Parts of a Network: Computers

In this hypothetical home network, let's imagine that you have two computers (one a laptop and one a desktop).

You need to assign your computer a name in order to identify it on the network. Something else (most commonly a router or a DHCP server) can assign it the IP address that other computers use to identify it; however, each computer also needs a name that isn't shared by any other computer on the network. In many cases, a computer that's been pre-installed for you will already have a default name that may be a string of letters and numbers. You can change the name or leave it as is. (In this case, let's say that we've named these two computers Desktop and Laptop for ease of reference.)

They don't have to be running the same operating system or the same software; all they really need is a name and a network connection (whether wired or wireless). However, for the sake of this example, let's also say that Desktop and Laptop are running the same operating system. (It doesn't matter whether they're running a Windows, Macintosh, or Unix operating system; using the same operating system on both computers will make locally sharing files simpler in later examples.)

For network hardware, Desktop has an Ethernet port and a USB port, and Laptop has an Ethernet port, a USB port, and a wireless card. This is fairly typical home computer equipment.

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