Making your Own Lan at Home---How??

I've been getting GREAT advice on this forum. I feel like the tuition I save from NOT going to CHubb or New Horizons should be divided up for all the members....

Anyway..... There seems to be some consensus that if one self-studies, building one's own LAN at home is the way to go. I have NO CLUE here what this entails or how one even starts. Any ideas on what to buy and where or if there are good books that discuss this? If there's one thing I've learned, there's the crazy, non-productive and expensive way to go with IT and then there's the way that just makes sense. Thanks.

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Comments

pandimus

Well, the easiest and cheapest way to start up a lan, would be to get 2 computers and a cross-over cable. Ensure you have network cards in both computers, and plug the cross-over cable into both. In the networking property's, you would have to set-up TcP/IP, ensure you have files shared, and thats about it. You could also just get a hub, and regular cables, to assist with expansion, when you start studying for you mcse

Meiraleah

Does a laptop and desktop work? I mean...do the two computers have to be exactly the same or something??

janmike

That will work. Just as long as they both have the same type of network interface card--you'll probably have Ethernet cards, they're the most abundant.

RussS

For the cost involved I would suggest a 4 port hub or switch. Crossover cables are OK for transferring data, but to learn anything about networking you need more. How expensive? - shop around.
Here is an example of a FREE one (after rebates) http://www.buy.com/retail/clearance/dotd.asp?loc=114&sku=70011744

bellboy

to get a laptop and a pc to network together, yes, all you need is to ensure that they can both take the same kind of networking cable (usually cat5 these days).

i made the mistake of getting 2nd user nics off ebay that had no driver disks and i spent days trying to find the necessary drivers and configuration tools.

my a+ network was two pentium computers connected by crossover cat5 cable. each computer was dual boot. one was windows 98 and nt, and the other was windows 95 and windows 2000. that way i was able to set up a network in each of the operating systems and be familiar with the icons on the desktop and in the control panel that related to networking.