Upgrading & Fixing Laptops DUMmIES

Networking Other Ways ..............................................................................

I’ve exhaustively explored wireless communications. (I know I’m tired of the

subject, and I suspect by now so are you.) And I’ve touched on traditional

wired Ethernet networks, which connect laptops and desktops to each other

through a central hub. Just for the record, you have a few other means of

interconnection of machines.

The original quick-and-easy means to transfer files from one machine to another

earned the nickname of sneakernet.This high-tech process involved copying

files to a floppy disk on one machine and then carrying the disk to where the

files could be uploaded and used. Sneakernets have evolved a bit: You can burn

a CD-R on one machine and bring about 600MB of data, photos, or music to

another machine in that way. You can also use a tiny flash disk, which is a form

of non-volatile RAM; various makers now package as much as several gigabytes

of memory in another one of those USB lip balm-like packages. These sticks of

memory can be formatted as if they were hard drives and carried from one

machine to another. (Chapter 9 talks about these things at length.)

Hub

Laptop

WiFi-equipped

printer

Desktop PC

PDA

Cable/DSL Modem

Broadband internet connection

Access Point

Router

Figure 14-1:

A wireless

system is

based

around an

access

point, which

is the

transmitter/

receiver

device.

220 Part IV: Failing to Communicate