Surviving a Home Network

This section of the site has a couple of goals. The first goal is to be a useful and straight-to-the-point guide for the average person thinking about (or in the process of) setting up a network in the average home (apartment, dorm, etc.). If that is your goal as well, you may want to skip directly to the section entitled "How Do I Create a Home Network?" below. The second goal is to be a more comprehensive explanation about what this whole networking thing is about, how it works, why it works, what it's good for, and to give an explanation of common terms. A sort of "Idiots Guide to Home Networking" if you will. Of course, if idiots could set up a home network, there wouldn't be a need for a guide. There are some networking guides on the Internet already, but most seem to assume that the reader is a computer or networking professional. Others lacked detail in some places. If your goal is to try to get a handle on the whole enchilada, you probably want to read most of the pages and visit most of the links as well.