Hardware

Each PC that you want to network will need a network card (these can be pick up a the local PC store at minimal cost).

You will need enough coaxial cable to link the PC's, make sure that you purchase the right type (50 ohm impedance) as television coaxial cable is 75 Ohm which will not work properly. You will also need some BNC connectors and two 50 Ohm terminators. If making up the cables with a BNC connector on each end is too fiddly don't panic most PC stores also hold pre-made leads which might be a little more expensive. I made mine from scratch as some of the PC's I wanted to link were at the other end of the house and the store didn't hold ones that long. Don't forget to overestimate slightly where possible as you never know when you want to move PC's around in the future besides its easier to make them shorter but hard to make longer.

Ok lets get Started.

Now it's time for the fun part: getting into your computer's guts.

1. Turn off your computer, remove the cover, and insert a card into a free slot. ISA or PCI it doesn't really matter

2. You now need a T-connector for every PC. As you might suspect, the T-connector is T-shaped, with two BNC ports to which you can attach the coaxial cablescables. Terminator plugs look like T-connectors without BNC ports, and cap off the end of the network. Both the T-connector and the terminator plugs should come with your network card. If not, you can pick them up where you buy the cards.

3. Attach a T-connector to the BNC port on your network card. For a two-PC network, put a terminator plug on one of the ports on each of the T-connectors.

4. Connect the two computers by attaching the coaxial cable to the other T-connector port. If your network has more than two PCs, the ones in the middle of the network will have cables attached to both T-connector ports, while the PCs on each end of the network will have one cable and one terminator (In simple terms, a terminator stops data leaking out of the end). Once you've connected all the cables, just do a quick check to see if everything looks ok

You've completed the hardware part of the network installation.