User's Manual

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Chapter 12: Networking Your Notebook
www.gateway.com
The benefits of using a network
A network lets you:
■ Share a single Internet connection
■ Share computer drives
■ Share peripheral devices
■ Stream audio and video files
■ Play multi-player games
Sharing a single Internet connection
A network makes sharing the Internet easy. Each computer or Internet
appliance that is connected to the network can share the same modem and
telephone line or broadband connection and access the Internet at the same
time. This saves on the cost of installing another telephone line for your
second computer and paying for a second Internet Service Provider (ISP)
account.
Sharing drives
With a network, you can copy files from computer to computer by copying
and pasting or dragging and dropping. You will no longer waste your time
transferring files by using diskettes. In addition, you can map a drive from a
computer on the network to a drive on another computer, and access the file
as if it were located on the hard drive of the computer you are using.
Important Most ISPs allow multiple users at the same time.
If you use America Online as your ISP, you can:
■
Log onto America Online through one of your screen names
and the other computers can access the Internet using an
Internet browser.
■
Upgrade your service to AOL for Home Networks. This
service allows more than one of your screen names to be
online through your home network at one time.