Before you begin installation, you'll need to decide on the parts you'll use.

If you want to purchase the pieces separately or already have them, read on.

The network interface card - NIC

The two main factors to consider for the network interface card are the speed (how fast it moves data from one computer to the other) and the type of slot it fits into in your computer. As for speed, network cards for home PCs move data at either 10 megabits per second (10Mbps) or 100 megabits per second (100 Mbps), which is also known as Fast Ethernet. Most cards today are so-called 10/100 cards, meaning they can be used at either speed depending on some other factors in your network. Trust us, you don't want to spend a penny on anything that isn't 10/100. You may be able to find some cheap 10 Mbps cards, but within a year or two, maybe even a month or two, you'll wish you had spent the extra money and purchased a 10/100 card.

With the speed determined, you'll also need to figure out how the card will connect inside your computer. Most new computers (within the last two years) have what are called PCI slots inside the computer to accept network cards, video cards, etc. Older computers will have less advanced slots called ISA. As always, consult your computer manual if you have one. Regardless, you need to figure out not only which types of slots your computer has, but which are open (don't currently have something in them). For both reasons, you'll need to open up the computer and take a look at it.

Hopefully, you'll find a spare PCI slot (usually smaller than the other slots and white versus black or brown...but not always). That means you need to select a PCI 10/100 Ethernet card. Also make sure the card supports Plug and Play. That way, you won't have to mess with changing connectors, or jumpers, on the card to make it work with your computer. Nearly every "mainstream" card available today.

The cabling - connecting the card

Now that you've chosen the NICs, you need to decide how to connect the cards, and thus the computers. The two most common types of cabling are twisted-pair (also known as 10BaseT) and thin coax (also known as 10Base2). 10BaseT cabling looks like ordinary telephone wire, except that it has 8 wires inside instead of 4. Thin coax looks like the copper coaxial cable used to hook up your cable TV.

The advantage to thin coax is that it doesn't require a hub. You simply use a couple of connectors and a thin coax cable to connect two or more computers. BUT..thin coax won't work for Fast Ethernet. So..soon after you invest in lots of thin coax cable for your 10Mbps network, you'll upgrade in a year or two to Fast Ethernet and throw all of that cabling in the trash. So, go with the 10Base-T cable scheme. This also means you can buy network cards that ONLY accept 10Base-T or twisted pair cables. These are often a little bit less expensive than cards that have connectors for both types of cable.

Hub

The downside to twisted pair is that unless you are only connecting two computers together, you'll need a hub. A hub is a small device with a lot of jacks for twisted pair plugs (again like phone plugs..only larger) that accepts all of the cables from all of the computers in the network. This makes it very easy to add new computers or remove computers from the network. You simply set it up, hook a twisted pair cable to the NIC and plug the other end into the hub. You can in fact connect two computers without a hub using a special type of cable called a crossover cable available from most computer stores that sell network cables. Keep in mind that this only works for connecting two computers. Once you want to add more than two, you'll need a hub and the crossover cable has to be replaced. If you know or believe you may someday network more than two computers forget the crossover cable and buy a hub. The price of a 5-ports hub is from HK$400 to HK$1000 (with brand name). However, the price of Fast Ethernet hubs is dropping everyday so the decision to buy a 10 v. 100 hub could be a no brainer before too long.

USB Cable

New to the cable scene is USB to Ethernet cable for networking. USB networking holds promise for easier networking as new USB networking cards and hubs come onto store shelves. No case to open, no EthernetR card to install, and no IRQs to fiddle with. Such products will make installing your network much easier. If you want to link more than 2 computers, you may need to buy a USB hub for this.

The software - nothing to buy!

The last decision is what software to buy to enable all of this networking hardware. And here's the great answer: nothing. We are assuming that you're hooking together two computers with Windows95 or Windows98 OR perhaps a Windows95/98 computer to a WindowsNT workstation. Either way, the software for networking is built into these operating systems. Certainly, there are other operating systems...DOS, Windows 3.1, etc...but we aren't even going to discuss them. Go get Windows 98. You'll also need software, called drivers, to get your new NIC to communicate with your computer, but that software will come with the NIC.

So, with all of the decisions made, let's begin the installation.