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Small Office Network

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PCQ Bureau
New Update

Networking PCs, for sharing resources comes into anybody’s mind who owns more than one computer. But, the emphasis here is on the most practical and cost effective way of doing it. Hence, why not connect the PCS to form a LAN? A network let’s you share files, peripherals and access Internet, which is not only convenient but economical as well. We will discuss about the kind of setup required for a small home/office network of less than ten computers. Ideally, a small network of say four computers, should be connected using the peer-to-peer architecture (where computers are connected to each other directly). Components required for such an Ethernet LAN are Network Interface Cards (NIC’s), cables, Hub and last but not the least, the right operating systems.

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The Configuration



This involves connecting your PCs together using cables and the hub; installing the operating system and necessary drivers, and enabling the sharing features of your network. Having inserted your network card and installed the drivers, connect your PCs to the central hub. To directly connect two PCs, special crossover UTP cables are required. Once your connections are up, you need to perform several configurations for sharing files, printers etc. with the other machines. These configurations are described as follows.



Insert an Ethernet card in each PC

Use a thin coaxial cable TV



wire that looks like a UTP


(Unshielded Twisted Pair)


cable in either straight through


or cross-over configurations


Insert the network cable into your network card

Connect the other end of the network cable to the hub

Cascade two or more hubs to increase

the number of machines in the LAN

Installing Protocols



We had Win 98 installed on each machine. Protocols imply formats and procedures for data transfer. Win 98 has the TCP/IP protocol by default. To add new protocols, go to Network Neighborhood>Properties. Click on Add> Protocols>Microsoft.

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A list of protocols are displayed, from which you can choose the required protocols. You will be prompted to insert the Win 98 CD to copy the relevant files. For small networks, you will require the NetBEUI protocol. In TCP/IP, you need to assign an IP Address and subnet mask to each machine. The valid range of private IP addresses is from 192.168.0.0 to 192.168.254.254, and the subnet mask is usually 255.255.255.0 (must be same for all machines). For assigning the IP address, go to Network Neighborhood>Properties. Select TCP/IP properties and specify a static IP address to the machine.

Enabling File and Printer Sharing



For File and Printer sharing, go to Network Neighborhood>Properties>File and Printer Sharing for Microsoft Networks. In the File and Print Sharing dialogue box, enable the two options of “give others access to my files” and “allow others to print to my
Printer(s)”.

Sharing Folders and Printers



You can specify specific drives and directories to be shared with other computers in LAN. Right click on the particular drive or directory and click on sharing. You can share individual directories or entire drives with specific access rights. You can provide them with a read only access or access through password. Files could be shared to


provide access to the same file, on the same drive, across computers in a LAN. However, if more than one user tries to access and change a particular file simultaneously from different computers on LAN, changes from one user will be lost. Also, certain applications like Microsoft Word will not open a file already opened on somebody else’s machine in the same LAN.

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Sharing Printers Connect the printer to any machine on the network and install the required drivers. Go to Control Panel>Printer. Right click on the name of the printer, select sharing and give it a shared name. To access it from anywhere in the network, go to Settings>Add and follow the Add printer wizard.

Creating Workgroups



You can create workgroups, so as to put all machines in LAN under one head for better manageability. Go to Network Neighborhood> Properties>Identification tab and enter the name of the workgroup of your choice.

Creating Users



You will need to create user profiles to log on to a particular machine. Go to Settings>Control Panel> and double-click on Users. Follow the “Enable Multi-user Settings” wizard to create users on the machine.

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Sharing Internet Connection



Connect a modem to one of the machines and install the required drivers. With Win 98, you can use the Internet Connection Sharing feature. Go to Control Panel>Windows Setup and double click on Communications. Select Dial-Up Networking and insert the Win 98 CD to copy files on hard disk. To create dial-up connections, go to My Computer, double click Dial-Up Networking, double click on “Make New Connection” and follow the wizard. To configure Internet connection sharing, go to Control Panel>Add/Remove Programs, click on windows setup, select Internet tools and further internet connection sharing.

Follow the wizard for sharing the connection.

Krishna Kumar with Rashmi Sahu

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