Networking
Your Small Business
by: Ramon Ray 
Many small-business owners haven’t
taken the time to network their office computers. However, small
businesses aren’t as efficient if they’re run with lonely computers.
Why Network?
- Networking your computers will enable
all of your employees to share technology resources such as
printers, CD-ROMs, etc. from their own individual computers.
- You'll be able to have one Internet
connection (either standard analog modem or broadband) for
all of the computers – no need for 10 AOL accounts and 10
dial-up modems.
- Instead of having things stored on
only one computer, work can more easily be shared and worked
on by all, a team, or just one person - without worrying about
which computer holds what information.
- You can add several collaborative
tools to your network, such as a shared calendar, accounting
program, intranet, etc.
How to Set It Up
It is strongly recommended that you contact
a computer consultant to set up your network. If you have a
very small office with only about two or three computers, then
the computers can be connected in a peer-to-peer network
- i.e., a design with no central server – with all of the PCs
sharing each other's hard drives and resources.
For larger offices, a client/server
network is advised. In this design, a central server is the
repository for all office files and your Internet connection.
All of the other (client) computers would connect to this server.
Each computer needs a network interface
card (NIC) and network cable to connect to the hub. The hub
is a small device that routes the information between the network
and the server and/or to other computers on the network.
Once the physical connections are hooked
up, you'll want to purchase a network-management program to
manage security, file access, Internet sharing, etc. Talk to
your consultant about what options might be good for you. As
a small-business owner, it's important that you leverage all
the technology resources you can.
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