Information & How to

Need to get a new network up and running quickly? Follow this step-by-step guide.

 A computer network is an essential element of modern business, and it’s increasingly indispensible in the home, too. A network lets your computer connect to the Web so that you can check e-mail, update a website, or teleconference. It also lets you communicate locally with other computers on the same local network. Creating a network is simple—all that’s needed is to connect a computer to a router with an Ethernet cable. That’s a very rudimentary setup, however.

How To Set Up a Home or Small Business Network | PCMag.com.

A home network will let you share high-speed Internet access with any computer in the house-the spouse’s, the kids’, even Grandma’s iPhone when she drops by for a visit is within reach. A network lets you control what the kids are doing on the Web, share data and multimedia files across all your computers, automate backups for those system, and even use webcams to see what that new puppy is doing in the living room while you’re at work. With a network, the bedroom computer upstairs can print to the color printer in the downstairs study, and the media PC in the living room can show a movie on the PC-connected TV in the master bedroom.

Home Networking in 5 Easy Steps | PCMag.com.

After you have connected and installed your printer to your desktop, you can follow these steps to share your printer.

To share the printer, open the Printers and Faxes folder on the computer that is connected to the printer.

To open the Printers and Faxes folder
•    Click Start and then click Control Panel.
•    Click Printers and Other Hardware, and then click Printers and Faxes.
•    In the Printers and Faxes folder, click the printer’s icon and, in the tasks pane, click Share This Printer.
•    Open the printer’s Properties dialog box by right clicking on the icon, and click on the Sharing tab.
•    Click on Share Name, and then click OK.

Now the printer should be ready to use.

Now that your printer is connected to the network, you are ready to connect to it and print from other computers in
your wireless network.

To connect an additional computer to the network printer, follow these steps:
•    Open the Control Panel, and click Printers and Other Hardware.
•    Click on Add a Printer.
•    Instead of adding a local printer, click Printer Connection and then browse the network for the printer.

You should now be able to print from the network printer.