Network Switch

Alex Smith asked:


If you want to build a personal network, planning ahead can save both money and time especially if you ever know you will grow your local area network in the distant future.

The whole point of coming up with a plan is to realize what you actually need to put in your network, after all there are many more things available than just having computers that connect to the internet.

This includes WiFi, cables, or even both

Although you might be only using wired connections, will you be able to use WiFi in the future?

Almost everyone at some point, and the difference in prices between a wired router and wireless router is small, and just about every wireless router still have a wired ethernet hub built into them meaning we can still connect both wired and wireless devices.

The whole point most people want a home network setup is to share an internet connection, in this case it’s imperative the security and the router has the latest firmware, this includes Wireless Security, Router Security & each computer must have a firewall, anti-spyware and a firewall.

Long gone are the days of having to share your hard drive or have a special computer, network attached hard drives are easy to setup and they typically have space from 500gb to 2tb. Some even have a wireless option.

The speed of a network can be a major factor if you send big files, truth be told a cabled network will always be faster than wireless, as a rule of thumb use cabled where possible and wifi where you have to, i.e laptops.

One of the big mistakes made when many of us are setting up a home network in the house is thinking about future expansions to the network, spending a little less today will only mean you spend more down the road, work within your budget but be realistic, setup the network that suits your needs and and budget.

A Nutt asked:


So you’ve made the decision to install a home network and you’re roaring and ready to go with it. But have you done it before? Perhaps the dreams of not fighting over who can go online next, streamlining your office, and sharing files with other computers in your home has you a bit excited. But do you know what type of network is best for you? Do you know the basic principles to installing a network in your home? Do you know how to set up a wireless network? If you answered “no” to any of these questions, then perhaps you should read on.

Network types

First of all, a network allows you to have multiple computers connected to the same internet connection, share files between the computers in your home, print documents through a printer that is connected to a different computer, and share files that are stored on other computers. It seems like a dream come true, doesn’t it? But what is the best type of network for you? You have to make the decision of whether or not you want a wireless network or a wired network. If you choose wireless, you have to know how to set it up so that all of the computers can talk wirelessly to the network router. If not all of the computers are wireless capable, then you may have to move to a wired network. With a wired network you have to worry about running wire throughout your home or investing in upgrades for your computers to make them wireless.

You also have to know what type of activities you and your family are going to be doing on all of the computers. This is because you want to invest in a router that can handle the load. If the router cannot handle the load, then you’re going to have computers within your home getting booted off of the network.

Network installation

The network installation part can be either easy or complicated. It depends on how you look at it. You have to have an internet connection and you have to know your network type. You also have to know what computers in your home are wireless capable and which are not in case you choose to do the upgrades instead of installing wire throughout your home. If you’re setting up a wireless network, the easiest way to connect is if you have Windows Connect Technology through your Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 2000, or Windows 98/ME. Then again, you could be running a different operating system, which can make setting up your network a bit more difficult than if you were running on a Windows operating system.

An alternative

Then again, you could probably save yourself a lot of headaches by hiring a professional to take care of the installation process. A professional will do an assessment to determine what type of equipment you need to give you a network that is complete. If any of your computers need what is called a network adapter to become wireless capable, the installer can help you with that. Once all of the equipment is determined and acquired, the network installer can then run wire or set up your wireless network for you. You’ll be connected in no time and the only thing you have to do is reach in your wallet. Fortunately, home network installation is not an expensive endeavor and it takes a lot off of your mind. You don’t want to buy all of the wrong equipment, hook it up, and then find nothing works. If you’re not sure, turn to a professional so that you know everything is right.

Alex Smith asked:


If you’re needing to put together a personal network, coming up with a plan can save money and time especially if you ever think you’re going to expand your network in the future.

The reason  of making a plan is to find out what you really need to put in your home network, after all there are so many more things available than just having computer connect to the internet.

This includes: WiFi or cables or both

Even though you might only use a wired connection, will you be able to use WiFi in the future?

Pretty much everyone will at some stage, and the difference in the price between a wired router and wireless router is tiny, and most wireless routers still have a 5 port wired hub built into them which means you can still connect both wired and wireless into your router.

The whole reason most people need a home network setup is to share an internet connection, in this case it’s imperative that the overall security and well being of each computer and the router has the latest firmware, this includes Wireless Security, Router Security & each computer must have a firewall, anti-spyware and a firewall.

Network sharing or need a special computer, network attached storage is easy to integrate and they typically have space from 500gb to 2tb. There are even some with wireless options.

The speed of your home network can play a big part if you transfer big files, truth be told a wired network will always be faster than wireless, as a rule of thumb use a wired connection if you can, and use wifi when you need it.

One of the biggest mistakes made when many of us need to setup a home network is thinking about future expansions to the network, spending less today will only mean you spend more down the road, work within your budget but be realistic, setup the network that suits your needs and and budget.

Dalarie Gilstrap asked:


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Passport2Riches Network asked:


sher - Earnings and Advertising in Action

This new site allows you to earn up to $15/hr to view ads from home. How does it work? Ads are purchased which are displayed in the ad viewer. You view the ads in the ad viewer, which will make sure you are paying attention with a countdown timer you must click on.

How much can I earn?

With Ad Flasher you can earn up to $15 and hour for viewing ads.  You also get a $1.50 sign up bonus, a $1.50 referral bonus and 10% of your referral earnings.

So what exactly do I have to do to make money?

It is unbelievably easy:

You just view the ads, click on the countdown, wait for the site to completely load, close it, rinse and repeat.

How am I paid?

Adflasher pays it members with Paypal, Google Checkout, Liberty Reserve and Alertpay.  They prefer Google Checkout and Alert Pay.

Okay, sounds good. Tell me what I need to do.

Click here to sign up. Use your sign up bonus to use the ad viewer. When you finish with using the ad viewer, purchase your first view pack for $15 (I know this sounds like a lot, but with this $15 you can earn $30 from the ad viewer) and continue viewing ads.

I would recommend just buying 1 View Pack at a time. There is no advantage to purchasing more than 1 at a time. The mistake I made originally was purchasing 4 View Packs with my first spend. I really wanted to test this to make sure it worked, but quickly found out that if you buy 4 View Packs (400 views), you have to finish surfing all 400 views before you will get paid. It’s not like I could purchase 400, view 100, then get paid on that 100, and then do the other 300 when I get some free time. So I was up very late last night trying to finish my views to make sure this worked. But it was worth the time, and yes, it does work.

So I would recommend just buying 1 View Pack at a time. Then when you are done, and if you have extra funds, go ahead and purchase another one while you are waiting for your $30 worth of earnings to be transfered to your Available Balance to be withdrawn. Then you can always be getting paid after every 100 views, and just do this over and over and over.

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Joseph Nyamache asked:


Contractors use the word firewall to denote a physical barrier to keep flames from spreading from room to room. Home networks also have (or should have) firewalls. These are hardware, software or a combination of the two which protects a network from being accessed by unauthorized persons and by malicious software.

Computer firewalls can protect your system in two ways. They can keep programs from making connections to the internet, which keeps an infected program or a virus from spreading. More commonly, however, the purpose of home networking firewalls is to keep your system shielded from outside attempts to access it. Unauthorized access attempts may be from the internet, other computers on your own home network, or even “wardrivers” (hackers passing through with wireless computers) who can simply drive by and put a virus on your network.

Protecting your network from some types of access can make it more difficult for them, even if they manage to get to your network.Of course, blocking all traffic going both ways would make having a network useless. Network security is all about striking a balance between keeping some traffic out while allowing access for the traffic you want. Where exactly this balance lies is a difficult question. There are a number of more or less standard items which people should pay attention to when trying to implement effective firewalls system. The two most common are the UDP and TCP protocols.

UDP is a broadcast protocol and does not require you to have a two way connection. TCP, by contrast is two directional. UDP can be incoming or outgoing, for instance when you ping a server. When you want to open a port in your firewalls, you typically have to specify both port number and protocol. What you should aim for is close any port that you don’t know for sure that you need open. Only open ports or allow protocols in the direction you need – and only when you know that you do. Closed in both directions should be the standard unless needed.

HTTP: This is the standard protocol used for data requests over the internet, both sending (uploading) or receiving (accessing web pages, downloading). Your system firewalls should have port 80 open for HTTP. Secure HHTP (or HTTPS) uses port 443 instead. Port 8080 is also common for HTTP connections.

FTP:  Commonly used for file transfer over networks, you’ll need to open port 20 for this protocol.

SMTP:  Used for sending and receiving email, this protocol requires port 25 to be opened.

POP3: Also used for many email systems. Open port 110 for incoming POP3 traffic.

DNS: DNS needs to both send and receive in order to perform the function of translating IP addresses into domain names. Open port 53 in both directions for this important functionality.

DHCP:  If your IP address is dynamically assigned rather than static you’ll need to open port 68 to allow this protocol.

DOOM:  If you play Doom, you’re going to need to open port 666. Otherwise, as with any other port you won’t be using, close it in both directions.

A lot other ports are used by various services, such as port 1433 (Microsoft SQL Server needs this one). Any program which needs a particular port should mention this in the documentation. Be careful when setting up your network firewalls system because it will provide good security to you!

Dana H asked:


Remember a few years ago when the massive blackout struck New York City and a large section of North Eastern U.S. Everything was shut down, the trains couldn’t move so people slowly streamed home and could not return back to work for a few days. Traffic lights were out so it became impossible to drive anywhere, let alone pump gas into a car. Having an internet outage in today’s business can have same crippling effect. Employees can not access email and messages shutting down a vital line of business related communication. Research grinds to a halt because the link to the information superhighway is severed. Inventory and databases can not be updated. Entire business can be shut down all because a single internet service provider provides lousy service.

Multi Homing is a low cost way to guarantee that your business stays online. Most businesses use either a single LAN (local area network) or a single WAN (wide area network). By utilizing a second network, from a different service provider business’s can assure themselves of 24/7 link continuity and an uninterrupted link. This strategy is often called network redundancy, but it requires one step further to be fully implemented. Simply connecting two networks together can cause bottlenecks in bandwidth.

Multi-Homing technology is hardware that will balance the traffic between two networks. Often second networks are added to both add network redundancy and increase available bandwidth. Multi-Homing technology will not only balance the traffic between to two WANs or LANs but it will also optimize the traffic inside them. To see examples of benefits of Multi-homing technology and to see how cheap it can be, Multi Homing offers the best examples of both.

Hopefully this article has increased your awareness of ways to protect and improve your network capabilities. Multi Homing can not only fix your current network problems but it can also ensure the extended vitality your network for years to come. Make sure that you take the steps to avoid an internet blackout in your office.

Alex Smith asked:


In the past, most people had just a single computer in their home and nothing else. Access to the Internet was based on dial-up modems which were connected directly with a serial cable on the home computer. No Local Area Network was needed. With the advancement of technology and the adoption of broadband Internet access connectivity at homes, necessitates that home appliances should be networked to facilitate online access and to also communicate and share information between them.

What I mean when I say home appliances is home computers, next generation game consoles, printers, scanners, network attached storage, etc. All of these “Appliances” need to share information amongst themselves over a network, but also need to have high-speed access to the Internet. To achieve that, you will need to set-up a home network. With a home network you basically build a LAN, either wired or wireless, over which networked devices communicate between them inside the home, and also share the same internet connection.

The heart of a home network is a broadband router. This is usually a device that lets you setup a wired or a wireless network. You can use Ethernet cables if you’re making a wired network, or use Wi-Fi for wireless. This integrated router provides also the Internet access connectivity.

Once you have your home network setup, you can connect your computers, laptops, Xbox 360, Playstation 3, servers, network storage boxes, etc. After you connect those devices you can share files over the network, organize game parties, play online games, watch your home from the office using a Web Camera etc.

Donald Willson asked:


When I first started in computers, one of the most confusing things that I ran across was how to set up a home network. The differences between hubs, routers, Internet Connection Sharing (ICS) and cabling were a mystery to me. But after much trial and error and built-up experience I managed to figure things out and some of that information I will share with you now.

There are two basic types of networks that I’m going to talk about in this article first being the infamous ICS or Internet Connection Sharing. ICS is usually implemented by connecting multiple computers through the hub to a single computer. Let’s say we have three computers, Computer A, Computer B and Computer C. Computer A has enjoyed a high speed Internet connection and after a while, Computer B and C want to get in on the action! In order to implement ICS, we would have to connect Computers B and C to a hub.

A hub is basically a switch that allows any computer hooked up to it to communicate with any other computer hooked up to the hub. So with all three computers hooked up to it, we would set the network up on the computers to use ICS. Computers B and C would be told that they’re going to connect to the Internet through another computer that has a high-speed Internet connection. While Computer A would be configured to enjoy its high-speed connection as it did before.

Like this, Computers B and C would enjoy a relatively fast connection to the Internet as would Computer A. The problem here starts when all three computers are accessing the Internet at the same time. Computers B and C would enjoy a relatively fast connection to the Internet while Computer A would suffer some moderate slowdowns because it not only has to handle its own traffic but the traffic of the other two computers as well. The user on Computer A is going to get quite upset if Computers B and C decide to download files at the same time. Because downloading a file is such a data intensive process, demanding large amounts of data be transferred from the Internet as fast as possible, Computers A may suffer some severe speed problems because of the demand being put on it from the other two computers.

Unfortunately because of the fact that the hub does not have built-in firewall or any other such software that can protect the computers behind the hub Computers A must also be running Windows firewall in the background which provides an additional performance hit.

So although the ICS is the cheapest way to go, it is definitely not the speediest way to go. In fact, to be honest, I would only follow this route if the users of Computers B and C had something against the user of Computer A and want to get even!

The second type of setup that I’m going to talk about it is the router based set up. Nice thing about the router is that most routers are very intelligent. They have built-in firewalls, parental controls, can block sites or even allow users to have access to your network from the outside if they know the proper passwords and/or ports to connect through. No additional software is required that might add a performance hit and all three computers get configured the same way.

To hook up or router you simply plug a cable from your Internet connection into the router then plug the three computers into the router as well. When you set up your computers you tell networking software that all three will computers have direct access to the Internet. There is some setup involved with router as is usual with any complicated piece of hardware but usually it is very painless and if you follow the instructions, quite easy!

The nice thing about router set up is that once it is set, up all three computers enjoy the same speed advantages of being on a high-speed Internet. No one computer is impacted by the fact that someone else is downloading a file. In fact, all three can download a file at the same time and still enjoy impressive speed while doing so! Face it guys this is the network that you want to set up if your wife is on Computer A!

Routers tend to be a little more expensive than hubs but the advantages of having them a part your network far outweigh any price difference. So if you must go with ICS, then do so with pride! But personally, I would recommend spending the extra money to go the “router route”!

Pencil Writer asked:


Home networking is nothing but connecting systems with each other to interact or share information with each other. BT Networking is also the same. Here internet access will be shared with the support of BT broadband service provider. BT is one of the most popular broadband service providers in UK which has been survived in UK market with the support of millions of subscribers.

Advantages of BT Networking

BT Network allows connecting up to 10 computers with each other to share information’s with each other.

It is easy to set up BT network.

It is easy to get this network as you can make orders through on-line.

There is no need to wait for opening web pages while you surf on the internet.

You can make use of your ADSL broadband connection for setting network.

No need of rewiring for getting home network in BT networking.

A modem, a router and BT hub is enough for setting a network.

You can get high speed home network. For which you can use ADSL access.

Technique used behind this BT Network

BT service providers will combine a router, an ADSL modem and BT Hub inside a little box. You may not need to buy separate standard ADSL modem for each computer. This is called as set top box which permits you to extend the network up to 10 computers simultaneously. It is impossible to set BT Network with the cable internet.

What are all the system requirements to get BT Network?

? Any one of the Operating Systems of Windows 98 SE, ME, 2000 or XP or Mac OS 8.6 and above

? CD-ROM drive

? 32Mb memory or 64Mb memory (is recommended)

? 5Mb of hard disk space

? BT Wireless Network 1250 software

What are all the hardware requirements?

? USB Cable

? An ADSL Modem

? A Router

? An Ethernet Card

? Cords

? BT home network PC Adapter

What are the various kinds of BT adapters?

Three distinct adapters are offered by BT namely:

? BT Wireless Network PC Adapter

? BT Home Network PC Adapter

? BT Voyager 1020 Laptop adapter