If you want to transfer some of your data files from one computer to another in your office, what will you do? One option you have is to take a floppy disk or CD and copy the data from the source computer, go to the destination computer, and download the file. This method is very time consuming and cannot copy data more than 1.44MB on floppy disk and around 800MB on CD.
What if you have more than 2GB or more data to transfer? Here we can use LAN. A LAN is a group of two or more computers that can share information and resources. You can have thousands of computers on your LAN depending on the size of your organization, as long as the computers are kept in one building or location. Here I am going to tell you how to build a small local area network of 5 to 10 computers. First of all, we need to know the equipment necessary to configure a LAN.
Computers: – Obviously, you need 2 or more computers to build a network because a computer cannot make a network.
Cables: – Depending on the size and use of your network, you can select the category of cables. For a small network, you can use a CAT5 cable that supports 10 / 100Mbps speed. However, you also have the option of purchasing a Cat 6 cable that supports speeds of up to 1 Gbps. Here I will use CAT5 cable.
Hub / Switch – This is a device that will be placed in a central location and all PCs will connect to it. These devices can be 4, 8, 16 or 24 ports. They come with more ports too. These days switches are used everywhere as they are more advanced than HUB.
NIC: – Network interface cards are required for your PCs. Here you also have the option of getting a 10/100 or 10/100 / 1000Gbps speed card. Again, it depends on your requirements and budget. One end of the network cable will connect to your computer’s NIC and the other end will connect to the switch. Note: – Most computers these days come with a built-in network card, so you don’t really need to buy a NIC if you already have one on your computer’s motherboard.
RJ45 connector: – These are small connectors that need to be drilled on both ends of the cables. You do not need to buy these connectors separately because there are ready-made cables available in the market, but of course if the desired length cable is not available, you will have to get the RJ45 connectors and drill them on both ends of the cable based on the wiring standard. .
Once you have all the equipment, you are ready to do the connectivity between your computers and some Windows settings. Follow the steps below to get your network up and running.
Step 1: – Open your computers one by one and install the NIC. As I mentioned earlier, if you have embedded a network card in your computer’s motherboard, you do not need to do this activity. Better to buy a PC with built-in network card this way you can save a lot of time.
Step 2: – Connect all computers one by one to your hub / switch. Once you connect all the computers, just flip the switch.
Step 3: – Now you have to make some adjustments on your PC. All computers must have a unique ID so that another computer on the network can identify them. Only in humans do we know people by their names, in computers they identify each other with their unique IP address. These are 32-bit octets in the form of 0 and 1. We write the IP address in decimal form as 192.168.1.1. You have two options for providing the IP address, one is manual by sitting at each computer and typing the IP address and another is through the DHCP server. You can say that the DHCP server is a Microsoft Windows 2000/2003 Server service, which automatically provides the IP address to the computers as soon as they start up. For a small network of 10-20 PCs, you don’t need a DHCP server, but for a large network it would be very confusing and time consuming to provide the IP address manually. In our scenario, you can supply the IP address manually because we are setting up a network of only 10 PCs. Now log in to the PCs with administrative privileges and follow the steps below to give the IP address to the PCs.
For. Click Start – Settings – Network Connection and then double-click Local Area Connection.
B. From the new window, click on properties and in the new window, scroll down to select the Internet Protocol TCP / IP. Double click it or click properties to give the IP address.
vs. In the window that will open, enter an IP address in the space provided. Just below the IP address is a subnet mask option. As soon as you give the IP address, the subnet mask will come up automatically depending on the network class you have selected.
Once you are done, simply save your settings by clicking Apply and OK. Repeat the 3 steps above on all your computers, but remember to give each computer a unique IP address. You can verify connectivity between computers by running a command called PING on each computer. Just go to the command prompt and type ping IP ADDRESS (for example, Ping 192.168.1.1). You should get a response from another computer that has the IP address 192.168.1.1. Remember that the PC you are trying to ping must be turned on. If you get a message that says REQUEST TIME OUT, it means that the PC you are trying to ping is off or there is some problem with connectivity. Then you will have to check it.
These settings are sufficient to get your LAN up and running; however, on the IP configuration page you have a few more options that you can define as long as you have installed these services on your network. For example DNS, Gateway or WINS.
