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FAQ: Home Networking
We're getting so computerized, one box at home just doesn't cut it anymore. You need to do your spreadsheets, your wife needs to write to a friend, your son needs to download some music, and your daughter wants to finish her school assignment. So, what do you do? You go and get four - count 'em, four - computers.
Good. Now your family's in four corners of your house - you're in your den, your wife, say, in her little office that used to serve as pantry, your son and your daughter in their respective bedrooms.
From time to time, though, you want to share something with your loved ones. You have just figured out how to save on your mortgage. Your wife has just found out that her friend is moving to Hong Kong. Your son has tracked down this ancient recording of a song that he knows you used as a backdrop when you asked your then-girlfriend to marry you. Your daughter has got a 150% mark on her latest assignment and she wants to show the work of beauty to you all.
Used to be that you either went from one room to another, or you saved the file - if you knew how to and if you could - to a disk and went around to show it ... or you just didn't share.
No longer. These days, it's neither difficult nor expensive to create your own home network and, even though you might be sitting in different rooms, you still can be in touch with the rest of your family. Sitting together by the fireplace might be better, but for the purposes of computing, home networking is the next best thing.
So, if you agree, here are some answers to the most frequently asked questions about home networking.
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Short of upgrading your more mature computer from XP to Vista (and who would want to do that, right?), rere's relatively simple - but somewhat involved - recipe how to create a network (computers linked together) so that your XP computer and your Vista computer can communicate with each other, keeping you AND both of your computers happy.
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