CAT-5, CAT-5E, and CAT-6 are all fine. You can buy
premade network cables in lengths of 3–50 feet, or you can buy bulk
cable and attach the connectors yourself.
A cable is run from each computer to a
switch, which routes the signals between each computer. You need to get
a switch that has at least as many ports (sockets) as you have
computers, plus a spare or two. 10/100BASE-T switches cost roughly
$5–$10 per port.
Tip
Multiple switches can be connected if your
network grows beyond the capacity of your first switch. Therefore, you
can add on instead of entirely replacing your original equipment.
No 10/100 Base-T cable
can be more than 100 meters (328 feet) in length. To extend farther
than that, you have to add an additional switch in the middle of a
longer cable run, or use fiber optic cabling.
Note
Add-on adapters come in three styles:
internal PCI cards for desktop computers; external adapters that you
connect to a USB socket; and thin, credit-card-sized PCMCIA (PC Card)
adapters for laptops. You may not need to add one, though, because most
modern computers already have a 10/100 or 10/100/1000 Ethernet adapter
built in, with a socket on the back of the computer box.
10/100BASE-T network interface cards (NICs)
are available for as little as $5 each (if you catch a sale) and are
made by dozens of companies. Most generic-brand, cheap-o NICs are based
on one of a handful of standard circuit chips, so they’ll usually work
just fine, even if they’re not listed in the Windows Compatibility
Center at www.microsoft.com/windows/compatibility.
Overall, 10/100BASE-T networking is
as inexpensive as it gets—hooking up three computers will set you back
between $20 and $75. It’s easy to set up, and it’s very reliable. On
the down side, though, you do need to run those wires around.
