How to Set Up a Small Business Computer Network

As a small business owner you should know the benefits of a computer network for your workplace and better if you know how to set up a small business computer network.

The Benefits of Setting Up a Computer Network for Your Office

The benefits of a computer network comes in the form of cost savings.  Suppose you have 5 people working in your office.  Without a network, everyone will need their own printers, scanners, Internet connection and storage memory.  If you set up a computer network connecting all the computers in your office, they can all be connected through one Internet connection, use same printer, scanner and other peripherals, share files between them securely and play music stored on a network attached storage device.

Wired or Wireless Network

Your small business computer network can either be a wired connection or a wireless connection.  Both have their advantages and disadvantages.  For example, wired connections are considered more reliable and secure; however, you will need to deal with the wires.  You may have to spend money on getting the wires hidden properly behind the walls otherwise your office will start looking messy with wires all around and someone’s foot can also get trapped in those wires.  With wired connections, your computers and peripherals will also need to be fixed at one place with mobility limited to the length of the wire being used.

Wireless networks overcome most of the disadvantages of a wired network.  You don’t have to deal with wires and computers and devices can be moved anywhere in the office.   However, wireless networks are not considered as reliable, fast and secure as wired networks.  The problems with wireless networks can also be taken care of with right devices and configurations.  For eg: You can enable Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP) security for your network that will allow only those with the valid WEP key to connect to the network.

Router and Network Cable

To set up a wired computer network, you will need to purchase a router and network cable.  The choice of router will be dependent upon the compatibility with your computer.  You can find out the routers compatible with your computer by going through its manual.  The network cable also called Ethernet cable or Cat5 cable will be required to connect the router, modem and computers with each other.  The length of wire that you will need will need to be calculated based on the distance between each of the computers and the router.

How to Set Up a Small Business Computer Network

Before we go into the steps of setting up the computer network for your office, we will assume that you have zeroed in on a wired network and that you have an active broadband connection in your office.  The modem provided by your ISP should already be hooked on to the cable or phone jack.

Steps to set up the network:

1. If your computer is currently connected to the Internet, unplug the network cable from your computer and plug it into the Internet, WAN or WLAN port of the router.  If your computer is not connected, take the network cable and plug its one end into the Internet, WAN or WLAN port of the router and the other end into the modem.
2. Switch on the router and wait till it is connected.  An active connection is generally indicated by lights that come on front the router.
3. Connect the router and computer by plugging one end of the network cable into your computer and the other into the router.
4. You computer should now be connected.  Repeat the same steps for all the other computers that you want to add to the network.

The above steps let you share one Internet connection between multiple computers.  Similarly printers and other devices can also be set up for sharing with your small business computer network

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Posted by Vikrant on Feb 25 2010. Filed under Tips & Tricks. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry