If you are going to network a small handful computers (less than 5-10) in your home or office, you’ll probably have some questions about networking vocabulary:

• What is a “local area network (LAN)?”
• What is a “workgroup?”
• What is a “peer-to-peer network?”

Continue reading ‘Know your networking vocabulary’

Remember a while back I talked about what your garage door opener had in common with Internet addressing.

Let’s take it a step further.

As you recall we said that your attache case or luggage carrier had a three wheel combination lock (click on the picture for a closer view).

Let’s take this one step further: let’s dial the combination “137.”

What this means is that the “1″ has been dialed on the “100’s” wheel, the “3″ has been dialed on the “10’s” wheel and the “7″ has been dialed on the “1’s” wheel.
Continue reading ‘How does a computer count to 1,024?’

Recently, a friend of mine sent me this email:

“I have three computers in my office: One that is running Windows 2000 and two that are running Windows ME. All three are connected to a Linksys router that is connected to a cable modem.

“All three computers can get to the Internet just fine, but they cannot connect to each other.

“What am I doing wrong?”

If this has ever happened to you, here is what you need to check:
Continue reading ‘What to look for if two computers can’t connect to each other’