Convergence is a term used in computing to refer to a number of relatively new phenomena relating to the integration of various technologies. For our purposes in this tutorial series, we have restricted its meaning to the impending integration of home entertainment technologies with computer networks. The following graphic displays how a variety of new devices [...]

Now that we’ve spent a few weeks getting our home network up and running, it’s time for the important stuff. Last week we began by sharing the printer. Sharing such resources for you is the real reason we have come this far and now it is going to all pay off. File sharing is probably the [...]

Last week, DeviceMAG took an unannounced break from the Networking 101 series of tutorials. We apologize for that unavoidable transgression, but we are back. The last tutorial demonstrated how to create a network of computers on the Microsoft Windows platform. Now that all of your computers are on the same network, it is time to find out exactly how the network [...]

Setting up all your computerized devices to share resources can be a bit tricky. If you recall last week’s article, we hooked all your devices to the Internet by connecting them to your Internet service provider (ISP) through a wireless router. This week we will take the fundamental steps to create a network that allows [...]

This week we will be connecting all the computerized devices in your home together using your new wireless router. Recall from last week’s Networking 101 article entitled Router Basics I that you have acquired many new gadgets over the holidays. You now have two desktop computers instead of one, plus a laptop, a tablet PC, three smartphones, [...]

So, you’ve graduated, not from high school or college, but to something really cool. It’s after the holidays and your family no longer has just one desktop computer in the house, you now have two! …plus a laptop, a tablet PC, three smartphones, a smart HDTV with a radio frequency (RF) universal remote control, and a new gaming console; and they [...]

Since beginning this Networking 101 series nearly three months ago, each article has been leading either directly or indirectly to the upcoming series of articles, beginning with this week’s topic: Network Routing is for “You.” It was during the first few weeks we promised to discuss routers because routing is the key to separating computers into distinct [...]

Last week we completed our discussion on Cloud computing. The Cloud is a collection of smaller networks existing within the greater network known as the Internet. We begin to realize the importance and the full potential of the computer network when we fully understand the overall picture of its architectural design. Trying to understand that bigger [...]

Over the past couple weeks we have been discussing various aspects of the relatively new networking phenomenon known as the Cloud. We would like to wrap that discussion up this week by posing the question: What would life be without the Cloud; i.e., for those individuals and businesses who choose to adopt it fully, as we have [...]

Last week we opened a can of networking worms called the Cloud. Because of its ubiquitous infiltration into techno-babble literature, and its relative hazy definition therein, we’ve decided to investigate the Cloud a bit further this week. From the perspective of the client computer (e.g., netbook, tablet, and smartphone) currently using the Cloud, we find it is quite instructive to [...]

What exactly is the Cloud? If we envision the Internet as the atmosphere surrounding our Earth, then we can speak of patches of clear sky, randomly interspersed by opaque condensations of misty humid areas. These precipitants can be pictured as tiny networks within the overall larger atmospheric Internet. The sum total of these smaller networks within the Internet is commonly [...]

Ok, so it’s been nearly two months since we started this new Networking 101 tutorial and we feel it’s time we explain ourselves: 1) Who is it for? 2) What’s the purpose? 3) What is networking anyway? 4) What can it do for me? 5) What areas of information technology (IT) are relevant to the networking [...]

Since the auspicious beginning of this new Networking 101 series, we at DeviceMAG have been talking mostly about the Internet access aspects of your home network. Two weeks ago we started covering the more complex issues of resource sharing on your local area network (LAN) and we will dive a little deeper into that topic this week. This [...]

Over the past few weeks DeviceMag’s new Networking 101 series has been opening up “new” ways for our readers to gain totally FREE broadband Internet access via Microsoft’s powerful Internet Connection Sharing (ICS) software. This week we will continue this trend (albeit not always free) with a slight twist called Tethering. Tethering can be loosely described as a way to [...]

Over the past two weeks we’ve been discussing how you can share your broadband Internet connection with other computers nearby—for FREE! Our week-one Networking 101 article showed you how to use Microsoft Internet Connection Sharing (ICS) software to connect a desktop to the Internet through your laptop’s wireless (Wi-Fi) connection. The week-two topic illustrated the [...]