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Raw Bytes Computer News KPBX FM 91.1 Radio National Public Radio Network Frank Delaney Producer Broadcast on Wednesday Morning 7:35 AM During Morning Edition Support Public Radio ! The Theater Of the Mind |
In computer news this week //2009 With the growth of personal home
computers in the US today, most households are facing the challenge of
networking multiple home computers. I have 3
home computers, 2 of which I use in my business, but I only had one internet
connection last year, through Comcast. I had
called them and looked into networking the 3, and it involved their sending a
team out to install a network for an installation fee, and then I was looking
at renting additional equipment, all of which was a few hundred dollars I
didn’t want to spend. But they
did say it would be cheaper if I did it myself, and actually encouraged my
doing so, which I did. 2 of my
computers were sharing a common wall, but only one was plugged into the
Comcast modem. I also had my Vista computer in a different location of my
house. I ended
up going to Staples and buying 2 network devices. The first was a Linksys Wireless
G Broadband router, for around $ 50. This came with an installation CD,
and a very simple to understand set of step by step instructions on how to set
it up. Basically
it was insert and run the cd rom setup disk, unplug
the cable from the Comcast modem going into my computer and attach it to the
router, plug another cable from the router back into my computer, turn on the
power, and the Linksys software then did everything else and I was attached
to the internet. Then I just plugged my other computer
on the other side of the wall into the router also using an
Ethernet cable, and I had 2 computers on the internet. In this process you
are also directed to create network security with a password so that others
in your neighborhood can’t mooch off your wireless internet connection. Although
it is called a wireless router I actually had 2 these two computers directly
plugged into it. The
wireless part came when I hooked up my Vista computer. For this, I needed to
buy a Linksys
wireless G adapter card, which is actually a little usb device that just
plugs into one of the USB ports.
I ran the setup cd rom for this device, and
very soon I could see and was connected to the wireless network I had set up
for my other 2 computers, and had all 3 of my computers on the internet. This
adapter cost about $ 50 too, so the total cost of hardware equipment for me
to network 3 computers was around $ 110 with tax, and it took less than an
hour. The next
thing I wanted to do was to actually share files and printers between these 3
computers, which actually is a different procedure, but which is very well
documented in many places on the web, including very good instructions on the
Microsoft website: http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/networking/setup/homenet.mspx Again,
this is a simple procedure to run on each computer, and you decide what
folders and printers you want shareable on each. So I
networked 3 home computers and each one is surfing the internet at above the
rated dsl speed of my connection, and I could add more computers, if I had
them. And really anyone can do this yourself today. |
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For Raw Bytes This is Frank Delaney (C) 2009 MTA Micro
Technology Associates http://www.mtamicro.com/kpbx.html PO Box 31522 Spokane, Wa 99223-1522 (509)624-7230 |
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