Datasheet

Making Computers Talk
680
In the following sections, I step you through the details of setting up a simple,
traditional peer-to-peer network with interface cards in each PC, a
hub (which
is an incredibly dumb switch), and a bunch of cable.
After you see the basics, I step you through the same territory, using wire-
less technology. If you want to set up a wireless network, I suggest you read
about setting up a wired network first (in the next chapter). Walk before you
run, ya know?
For details on actually assembling a network — choosing hardware compo-
nents, installing and testing them, and then getting Windows Vista to recog-
nize the network — see Book IX, Chapter 2.
If you’re setting up a new network, chances are very good that you’re looking
at a wireless peer-to-peer (“workgroup”) network. That’s a great choice. For
the advanced course on wireless networks — surely the simplest kind of net-
work to install — see Book IX, Chapter 3.
Understanding Ethernet
The easiest, fastest, cheapest, most reliable, and most secure way to hook
up a peer-to-peer network is also the oldest, least flexible, and most boring.
If you want sexy, look somewhere else. If you want an old workhorse, hey, do
I have a horse for you: It’s called
Ethernet (see Figure 1-3), and it works like a
champ.
Ethernet really isn’t that complicated. In the early 1970s, Bob Metcalfe came
up with an interesting new way to connect Xerox Alto computers. He called
the technique
EtherNet. The name stuck, give or take a capital N. So did the
technology. By modern standards, Ethernet isn’t very sophisticated. Here’s
how it works:
✦ All the PCs on a network watch messages going over a wire.
✦ When PC A wants to talk to PC B, A shoots a message out on the wire,
saying something like, “Hey
B, this is A,” followed by the message.
✦ PC B sees the message on the wire and retrieves it.
It’s hard to believe, but with a few minor tweaks — like what happens when
two PCs try to send messages at the same time so that they’re talking over
the top of each other — that’s really all there is to Ethernet.
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