What I use my home network for: File sharing (I can sit down at any of the systems in the house and work on a document stored on any other system)
Printer sharing (I have two printers. A QMS PS-1700, 17ppm laserprinter and an HP 560C. Can print to either of them from any system in the house.) Modem sharing (After years of using an old 6100 running IPNetRouter I finally got a *real* router. All the systems are ethernetted to the router and share one dial-up connection.) Application sharing (Need Word 5.1? It lives on the 6400. Need the latest PowerPoint? It's on the G-3 upstairs. All accessible from any system.) Additional uses: Set up a font server. Keep nothing but the minimum font set on most machines. Need a font? Get it from the shared drive on the font server. Recommendation? Ethernet the machines. Appletalk only the printers. AT is s-l-o-w. 10BaseT is beginning to be slow too, but it's 10x faster than AT. You can buy a cheap router (I use a D-Link DI-704) and have a *real* network. The D-Link does DHCP and that makes setting it all up a piece of cake. Jim Tracy Keirns wrote: > Hi everyone. I have been tossing around the idea of setting up a network > in my classroom just to see if I can figure it out. I understand how to > connect the computers together but I'm not really sure why people set up > these networks in the first place. Printer sharing is the only thing I can > think of. So I need tips or ideas or something that will give me a better > idea of what I could do with a bunch of networked computers. It would be > an assortment of different versions of Macs, from SE's on up to PowerMacs, > and I even have an older server to play around with, so please get creative > and give me some neat ideas! Also, I have local talk/phone net connectors, > a localtalk to ethernet bridge, and a ethernet hub, so I think I have most > of the stuff I will need. I could even tap into the school network for > internet access and laser printer access if I want...as long as it doesn't > create too much chatter on the network. > > (My classroom computers that belong to the school are already set up on the > school network and are all being run by Mac Manager and OS X server. I'm > not trying to duplicate what I already have there. I'm just trying to > figure out this whole networking thing so I can really understand how it > works.) > -- MacNetwork is sponsored by <http://lowendmac.com/> and... XRouter Pro | Share your DSL or cable modem between multiple computers! Dr. Bott | Only $199 <http://www.drbott.com/prod/MIH130.html> Support Low End Mac <http://lowendmac.com/lists/support.html> MacNetwork list info: <http://lowendmac.com/lists/macnet.html> --> AOL users, remove "mailto:"; end list messages to: <mailto:macnetwork@;mail.maclaunch.com> To unsubscribe, email: <mailto:macnetwork-off@;mail.maclaunch.com> For digest mode, email: <mailto:macnetwork-digest@;mail.maclaunch.com> Subscription questions: <mailto:listmom@;lowendmac.com> Archive: <http://www.mail-archive.com/macnetwork%40mail.maclaunch.com/> --------------------------------------------------------------- >The Think Different Store http://www.ThinkDifferentStore.com ---------------------------------------------------------------
