With over 35 years experience in electronics and computer systems.
Networking basics for business or home
Networking is NOT for everyone or every business. The biggest advantage of networking is the ease with which information and hardware resources may be shared between workstations. If you only have two employees it may be less expensive to have two printers than installing a network and sharing one printer. However if there is any information you wish to share from one user to another then a network is your best solution.
Once you decide your home or office will benefit from the installation of a network system now you must decide on operating systems for each of your pc's. Will you need to upgrade any of them? Will you need a dedicated server for storage of all of your data to which anyone on your network will have access (remember accounting for certain eyes only)? Do you trust all of your employees not to look at personnel payroll information? Security is a very important issue in today's business market.
Network operating systems supported by Great Services are:
Windows 95 and 98, almost no security unless attached to an
Windows NT or Windows 2000 server.
Windows NT workstation good security
Windows NT Server excellent security (rather expensive)
Windows 2000 professional (workstation version) great product
Windows 2000 Server great security even helps to prevent
tampering on:
Windows 2000 professional workstations settings,
(less
technical support calls)
Windows XP home or professional
Windows Small Business Server 2000 - 2003
Software for use on networks must be compatible with your network server.
Example of small business or home network structure.
Example of corporate network structure.