Networking guides

Wireless or wired Ethernet have until quite recently been the only two networking choices seriously considered for a home network. However, there’s a third option that uses the internal 240V wiring in your house, rather than Ethernet cables. Called powerline networking, this can be a good choice in some circumstances, such as when your PC is a fair distance from your router and you don’t want to call in a qualified cabler to run a lengthy Cat5 cable.

If you just want to quickly connect and share files between two PCs, without the bother of setting up a full network, one easy option is a High Speed USB File Transfer Cable (A$29.95 from Jarcar). The cable is 1.8m long with a USB connector at one end and what looks like a flash drive at the other. Plug one end into the USB port of one PC and the other end into the USB port of another PC, and you’re set to transfer files and folders.

All versions of Windows come with a Status applet that gives critical information about your network connection. If you've never used it, we show you how to start this applet in Windows 7, Vista and XP below. Once launched, the General tab in the Status window shows whether your PC is connected to the local network and if so, for how long and at what speed. Windows Vista and 7 indicate if you’re connected to the internet and measure signal strength for a wireless connection. For all versions of Windows, there’s a running record of bytes sent and received. 

One way to share music, video and other digital media files over a network is for each potential listener/viewer to download the files from another PC on the network and play them locally. Streaming is another way, simplifying the process by transferring a media file to the remote PC as it’s being played, rather than copying then playing. Of the media players available that support streaming, Windows Media Player (WMP) and iTunes are the most widely used and most keen digital mediaphiles will have both players on their PC.

If you consider yourself an average PC user, the idea of monitoring network traffic may sound too nerdy. In its simplest form, though, it’s just a way to check whether your ISP is ripping you off for downloads (and possibly uploads, depending on your plan) or who’s hogging the local network bandwidth by simultaneously streaming a mass of videos.  It’s easy to set this up using the freeware tool, NetWorx, from www.softperfect.com/products/networx. There's both an installer version and a standalone version available that you can run from a flash drive.

Bluetooth capability on your PC widens your wireless networking options. For example, you can set up a personal area network (PAN) to include up to seven other Bluetooth-enabled PCs and/or mobile phones. The one proviso for joining a PAN is that the device must support PAN services, and not all phones do. Even if some devices don’t support PAN services, you can still connect to them individually to transfer files. You can also carry out other tasks, such as those shown on the Audio and ‘Dial-up’ tabs of the ‘Bluetooth Devices’ sheet in the guide below.