Home Networking
Materials and Equipment
Network Cable
To connect one computer directly to another, you need to use a CAT-5 cable in a cross-over configuration. This type of configuration will allow you to connect two computers without the use of a hub or switch; however, these computers will not be connected to the Internet. If you have a Cisco 678 DSL modem, you need to use a cross-over cable for the connection between your computer and the DSL router. The CAT-5 cable should have an IEEE rating of 802.3.
Connectors and Jacks
The most common connector used to network computers is the RJ-45. This is the connector on the end of a standard CAT-5 Network cable. (A typical phone cable connector is an RJ-ll.)
As mentioned above, when you connect one computer to another using a CAT-5 in a cross-over configuration, you do not need to use a hub or switch.
Routers Hubs and Switches
Listed below are some of the most common home network components that will allow more than one computer to access the Internet from your home.
Routers: If you need to connect more than two or three computers, you may want to consider using a router. Routers allow you to connect multiple computers using only one external IP address. Routers use a method called Network Address Translation (NAT) to manage the sharing of an IP address.
Hubs: A hub allows you to expand the number of computers on your network by splitting a single Ethernet cable into multiple ports.
Switches: A switch is like a hub, except for the way it handles network traffic. A switch logically directs network traffic by switching routes to the intended destination, while a hub simply broadcasts the traffic to all computers on the network. Using a switch is to your advantage if you anticipate a lot of network traffic for file sharing, print sharing, or other network communications.