Home and Small Office Networking Overview

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Applies To: Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2003 R2, Windows Server 2003 with SP1, Windows Server 2003 with SP2

Home and small office networking overview

With home and small office networking, even if you do not have the resources, time, or experience of a network administrator, you can build a small network in your home or small office. Home and small office networking is a group of features that limits hardware requirements and automates configurations for routing and private IP addressing. This reduces the work that is typically required to connect and configure a network. It also reduces the associated costs.

Home and small office networking provides many of the benefits of traditional networks and offers benefits that are uniquely suited for a home or small office network. With home and small office networking you can:

  • Share one Internet connection with all of the computers on your network.

  • Provide local private network services, such as name resolution and addressing, automatically.

  • Share printers or other hardware devices, such as cameras and scanners, from any computer on your network.

  • Share folders and files with other computers on your network.

  • Use one computer to secure your entire network and protect your Internet connection.

  • Easily establish network connections across two or more types of network media, such as IEEE 1394, Ethernet, wireless, and Home Phoneline Network adapters.

This section covers: