Residential and Commercial Network

A home network is a private collection of devices – computers, mobile phones, gaming consoles – which are all connected to a router or switch. This is also called a local network. Every device on your home network can “talk” to every other device, which opens up possibilities for media streaming, network backup, multiplayer gaming – and so much more.

Once, home networks were primarily the realm of technophiles — most families either didn’t need or couldn’t afford more than one computer. But now, in addition to using computers for e-mail, people use them for schoolwork, shopping, instant messaging, downloading music and videos, and playing games. For many families, one computer is no longer enough to go around. In a household with multiple computers, a home network often becomes a necessity rather than a technical toy.

A home network is simply a method of allowing computers to communicate with one another. If you have two or more computers in your home, a network can let them share:

• Music Files Pictures and documents
• An Internet. connection
• Printers, print servers and scanners
• Stereos, TVs and game systems

The different network types use different hardware, but they all have the same essential components:

• More than one computer
• Hardware (such as a router) and software (either built in to the operating system or as a separate application) to coordinate the exchange of information
• A path for the information to follow from one computer to another

If you’re thinking of networking the computers in your home, you have several options to explore.