Computer Networking Technology

There was a time when people would rave about 2-D arcade games such as Pac Man, Pong, and Space Invaders. Since then, the gaming industry has turned itself into a moneymaking behemoth, and has connected itself to other industries as well such as music, merchandise, and advertising. Video games nowadays come in different forms and genres, and one of the most exciting types of gaming is through computer networking.

Playing with LAN

Gamers of all ages have enjoyed video games through the magic of a local area network. This connects a series of computers together, and enables them to share information. Through LAN, players are able to link their games together, and can play multiplayer games battling each other, and even team up. Some of these games come in the form of first person shooters where the players can be a team of S.W.A.T. officers, a military group, secret agents, interstellar soldiers, and the list goes on. A lot of other genres are also present and make great games because of LAN capabilities.

The rise of MMORPG

Massively multiplayer online role-playing games have been on of the more popular type of games lately. These are your usual role-playing games where you control a particular character, start out with menial equipment, and do a lot of quest in order to become stronger and gain money. MMORPGs have taken this even further. Because of the Internet, players are now able to interact with each other in a virtual environment. In the game, players may choose to trade equipment, help each other with quests, battle each other, and fight monsters side-by-side.

Some games of this genre allow the players to have their own professions so that they can earn the currency of the "world" that they are in (it's usually gold and silver). These games have become so addictive, because there are so many things that you can do in the games. The interactive world that you are playing in can be so big, that traveling from one place to another could take you a long time. Some gamers have been so addicted that there even has been a story of a guy that was divorced by his wife because of his MMORPG addiction. Well, as long as you are a responsible individual then there should be no problem at all with playing these types of games.

Virtual items

People have become so serious when it comes to these MMORPGs, that it has even come to the point of them buying items used inside the game and using real money. Some would spend hundreds of dollars to acquire items, or even strong characters. There are particular websites where you can auction such items. There are some cases where this is outlawed because you don't actually buy a tangible item.

Computer networking has made the possibilities of gaming endless. There are countless more innovations to come, and who knows what the next trend might be. It's a great thing that technology such as the Internet and local area networks are able to bring us better entertainment.

How many computers do you have at home? How many of those are in use? Do you have a number of computer users as well? One in the study, couple in the kid's room, one for the kitchen, if you have more than two computers and computer users in your home then you may try networking all the computers.

What are the benefits of home networking?

• If connected to a network, files can be sent back and forth by each computer.

• You can play music and video files from another computer.

• You can access the printer and the scanner that is connected to one computer from any other computer that is within the network.

• You can avail of the best features of the computer with highest configuration.

• If one computer in the network serves as a server, then you can store important files as back up in the server.

• You can share one Internet account to reap its benefits from different computers at the same time.

• Imagine playing Age of Empires or racing cars with real opponents at different computers in the house!

Yes, networking allows you to have multi-player games.

So how do you get home networking?

Networking can be done by using a wireless networking connection or by an Ethernet cable. All you need for Ethernet networking are:

- Number of networking cables
- Networking cards
- A router

Once you have these, follow the following steps.

- Select the computers that you want to be in the network
- Install a networking card in each
- Connect a cable to each which will in turn be connected to the router
- The router will then be connected to the server
- The router will then be connected to the modem machine in order to enable internet access to all the machines
- Once the hardware connections are in place, set up internet in each computer by configuring the Local Area Network (LAN) settings
- Finally use the router manual to access the password and set up internet connection on each computer through the router

So what are the precautions that you need to take while connecting your home computers in a network?

First and foremost you need to realize that whatever data you have in each computer will be accessible by everybody.

So start by defining the rights to each drive and folder of your respective computers. Since people other than family members who sit on someone's computer can also access the information in other computers, ideally only 'read' right should be given to folders and drives with sensitive information, so that someone else cannot copy, edit or delete such information.

You can even deny 'read' rights to folders if need be. Since you are connecting to the internet through your network, you must install a firewall for maximum security. Install anti-virus software on each computer.

Connecting home computers in a network is a good idea, helps in staying connected and also make full utilization of the facilities available in each computer. With a little bit of precaution, networking can only be fun!

For some people, the computer itself could be a scary topic, considering the fact around how complicated the machine is. Talking about computer networking could give a heart attack to such people. However, it is not as scary as it may sound.

Computer networking could be understood by separating the two words in the term. A "computer" as we know is a complex machine that helps us to process information. "Networking" refers to linking or connecting. Hence computer networking would simply mean getting two or more computers connected. When we say the word "connected" in this reference, we mean that one computer could be accessed through the other.

Broadly speaking there are two ways of connecting two or more computers. The first one is called the wired network and the other one is called the wireless network. Both of these are huge subjects to study and understand. However, in layman's language it could be said that when two or more computers are connected through wires it's called the wired network. And when they are connected without the wires through wireless router, it is known as wireless network. As the wired networks are limited to the area wherein the wire web is installed, similarly the wireless has range limitations. The number of machines that are on a network would ensure the speed of the network. More machines in a network would mean a slow network.

The various computer network systems could be - Personal Area Network; Local Area Network; Campus Area Network; Metropolitan Area Network; Wide Area Network; Global Network and most importantly internet, intranet or the extranet. The names are given to the network depending upon the arena they have. Like for example the campus area would mean the machines that are in a given physically limited campus are connected through the computer networking. This could be wired or wireless networking.

Internet could be understood as a global network system.

All a computer network is, is simply two or more computers that are connected by cable in order to share information. Installing a computer network in your workplace is not as hard as some people may have made it out to be.

All you need to do is connect a cable to each and every computer in your work area, install a certain network adapter card (an electronic circuit card that you put into your computer motherboard) in all of those computer so that you have a place to plug in the cables.

Then, just make sure that your computer's network operating system software is set up so that it works, and there you have it - you have a computer network! It's really that simple. Once you get further into networking, you will notice some words that you may not recognize.

That is because networks have their own little language, so to speak. Here is some vocabulary that should help you out.

- You will often times see a network referred to as a LAN, which stands for 'Local Area Network.'
- A 'node' is just a fancy term for a computer that is on the network...nothing special.

- When a computer is turned on and everything is functioning the way it's supposed to, it is said to be 'up.' However, when a computer is down or broken in any way, it is said to be 'down.'

- Lastly, when a computer is not able to reach the network, we say that it is 'offline.' But when it is able to reach the network without any problems, it is simply said to be 'online.'