Finally, there is a guide to home networking that was written for true beginners! TheAbsolute Beginner's Guide to Home Networkinggoes far beyond traditional printer or Internet sharing and is geared to help you understand home network types and concepts, install, configure and interconnect various types of wired and wireless networks. This easy-to-understand guide will help you achieve the desired goals of entertainment, information access and home security control with Windows, MacOS and Linux-based systems. Soon you will learn to share and enhance entertainment and even integrate business network hardware with a home network to exploit telecommuting, work-from-home and remote education opportunities.

Introduction: Absolute Beginnerrs"s Guide to Home Networking Absolute Beginnerrs"s Guide to Home Networking Introduction Do You Need This Book?Home networking has become one of the hottest trends in personal computing. And why not? As broadband Internet access from cable, DSL, and other sources has become more common, the big push is on to share your connection with the rest of the family. But, home networking can do far more than share an Internet connection.Home networking makes it easier than ever to take work home from the office; help the kids with their homework; enjoy digital music, photos, and video; print and scan from any PC in the home; and even connect console video games in the online world. If some of those uses are news to you, welcome.Whether you already have a home network, are thinking about getting one, or are trying to get it working, this book has plenty for you:If you already have a home network, this book will show you what you can do with it--and how to do it.If you're just in the "thinking about it" stages, this book will help you past your fears and show you how to plan your network, step by step.If you're confused about wireless networking, this book takes the mystery out of wireless and shows you how wired and wireless networking can work together.If you're fighting with problems getting your network to work, this book shows you how to troubleshoot the most common problems so you can enjoy, rather than endure, your network. How This Book Is OrganizedThis book is organized into 11 chapters:Chapter 1, "What Is a Home Network?" explains what makes home networks similar to and different from business networks and how home networks help your family work and play at the same time.Chapter 2, "Building Blocks of the Home Network," covers the hardware, software, and other components used by different networks, including ethernet, wireless ethernet, and others. If you don't understand the difference between a router and a network adapter, relax! This chapter brings you up to speed.Chapter 3, "Planning Your Home Network," helps you determine what the best network is for your home based on how you plan to use it. It also helps you discover what you need to build the network you want and helps you calculate the real cost.Chapter 4, "Choosing a Broadband Internet Access Technology," helps you choose from the most home network friendly options on the market.Chapter 5, "Installing and Configuring a Wired Ethernet Network," helps you build a speedy, low-cost network and hide those pesky cables. Even if you love wireless, you'll want to read this chapter to find out how to put the best of wired and wireless together in a single network.Chapter 6, "Installing and Configuring a Wi-Fi Network," helps you choose from the many flavors of wireless networking, get it working, and enjoy it.Chapter 7, "Home Networks at Play," takes the "work" out of "network." Discover how to add home theater systems, video games, and digital video recorders to your home network. Liberate the digital goodness of family photos and videos and play them back on the big screen TV!Chapter 8, "Home Networks at Work and School," makes working to pay for all that fun gear in Chapter 7 a lot easier to take. Discover easy ways to share information, share printers, and even share that dandy new all-in-one device. Instead of driving back to the office for the files you forgot, connect remotely and securely with VPN or GoToMyPC.Chapter 9, "Home, Sweet, Controlled and