NETWORKING IN LAPTOPS

The need for networking:

Year 1992, Ella Jones, a sales representative of a reputed company lost a $3.5 million contract because she failed to get her manager’s approval on time. She was in London while her manager was in New York City. Ella could not email her proposal to her manager from the client’s site in the same format as she was used to in her office in New York.

Year 1991, John Smith lost his valuable presentation from his laptop and the only copy of it is in his office desktop thousands of miles away. How does he retrieve that?

Back in early 1990s for a travelling professional it was impossible to connect to their office system or send emails from office email accounts. As a result they faced huge problems. Lesser connectivity meant lesser updates. What if the client wanted to connect to your company’s network to upload or download data? Or may be you are working on your laptop in the garden and need a print-out urgently although the printer is connected to the desktop in your study – how do you do that?

What is networking in laptops?

Networking in laptops essentially refers to the technology by means of which a laptop stays connected to a certain network. This network could be an office network, a home network, a personal area network, wide area network, etc. So simply put a laptop with networking enables it to communicate with other computers. In a world of frequent travels and fast changes, networking in laptops seems to be an absolute necessity to stay up-to-date.

If your laptop is enabled to connect to a network then you will be able to share and use amongst the computers connected to the network (subject to the system authorisation), the following:
• Files and documents
• Printer and scanners
• Internet and email account
• Games, etc.

How does it work?

For any network to function irrespective of the type of computer/laptop, it needs the following essential components:
• More than one computer/laptop.
• Hardware like a router.
• Software that enable the operating system to connect to the network.
• A device or path that helps in exchange of information between two computers. This could be through wires or wireless.

A server generally manages all the resources in a network. Thus a server can manage all the files in a network, all the printers in a network and so on and so forth.

Types of networking available for laptops:

You can put your laptop in a network in different ways. Some of these are:

• Using Serial Line Internet Protocol (SLIP). This option is cheaper but has a low data transmission rate.
• Using a docking station to plug in ISA Ethernet cards for older laptops.
• Connecting the network cable to your laptop’s USB port.
• Using radio waves to connect wireless. For this your laptop must have a wireless adaptor that connects to the wireless router.
• Attaching a Bluetooth device to your laptop (if it is not already Bluetooth-enabled).
• Using Infrared transmission systems.