Macs All-in-One For Dummies, 4th Edition

Chapter 3

Networking Your Mac and Connecting Peripherals

In This Chapter

Configuring wired and wireless networks

Adding a printer to the network

Using Bluetooth

Most households and small businesses have a few computers, a printer or two, a scanner, an Internet service, and maybe even an external drive where files are backed up from each computer. (Be sure to read about the importance of backing up in Book III, Chapter 1.) You can connect and disconnect peripheral devices (your printers, scanners, and such) to and from your computer when you want to use them — which would be a big hassle and time waster — or you can set up a network.

A network allows multiple computers to share files and devices, such as printers, modems, or back-up hard drives. Connecting two computers is the simplest of networks, but even a home setting today typically has a printer shared by two computers (more on that in the following chapter). And when multiple computers connect to a network, they can share files almost as quickly and easily as copying a file from one folder to another.

After you understand the concept of networking, networks aren’t so difficult to set up. In this chapter, we show you how to ...