Sams Teach Yourself Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional in 10 Minutes

By Dorothy Burke and Jane Calabria

• Table of Contents
  • Copyright
  • Tell Us What You Think!
  • About the Authors
  • Introduction
  • Conventions Used in This Book
  • Lesson 1. Navigating Windows 2000 Professional
  • Lesson 2. Working with a Window
  • Lesson 3. Using Menus
  • Lesson 4. Using Windows 2000 Professional Help
  • Lesson 5. Using Dialog Boxes
  • Lesson 6. Working with Multiple Windows and Applications
  • Lesson 7. Copying, Moving, and Linking Between Windows and Applications
  • Lesson 8. Using My Computer
  • Lesson 9. Managing Files with My Computer
  • Lesson 10. Using WordPad
  • Lesson 11. Understanding File Properties and the Recycle Bin
  • Lesson 12. Printing
  • Lesson 13. Using My Network Places
    • What Is a Network?
    • About Clients and Servers
    • What Is My Network Places?
    • Logging On to a Network
    • Accessing My Network Places
    • Logging Off a Network
  • Lesson 14. Using the Control Panel
  • Lesson 15. Using Outlook Express Mail
  • Lesson 16. Sharing Workstations and Setting Passwords
  • Lesson 17. Using Internet Explorer 5
  • Lesson 18. Web Site and Document Searching
  • Lesson 19. Troubleshooting, Restarting, and Disaster Planning
  • Lesson 20. Customizing the Windows 2000 Environment

What Is a Network?

A computer network is a group of two or more PCs that are connected to each other and can communicate with each other over the medium that connects them. Usually they are connected by special network cables, but they may also connect by telephone lines, radio or infrared waves, or even over electric lines.

A local area network (LAN) is a small group of computers (usually less than 254 computers) that share a common cable and have to take turns using it. Most LANs these days use a cabling scheme called Ethernet. Other cabling schemes that are more or less widespread include token ring and AppleTalk (for networks of Macintosh computers).

To communicate with each other over a LAN (or by phone, or at all), computers have to agree on a set of communication rules, called a communication or network protocol. Most LANs these days use TCP/IP as their network communication protocol. LAN or network protocols in widespread use today include TCP/IP, IPX/SPX, NetBEUI, and LocalTalk (for AppleTalk networks). Of these, TCP/IP is gradually eclipsing the others (just as Ethernet is eclipsing the other cabling schemes).

If you connect two or more LANs to each other, you create an "internetwork." You can connect them using various devices, including bridges, routers, and switches. These devices listen to the network traffic on each LAN to which they are connected; when a communication is addressed to a computer on another LAN, the bridge, router, or switch passes that communication over to the other LAN.

The Internet is a worldwide internetwork of LANs that use TCP/IP to communicate with each other. The Internet is a public network, in the sense that no single entity owns it or controls it. In general, anyone who wants to connect to the Internet can do so.

An intranet is a company's or organization's private internetwork of LANs. Most companies maintain the privacy of their intranet in one of two ways. Either they don't allow any connections between their intranet and other networks (such as the Internet) or they connect to other networks through a "firewall." A firewall is any configuration of routers, proxy servers, and intervening LANs that serves to limit what kind of communication can pass between the intranet and external networks.

Here we discuss communication and sharing resources over an installed corporate network.

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