Sharing of information amongst computers is the norm. If your organization has grown to the point of having two or more computers, then you should be aware of another universal law: whenever there are two or more computers in an organizational unit, there will be an irresistible urge to form a network. Actually, you will find the "urge to merge" to be very much akin to a primal force of nature consider this your fair warning.

If you are accepting of your fate or just realize it's the right thing to do but are unsure about the concept of networking, you've come to the right place.

In the context of a small business setting, there are two types of networks to consider, with the second type coming in two varieties:

Sneakernet the low-tech network solution.

LAN (Local Area Network) high-tech networking and implemented as either peer-to-peer or client-server architectures.

Sneakernet

Despite the whimsical name, sneakernet is an honorable, if inefficient, form of networking computers in an organization. The name derives from the actions needed to implement it: copy a document from computer A onto diskette, put on your sneakers and walk the diskette to computer B.

For very small offices, with minimal sharing requirements, this works and its cheap. Your network "infrastructure" consists of boxes of inexpensive diskettes. However, the moment such a system is implemented a "networking" mind set begins to form. At first its unconscious, but its there. For example, if you and your officemate are working on a particular document you're getting that proposal ready for the big client presentation who has the "original"? Is there a master copy being maintained? How do you coordinate changes to the document so that each copy is identical? Is this unlabeled diskette the one with the ABC Widget proposal or is it the one I put down to answer that last phone call? (Of course you'll vow to start labeling these diskettes, won't you? Sure you will.)

Somewhere during the wearing out of your first set of sneakers you'll yearn for a better way. We have actually seen offices with tens of computers (we remember one which had more than 75 computers) using sneakernet. The management resources required to exert command and control over an extended sneakernet quickly become very expensive and generally unworkable. Keeping consistency amongst shared documents, updating software, protecting against computer virus attacks, and difficulty in sharing resources are some of the impediments to a sneakernet arrangement as your organization grows.

Local Area Networks

With as few as three or four computers in an office, it is probably wise to move over to a LAN arrangement. Now, a local area network need not require expensive file servers, special network operating system software, complete with resident geek...uh, LAN administrator, or even much care and maintenance. With two or more computers, the addition of some simple wiring, network interface cards (NIC), and a hub, you have all the elements necessary to create a true LAN.

Connecting of two PC's via the use of a central wiring hub will give you a peer-to-peer LAN. Not only is it easy to do, its inexpensive. The central requirements are that each PC must have a communications device called a network interface card, connected by a wire to a central hub. Each PC must be assigned a unique network address (usually something that looks like this: PC number 1 could have 192.168.10.20, while PC number 2 could have 192.168.10.21) look up "TCP/IP" in your on-line help for a fuller explanation.

Costs for this include: 1 four port hub @ $30, 2 NICs (one for each PC) @ $25 ea., 2 25' cables @ $15 ea. So, for about $110 you could be networked. The networking capability is built into your current operating system waiting to be used.

What advantage does this network configuration have over sneakernet? There are several. If you have only one printer, both PC's can now use it as a shared resource each PC can print to that printer. If one PC had a larger hard drive (not an uncommon difference between desktops and laptops, for example), you could use the larger drive to backup data and documents from the smaller. Files can be transferred back and forth between the PC's directly. A document developed in common could be made to reside on just one PC, enabling a simple form of document version control.