Home Networking: A Visual Do-It-Yourself Guide

Hardware Basics: Making Sense of All That Stuff

To create a network, you need to begin by adding certain types of hardware. If you're new to networks, you might find the various pieces a little confusing. In an effort to reduce the confusion level, the next sections explain the basics of network hardware.

Network Adapters

Each PC on the network needs a network adapter to enable it to connect to the network. In some cases, a network adapter is already built in to the PC; however, this is not always true. Unfortunately, in some cases, you might also find that your PC includes a network adapter but, not the correct type for your choice of network. For example, you might want to create a wireless network, it's but your PC contains a built-in Ethernet ...