Feature: Set up the ultimate home network

For many people who have more than one computer in their home, it makes sense to have a network.

A home network is not just about sharing an internet connection with the kids, it means you don’t have to shuffle files from one computer to another just to use the colour printer, for example.

There’s a lot more you can do, too. With the right gadgets and software, your home network can provide a way of accessing your music collection around the house, watching video clips wherever you want, or even streaming television channels from room to room.

And there’s much more to it than just entertainment.

You can share address books, or have your email accessible from any computer (filtered for spam and viruses), and make sure important work information is backed up automatically in case your main PC dies.

Or how about controlling the lighting in different rooms so the house looks occupied when you’re out?

You can monitor what’s going on in the street using networked cameras, or use broadband and a wireless network to give you internet phone calls as easily as using a cordless phone.

You could access your PVR (personal video recorder) when you’re away from home, setting it to record a TV programme that you’ve just been told about.

Unlike in the past, a home network needn’t rely on wires strung all over the place. The latest wireless systems are fast enough for most uses, easy to set up, and start at under £50.

In fact, with most modern PCs already having a network card in them, you can start setting up a home network for less than £20.

Of course, once you start adding bits, the cost will go up, but you’ll be surprised how much you can do without spending hundreds of pounds.

In this feature, we’ll look at the options and see how you can build your ultimate home network without breaking the bank – whether you want it for security, work or leisure.

INFRASTRUCTURE
While there are lots of interesting things you can do with a network, first you have to build it, and that means making decisions about what sort of network you want.

Making the wrong decisions when you start out can cause a lot of extra work – and possibly expense – further down the line.

There are many things to consider, starting right at the beginning. For example, what do you want to use your network for, and how do you think you’ll be using it?

For example, if you only have a couple of computers, you can set up a simple network linking them with just a £5 Ethernet cable and share the internet connection.

But what happens if the PC with the broadband connection is turned off? No internet connection for the other PCs, of course.

You may run into the same problem in other areas. For instance, say you want to play some music, but the album you’re dying to hear is on the laptop which your partner has taken to work.

Or say there’s a problem with one PC, and you can’t access the file you desperately need to send to the office.

Many of those problems crop up because the network is based around peers, with information spread across different computers, all of which need to be accessible, all of the time.

When you’re starting out, it may be tempting to go down this route, hoping to save money, rather than investing in a server to store information, but if you think a server-based network will cost hundreds, think again.