> What, in very broad terms, would be the cost of networking,
> say, 4 PCs?
A card in each for 30-40ukp, made our own cables, drilled our own
holes in bedroom walls and ceilings.
> What are the main benefits of so doing?
The 'server' in the study has a modem which the three boys share on
their own phone line and a laser and colour printer which anybody in
the house can print to without copying homework to floppies and
bringing it downstairs to my machine.
Clare's PC is chiefly used for producing worksheets and reports for
work (Speech and Language Unit) and has a scanner attached.
My PC and laptop have their own modems which run through my phone
line.
> Any drawbacks?
My youngest is forever rearranging the contents of his bedroom and PC
and never tells us when he pulls the plug out of the back. We have
however learned that when there is a network problem it is always
but always his fault, no matter how much he denies it ;-))
> Who uses the computers?
Me, wife, three teenage sons.
> If children, how many and how old and how do you know they're
> doing their homework and not downloading anal-sex jpegs?
Don't know, don't care.
> I have one completely disinterested (in computers) wife
One wife is the only number you're allowed to have, no matter how
big your network. You can have more than one child though ;-)
As an aside, I would thoroughly commend the idea of a separate line
for your children. The conditions are:
We don't want to become involved in arguments around who has been
on the phone for how long.
We don't want to become involved in arguments around whose share of
the bill is whose. (They each have a diferent ISP which simplifies
identification on the itemised bill).
Before we did this we were constantly being phoned late at night by
friends and family who assured us we (the boys) had been engaged all
evening;-)
In the early days we had to stamp on their friends phoning on 'our
line' because 'their line' was constantly engaged ;-))
Mike
Mike North
GP Maylandsea Essex
Editor EQUIP (Formerly Essex MAAG) Magazine
http://www.equip.ac.uk
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
|