eBay Business All-in-One For Dummies, 4th Edition

Chapter 5

Networking Your Home or Office

IN THIS CHAPTER

Setting up your network

Getting secure, Internet style

The first time I spoke to my editors about putting information in my books about networking a home business, they scoffed. People who worked at home back in the day didn’t need computer networks (as if networks were solely for big companies with lots of cubicles). Since we’re now well along in the 21^st century, home and small office networks are required to do business.

I started writing about eBay in 1998, and now it’s close to twenty years later. A lot of technology has washed under the bridge, and many advances have been made. Setting up a network in 1999 meant spending hours (maybe days) changing settings, testing, checking computers, and cursing. That was if you were lucky enough to finally get it right. Otherwise — as was the case for most home users, including me — you’d give up, take the whole thing as a loss, and go on with your life.

Luckily for the rest of us, networks are considerably more user-friendly than in the old days. Also, more pleasant modes of networking (other than having miles of Ethernet cables snaking around the walls of your house) came to the fore of technology.

By networking your home (or office) you’ll save time by having the flexibility ...