Hardware :

The requirements are few, each computer needs a network card, also refered to as a network adapter or ethernet card. This can be either wireless or a standard network adapter depending on the type of network you require. Most computers that have been purchased recently will have a standard network card, and most laptops will have both. If your computer does not have a network card, then DatacomUK can fit either a wireless card or ethernet card for you.

Operating system:

Any version of windows from windows95 onwards, some features of a home network are only available on windows 2000/XP. If your computer is running XP home edition, then the maximum number of computers on the network is 5, that is 5 computers connected at any one time, if you have more than 5 systems that will be connected at any one time, then the computers require XP Professional or Windows 2000.

Additional Items:

A router. In basic terms, a router can be thought of as a "splitter box", there is much more to it than that, but basically it allows your computers to all access the internet at once. Most routers supplied by DatacomUK to a home user will also be a "switch", in laymans terms, a network switch is basically a junction box into which several pc's will connect. If your network has more than 4 pc's then it is more likely that a seperate router and switch would be recommended, this is dependent on the particular network. The routers we supply also have a built in firewall to help protect your network from intruders over the internet - often known as "hackers"
If you simply have one pc and occasionally want to transfer files to another pc or laptop, then it is possible to connect these two computers directly by using a special cable, however this route is not recommended as it may involve changing settings on one or both of the computers if they need to use the internet.


A print server. As mentioned previously, one of the reasons for setting up a home network is to share a single printer between several computers, there are three ways to do this.
The printer can stay connected to one computer, and each of the other computers prints "through" the computer with the printer physically attatched to it, the disadvantage of this is that the computer with the printer attached must be turned on in order for any of the other computers to be able to print.

Another option is to use a Print Server. Some routers can also act as a print server so an additional cost may not be necesary, of course this depends on where the router is to be placed in the house (often determined by the location of the existing internet connection point such as a phone line or cable modem) it wouldnt be ideal having the router/print server behind the tv when you want the printer upstairs! That said, it is possible to place the router anywhere in the house with some additional cabling.

A third method is to use a network printer, this is a printer that has its own network card built in, however network printers are really out of the realms pricewise for the home user.