| The way that it used to be, is people generally | | | | you are technically building a local area network, |
| had one computer in their home. Internet access | | | | which can be wired or wireless, that networked |
| was based on dial-up modems which were | | | | devices communicate between inside the home, |
| connected directly with a serial cable on the home | | | | and also share the same internet connection. |
| computer. No Local Area Network was needed. | | | | The base of the home network is your |
| With the advancement of technology and the | | | | broadband router. This is usually a device that lets |
| wide spread adoption of high speed internet | | | | you setup a wired or a wireless network. You can |
| connectivity at homes, necessitates that home | | | | use Ethernet cables if you're making a wired |
| appliances should be networked to facilitate online | | | | network, or use Wi-Fi for wireless. This integrated |
| access and to also communicate and share | | | | router provides also the Internet access |
| information between them. | | | | connectivity. |
| What I mean when I say home appliances is | | | | Once you have your home network setup, you |
| home computers, next generation game consoles, | | | | can connect your computers, laptops, Xbox 360, |
| printers, scanners, network attached storage, etc. | | | | Playstation 3, servers, network storage boxes, |
| All of these "Appliances" need to share | | | | etc. After you successfully connect all your |
| information amongst themselves over a network, | | | | devices to the router, you can share and |
| but also need to have high-speed access to the | | | | distribute your files over the network, have LAN |
| Internet. To achieve that, you will need to set-up | | | | parties on game consoles, play online video |
| a home network. With a home based network | | | | games, and share pictures between computer. |