Platinum Edition Using® Microsoft® Windows® XP

Planning Your Network

Some advance planning will go a long way toward making your network installation easier, and more likely to succeed. Some questions that you need to answer before you start are

• What type of networking hardware do you want to use: standard wired Ethernet, Wireless, power-line, or phone line? This will determine what sort of hardware you need to buy.

• If you plan on sharing a broadband Internet connection, do you want to use a hardware sharing router, or Windows Internet Connection Sharing? In the former case, you can get a connection sharing router with a built-in hub or wireless access point, so you don't need to buy one of these separately. In the latter case, you'll need two network adapters in the computer that will share ...