GCC 12n Guide De Réglage Du Réseau

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• Depending on your software, you may have additional benefits like the ability to use
one computer to send and receive faxes for every user on the network, or being able to
back up files to a central disk or tape drive.
What does setting up a network involve?
You need to install a network card in each computer, and provide cable to connect the
computers together. In a bus network, each computer is connected to the next in a line; in a
star network, all computers are connected to a device called a hub. The reasons why you
would choose a bus or a star network are discussed later.
The cost per computer (the cost of a network card and cabling) starts at under $100. You
pay more for ease of installation of the card and for faster networking, though the speed of
standard Ethernet is more than adequate for small sites. Hubs start at under $100, and the
more expensive models allow you to connect more computers (basic hubs often have only
five ports).
Most Macintosh computers have some form of networking built-in. All models have
AppleTalk, and more recent models have EtherTalk, Apple’s name for its Ethernet imple-
mentation. You can mix AppleTalk and EtherTalk computers on the same network.
AppleTalk’s disadvantage is that it is considerably slower than Ethernet. You could find
that users on an AppleTalk network become tired of waiting. You can upgrade many Macs
to Ethernet.
Where do I connect the printer?
In most cases, you connect the printer directly to a computer on the network. When other
users want to print, the file is sent to the computer with the printer attached and stored
temporarily on that computer’s hard drive. Then the file is printed in the background. This
means that someone working on the computer attached to the printer can continue work-
ing on their own programs while the computer is sending the file to the printer.
Some Macintosh networks allow you to connect the printer directly to the network cable,
rather than connecting it to a printer.
If many people are sending large files to the printer the person using the computer attached
to the printer may find the computer is slowing down; in most cases this will not be a
problem. Some organizations dedicate an older computer to be a print server. This com-
puter is not normally used for any other purpose; it must be able to run the operating
system of the other computers and have sufficient free hard drive space to hold the files
that are being printed.