What is a Home Network and How Does It Work?
If you've read our Is A Home Network Right for You? section, you already know a bit about what home networks do and what they require. At its simplest level, a home network is a link between computers or devices that lets them share information of some kind. This information can include files, printing data, or data for multiplayer games, as well as many other things. In general, the art of home networking involves creating the most efficient and most secure pathways for this information to travel along. Doing so involves a variety of devices and software, each of which has an important role in keeping the information moving in a fast and secure way.
All information that travels through the internet travels in the form of data packets, small little pieces of data that are sent and received. While the details of packet switching are complicated and part of a much larger (and more complicated) protocol called TCP/IP (read more about that at the howstuffworks site on the backbone on the internet), you don't need to worry about them. All you need to understand is the concept of information that is broken down, moved from one place to another, and then put back together again in a form you can use. This is true for the internet as a whole, and will also be true for your home network.
There are a couple pieces of hardware that are important to setting up a home network and that are likely unfamiliar to you:
- Broadband Modem: Modem stands for Modulator/Demodulator. It's job is to handle all the interaction between your network and the outside internet. All information you receive comes in through the modem, and all information you send leaves throgh the modem. A broadband modem is a type of modem (usual through a DSL or cable company) that is much faster than conventional dial-up. Since broadband modems are faster and can send and receive more information at once, they are ideal for home networks, where lots of information is moved about. The modem is usually provided by your Internet Service Provider (companies like Verizon, Comcast, AT&T, and many more which sell services that allow you to access the internet).
- Router: The internet has many switches and routers, all designed to facilitate the movement of data and information. For your network, the router will do a similar task. It will be the hub of all information in your network, allowing you to connect different devices together using a pathway for information. The router will regulate this pathway. Choosing your router and router type is an important decision. We discuss it--and its ramifications on security--in our What Type of Path? section.
- Adaptors: Though some newer computers are equipped with technology to send and recieve information to a local network out of the box, others require adaptors to do so. These adaptors generally conform to specific protocols, such as Wi-Fi 102.11g.
So, to recap, when you set up a home network, what you're really doing in a conceptual sense is setting up a way for your different devices to talk to one another and send information without that information entering the outside internet. To do this, you have a router in your network that serves as a hub between devices, regulating the information as it moves along the pathway you've set up. For more, read our section on Choosing a Type of Pathway.