To connect 2 or more computers/laptops to the Internet you first need to create a home network. Creating a home network isn’t has difficult as it first sounds and once created you can use it to connect other devices to the Internet.

Basic Computer Networking

To connect two or more computers/devices together you need some kind of connection media. The two standard connection media types used today for home/small business networks are cable (CAT 5 UTP) and Wireless (WI-FI).

There are other connection types but these are used for connecting devices like hard drives, cameras to computers/laptops and not for home networking. Common are:

• USB-
• Firewire
• Bluetooth

There are three types of home network that you can make and connect to the Internet. They are:

• Ethernet LAN / Wired Network
• Wireless LAN / Wireless Network
• Ethernet and Wireless LAN mixture

It is possible to directly connect two computers together using UTP using a crossover cable. However in this mode you cannot add a third computer and so it is not considered a network as it cannot expand and interconnect.

The setup and netwowork diagrams for all three  network scenarios are covered in- How to Plan and Setup a Home Network and Connect it to The Internet

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