Networking For Dummies

One of the first steps in planning your network is making sure that you understand why you want the network in the first place. Here are some of the more common reasons for needing a network, all of them quite valid:

• My co-worker and I exchange files using a flash drive just about every day. With a network, we could trade files without using the flash drive.

• I don't want to buy everyone a printer when I know that the one we have now just sits there taking up space most of the day. Wouldn't buying a network be better than buying a printer for every computer?

• I want to provide an Internet connection for all my computers. Many networks, especially smaller ones, exist solely for the purpose of sharing an Internet connection.

• Someone figured out that we're destroying seven trees a day by printing interoffice memos on paper, so we want to give the rainforest a break by setting up an e-mail system and trying to print less of the routine stuff.

  Warning

  It won't work! One of the inescapable laws of business is that the more you try to eliminate paperwork, the more paperwork you end up creating.

• Business is so good that one person typing in orders eight hours each day can't keep up. With a network, I can have two people entering orders, and I don't have to pay overtime to either person.

• My brother-in-law just put in a network at his office, and I don't want him to think that I'm behind the times.

Make sure that you identify all the reasons why you think you need a network and then write them down. Don't worry about winning the Pulitzer Prize for your stunning prose. Just make sure that you write down what you expect a network to do for you.

If you were making a 500-page networking proposal, you would place the description of why a network is needed in a tabbed section labeled Justification. In your ½ -inch network binder, file the description under Purpose.