One area of computers that I find most fascinating other than working on this website has been in the area of LAN's or Local Area Networking (also know as ethernet).

Local Area Networking is one of the fastest growing areas of computers these days. Previously the domain of large office systems and Techno geeks, home networking has seen a massive growth in the past year or so.  With computers prices dropping so rapidly, more and more people are upgrading their computers and are finding that they now have two or more computers in the home.

With a LAN, multi-player games become really exciting. Imagine this, you have two computers networked and you are playing a motor racing game with friend. The both of you can race against each other and the computer at the same time. Not only motor racing but many Flight Simulators, Quake, Doom and many shoot-em-up games have multi-player networking facilities.

Of course there are other advantages to a home LAN. With a LAN in place you can combine the resources of both computers. You can swap files between computers without the need of Floppy Disks, you can have your printer set to print from both computers. You can share your Internet account so that two or more people can surf the net at the same time! The possibilities of uses for a home LAN are endless.

Well, there are two basic connection types for a LAN. There is 10Base2 which uses a coaxial cable between the two computers. There is also a system called 10BaseT which uses a similar cable to your telephone and a small box of tricks called a Hub.

For a 10Base2 system all that is needed is a pair of Network Interface Cards (NE2000 Type are the most popular) and an ethernet coaxial cable that is terminated with BNC type connections. For a 10BaseT system you will need a pair of Netwok card that are equipped with RJ45 sockets, a Hub and a pair of UTP (unshielded twisted pair) cables.

The cost of all this equipment is very little compared to the gains that you get from having such a system.

The other good point is that all versions of Windows 95 / 98 and ME come ready supplied with all the software needed to set up a LAN so it basically just a case of plugging it all in, configuring it and then forgetting about it. Simple as that!

A Typical NE2000 Compatible 10/100 Base PCI Network Interface Card that is equipped with an RJ45 connector port.

Mick Evans 1999-2001

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