Home Networking - What To Network, What Not To Network, That Is The Question!

Written by: Niche Content - Aug 7, 2008

Home Networking - Connecting to the Internet

Most home network builders will not be satisfied just to trade files among the computers on the home network. That means they will want to connect at least one system to the Internet. In the usual scenario, network builders will want all systems on the home network to have access to the Internet as well.

There are multiple ways to do that, each with pros and cons in terms of cost, complexity, performance, reliability and security.

Independent Connections

The first, and almost always the most expensive, option is to have multiple, independent connections to the Internet. Few will want to absorb the cost of having multiple DSL, cable or satellite modems. Few will want to pay their ISP for double, triple or more connections to the Internet.

But this method does have some advantages.

Each computer that connects will have a completely independent connection, even though as part of the same home network they can still share files, printers and other devices. Each computer gets the full security features offered by the ISP without any complex configuration on the part of the home network designer. Each computer gets the full bandwidth, so performance is optimal. And you have built-in redundancy. If one connection goes down, you have another that can still access the Internet.

Alternatively, it's possible to use one DSL or cable modem, insert a hub inline, and plug multiple computers into the hub. Then purchase independent IP addresses from the ISP. This only costs one DSL or cable modem, but extra IP addresses are usually a bit pricey. Performance is still usually very good for each system, provided the router can handle your average traffic without a big slow down.

Internet Connection Sharing

Another option several steps down in terms of cost comes at the price of a little bit of complexity. It's possible to use one computer as a router and to use Internet Connection Sharing software in Windows or Linux to make the connection available to other computers on the network.

In this scenario, one computer connected to the Internet and assigned a public IP address by the ISP gets an extra NIC installed. To that second adapter is plugged a cable that runs to a NIC in a second computer. Using Internet Connection Software that comes with Windows or Linux, it's possible to configure both systems to share the single Internet connection.

Cheap and semi-reliable. But it has some drawbacks. Any network use on the part of the second computer will impact the first one, the one that has the direct connection. All network traffic for the second computer has to be managed by the hardware and software in the computer with the direction connection, so its performance slows down. Also, if the first computer fails, or even is just rebooted or shut down, the Internet connection goes away for the second computer.

Router and Hub

With decreasing costs and ease of configuration, another option is becoming the best for most people. In this case, a router is connected to the DSL, cable or satellite modem. It acts as a gateway for all network traffic to and from the Internet by any system on the home network.

Sometimes routers will allow multiple connections, in some cases a hub may be required in order to provide enough ports for all the home network connected devices. But hubs are reliable and cheap, so it adds only a tiny amount of complexity to the design.

With this setup, each user gets the full security available from the ISP and the router acts as a common firewall to add to that. Most routers will handle the traffic from all users pretty well, provided no single user is constantly downloading large files from the Internet.

File sharing between each computer is safer since each is behind the firewall. Network configuration is marginally simpler since you can use DHCP-assigned IP addresses using the DHCP-server function found in most routers. That way, as you swap laptops and other devices in and out of the network, there's no need to make sure you haven't assigned a duplicate static IP address.

Only a short period of 'homework' is required for most home network builders to catch on how to implement this scenario. The instructions that come with most routers will provide enough information to set it up. The cost is modest today and provides the best alternative for most situations.