Get connected

When most people hear the word 'network' they immediately think of an office environment, where several people have computers connected together in order to gain access to the same data, printer and other shared resources. Either that, or they run off screaming. But although the notion of filling the shoes of a Network Administrator might fill us with dread and panic, the possibilities of running your own network at home are not as implausible as they might sound.

Many homes already use a computer network of some description on a regular basis, since it's quite common to use a telephone line to connect your PC to the world's biggest network - the internet - via your modem every time you dial up to surf the web or pick up your emails. Also, you may own a desktop PC but also have a PDA that you use while you're on the go. You might not realise it, but the software and cable that connects and synchronises your PC and mobile device is the first step towards having your very own home-grown network.

More importantly, it's becoming increasingly common for households to have more than one desktop or notebook PC. Perhaps there's one in the study and one in the kids' room. Maybe you have an older PC that you use for typing and printing letters and a brand-new one for entertainment purposes. As separate standalone systems they probably do their jobs perfectly well, but have you truly unlocked the potential of having more than one PC at your disposal?

Connecting various computers together over a network needn't be a terribly complicated process and the benefits can be considerable. You can share data between machines, swap files, or archive data on a system that has a large storage space. You can even share an internet connection or peripheral devices, such as printers and scanners. And, of course, gaming fanatics will benefit from the ability to play their favourite games head to head with live opponents.

Local networks for local people

Networks come in a variety of shapes and sizes, the most common of which is called a Local Area Network, or Lan. Many office Lans have a central computer somewhere in the building known as a server. Severs can be used for many purposes, such as to control data traffic over the network, perform centralised mail routeing, manage multiple printers, or act as a central storage facility for users to access and share files and databases via their workstations.

However, servers are not always necessary as part of a network setup and, in fact, networking computers together really can be as easy as connecting them to each other with a cable. This is called peer-to-peer networking and is precisely the kind of method that is easy to achieve at home.

The most basic method of creating a peer-to-peer connection between two PCs involves no additional hardware or software other than a £12 parallel interlink cable from your local computer store. This hooks up the two PCs via their printer ports. A little bit of configuring using Windows' direct cable wizard in the Accessories menu and you'll soon be able to access files and folders on your 'guest' PC via your 'host' computer.

Through the Ethernet

As you might imagine, the parallel port method isn't the most satisfactory way of networking your PCs. If basic file-sharing is all you really need, then a direct cable connection will be perfectly adequate. Anyone who's after something more sophisticated, however, will probably find this rather crude system painfully slow, limited and cumbersome.

If you're prepared for a bit more technical entanglement, then you could consider going for a dedicated networking solution that is intended to make the most of your shared resources. There are many different networking products available based on Ethernet technology. Ethernet is the same standard that is used in most office environments and it allows for some very speedy data transfer rates. Most modern Ethernet hardware can run at anything up to 100Mbps (megabits per second), depending on all the other hardware that's being used.

Unfortunately, unlike parallel connections, Ethernet doesn't come fitted as standard on a lot of PCs. It's a more common inclusion in some newer notebook PCs but it is exceptionally rare that a home desktop PC will come with an Ethernet port. Sadly, this means that you'll have to invest in some additional hardware and physically install it into each of the machines that you wish to add to your network.

In the case of desktop PCs this will generally entail fitting an Ethernet expansion card into a spare PCI slot on your motherboard. You'll also need some special cabling and a central box called a 'hub' that brings all the separate networked devices together. These items can all be purchased separately at fairly reasonable prices.

Get kitted out

For anybody without the confidence to buy every component individually, help is at hand in the shape of network starter kits from both SMC and 3Com. These are designed as straight-from-the-box solutions that contain everything you need to get your network off the ground. They help to take the edge off the process for the inexperienced and both come with detailed instructions explaining how all the bits go together. Aimed directly at home users who are starting from scratch, SMC's Network Starter Kit is compatible with either PCs or Macs and comes with a pair of Ethernet PCI cards, two generous five-metre cables and an installation CD-ROM. A discreet, iMac-styled mini-hub provides further expansion possibilities for the future with a separate socket for connecting an additional hub, should you ever fill up the four Ethernet ports that are provided.

If it looks like you might be expanding your empire across more than the two PCs that the SMC kit caters for, then further Ethernet cards and varying lengths of cable can be picked up for a snip at most computer stores.

Similarly straightforward is 3Com's OfficeConnect package. Don't be put off by the inclusion of the word 'office' in the product's name. 3Com is planning on releasing a home version of this product later in the year but the contents are unlikely to be vastly different. In fact, the OfficeConnect box contains a pretty much identical selection of hardware and software to the SMC Starter Kit. Another pair of fast 10/100Mbps Ethernet PCI cards is complemented by a lengthy set of cables and a four-port hub. Looks-wise, the OfficeConnect hub would probably appear more at home in a professional environment as its bland beige case won't do anything for the aesthetics of your home.

But, if anything, the 3Com kit provides even more in the way of help for beginners on how to get a network running smoothly. As well as coming with all the software that you'll need to get your PCs connected, the 3Com package also includes a special tutorial CD-ROM called 3Com Network Assistant. This disc provides a wealth of useful tips on how to set up your network as well as a troubleshooting section, should things go pear-shaped.

Portable networking

Hooking up a notebook PC to a network is a particularly common requirement for mobile office workers - people who work on the move but need to connect to the office network when they're back at their desks. At home, it's quite possible that you might have a desktop and a notebook PC under the same roof and want to get them talking together. But while popping an Ethernet PCI card into the desktop PC is, relatively speaking, a piece of cake, tackling the innards of a notebook computer is not to be recommended.

Therefore, if your notebook doesn't come with an Ethernet port fitted as standard, you'll have to find another way of upgrading without having to crack open the case and dig around inside.

One way to do this would be to use the GF3000U USB Network Adapter from Genius. This product is a small plastic box with two ports on it - one provides a direct USB connection to your PC, while the other is a 10/100Mbps Ethernet port that can be connected to any existing network. At just over £40, this is a relatively cheap method of adding networkability to your notebook, but the product does have its drawbacks. Some users may be put off by the clumsiness of an external device, for example, while others will no doubt reject it on the grounds of the performance drop that the USB end of the connection will entail. The GF3000U is, nonetheless, a convenient and easy solution if you already have an Ethernet-based network in operation.

The most common way to add your notebook to a network is by fitting your notebook with an Ethernet PC Card add-on. Largely due to the size of the Ethernet port itself, these tend to be Type III PC Cards, such as 3Com's Lan CardBus PC Card. There's nothing spectacular about this product; it just does its job well. It can automatically detect whether the network that it's connected to is running at either 10Mbps or 100Mbps, and the package comes with all the software and cables necessary for connecting your portable PC to either a home or office network.

Although bereft of cables, the Xircom RealPort CardBus 10/100 Ethernet PC Card puts an interesting spin on things. In an ingenious piece of design, the card can be used in tandem with another RealPort card in the same slot. You can, for example, have both the CardBus Ethernet card and a 56Kbps modem card plugged into the same Type III slot (or two stacked Type II slots) on your notebook. Ingenious, certainly, but probably not a great deal of use to home users, since the network connection would mean that you could share the desktop PC's internet connection should you need to go online at any point.

Xircom also makes a network card for even smaller PCs. If you have a PDA or handheld computer that runs Windows CE, then you could consider using the CompactCard Ethernet 10 to connect it to your desktop. Doubtless, the manufacturer of your PDA will have provided some way of connecting to a desktop anyway, but this is usually for very rudimentary synchronisation and doesn't allow for much in the way of resource sharing. The CompactCard, on the other hand, will allow much speedier synchronisation as well as the possibilities of using your PC's internet connection to send and receive emails or surf the internet. It comes in the shape of a CompactFlash card that will slide neatly into many popular types of PDA. The package also contains a special caddy for converting the CompactFlash card into a PC Card for devices that prefer such an interface. There's also a small dongle that converts the slim socket on the card into a standard Ethernet port.

As in the case of a notebook-to-desktop network connection, you'll have to have already provided your PDA's larger brother with a network card upgrade along with all the requisite cables and hub. We would say that the benefits of networking your handheld devices at home in this way are fairly thin on the ground.

Networking the USB way

Ethernet networks are very much the way forward for those who consider aspects such as speed and performance to be top of their list of priorities. But if the whole process sounds more than a little complicated and all you want is a straightforward connection between two PCs, then you could consider using the Direct Connect system from Belkin.

Direct Connect is a very simple device that networks two PCs together via their USB sockets. Open the box and very few items tumble out - a good sign of the product's simplicity. Two USB cables and a funky-looking little adaptor are all that accompanies the product's software. Setting up is a cinch. It's literally a case of connecting the PCs and installing the drivers. There's a little bit of tweaking to do in each computer's TCP/IP settings, but that's it.

The USB connection has the drawback that it isn't as fast as Ethernet but it's certainly a whole lot nippier than a direct serial or parallel connection. It also has its own benefits, in that most modern PCs already come with it fitted as standard so there's no need for any extra hardware or troublesome internal installations. You're also just as likely to find USB on a notebook PC as you are on a desktop.

If you have more than two PCs that you want to network together, then you'll have to buy an extra Direct Connect kit for each one. But at £55 each, they still represent something of a bargain, compared to the other high-end networking products we've looked at.

Home and dry: the future of home networking

For years scientists have been predicting that our homes will one day be controlled by computer networks. You'll be able to call home from your mobile and ask your house to put the kettle on for you so that it's freshly boiled by the time you get in from work. While there are products out there that perform similar feats, the acceptance of such technology into most homes is probably still a little way off as yet. Wireless networking is likely to be the next big thing to hit the home. All of the home networking products we've looked at here require huge lengths of cabling to be strung up around the house. Wireless networks, on the other hand, will offer users much more flexibility in addition to removing the hassle of that tangle of cables from the equation. Many new Mac computers come equipped with Apple's own wireless standard, AirPort, but Windows users will have to wait a little longer for this type of thing to filter through to the mainstream.

Although many wireless products have been lined up for the home market for this year, they are likely to be very expensive at first, so those looking to cook up a network on a budget would do best to look at some of the products in this feature.

• Best Buy

For its sheer convenience and ease of use, the Belkin Direct Connect has to win our Best Buy award. It's by far the product best suited to the home market, partly because of its low cost but largely due to its simplicity. It might be a little slower than an Ethernet connection, but it's probably more than fast enough for use in a home environment and has the benefit of being a universal interface. Discreet and effective, the Direct Connect is also upgradable with additional modules for networks larger than two PCs.

• Special mention

The SMC Network Starter Kit is a more traditional networking product, since it is based on Ethernet technology. It deserves a particular mention, however, because it comes with just about everything you need to get started, while costing relatively little. You'd almost certainly be able to pick up unbranded versions of the items included separately for a cheaper price. But for those who need a little more help at getting their home network off the ground, this is the perfect straight-from-the-box solution.

DIY NETWORKS

All the products we've looked at here are specifically designed to go easy on home users who have little or no experience of networking products. The more experienced might prefer to save a little cash by purchasing items separately. Here's what we came up with when we went shopping at www.dabs.com for the equivalent hardware to that which comes in either the SMC or the 3Com starter kits. But remember - this is without any of the software or help that the kits offer.

2 x 10/100 Ethernet PCI cards @ £9.39 each
2 x 5 metre Ethernet cables @ £7.04 each
1 x four-port hub @ £27.02
TOTAL: £59.88

SHARING OTHER DEVICES

Less frequent than having two full PCs at home but equally possible is the situation where you have two PCs but only one monitor, keyboard and mouse. You might not actually want to create a network to run both PCs simultaneously, but still require the use of both machines. If you're getting fed up with the hassle of unplugging the mouse, monitor and keyboard from one machine and plugging them into the other whenever you want to use it, then you could consider using Avocent's SwitchView. It's a very basic box that can provide video, keyboard and mouse control for up to four PCs from only one set of peripherals. Plug your monitor and input devices into the box and then connect it up to your computers' VGA and PS/2 sockets. A button on the front allows you to switch between computers, while LED lights tell you which PCs are connected and active.

SwitchView £211
Avocent: 01628 421529, www.avocent.com

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