Feb 05, 2003 12:29 AM
4235 Views
(Updated Feb 05, 2003 12:36 AM)
Hi Guys,
I read all of the other excellent reviews and they have probably already explained what vsk_saran had wanted to know . But being the pain in the back side that I am I had to get in and give a review .
Peer to Peer networks .
What is it? As the name suggests it is a network of equivalent computers . By equivalent computers I mean they are at the same level in a network, none of them directly or indirectly controlling the others.
How do they work, easy using broadcasts .When each computer gets online it send an alive poll around using network broadcasts with the essential data eg hostname, IP address, MAC address, share information . Each system already on the network picks up this information and refreshes its own list.
What are the advantages of using this kind of a network? The biggest one is cost, there is hardly anything required besides the computers with NIC's, cables and a hub in case of more than one computer .For small offices with not a very big budget this is an ideal setup .
Biggest Disadvantage: It is terribly slow . The primary reason for this is because peer to peer networks use broadcasts to communicate, this generates enormous amounts of traffic.Since this is irrespective of the protocol in use and it becomes a nightmare to use if you have more computers.
How to create a peer to peer network: incase of more than 2 computers, buy a hub . Buy straight cables and connect each of the PC's to the hub . Power the hub on and power all the machines on . In the network properties(will vary from OS to OS) chose TCP/IP as the protocol you want to use. Eventhough the easiest to use is Netbeui, TCP/IP comes in very very handy specially in this internet age . This will involve a little more configuration though. You will need to set the IP addresses on every PC .Use IP addresses from the following Subnets 10.X.X.X, 172.X.X.X, 192.X.X.X . The reason for this being that these are reserved IP blocks for private networks . Normally what I have done in the past is to give the IP address 192.168.1.1 to the first computer, then 2, 3 and so on .No 2 PC's can have the same IP address and this way you normally dont make any mistakes.
In the case of Netbeui, you dont have to configure anything, just load the protocol up and reboot the PC . After a couple of refreshes you will start seeing the other computers on the Network Neighbourhood .
Why am I so hell bent on using TCP IP if netbeui is so simple to install? Easy, with TCP IP you tend to get a lot of fringe benefits. You can go ahead and share an internet connection amongst all the comps on the network . Just set the gateway address in the TCP IP property page to the IP address of the computer dialled up the internet and you are ready to go . This is of course provided that you have a modem connected to one of the computers and have dialled up to the internet from it.
In case you have only 2 computers, you dont need a hub at all, use a cross over cable and connect the 2 comps up . This has been very well explained in a couple of the previous reviews.
With the price of hardware and software going down it will always be better to use a non p2p network simply because of the speed and the security it offers . Just my humble opinion,
Hopefully I have been able to do justice to this topic, I am ready for all the brickbats or bouquets . Imagine someone with my ID writing reviews about networks and computers .:-D .
