Why a home network and what is a home network anyway?

Anytime you have one computer that "talks" to another computer, you have a network. Networks come in different sizes and complexities but they all do the same thing... they allow computers to communicate with each other. When computers talk, they can perform some very important functions. They share data, photos, and even music with each other. They provide a way to backup important information and restore it after a disk or operating system failure. Networks can even allow it's users to share devices like printers and network attached storage. Networks come in all levels of sophistication from huge data centers filled with servers to simple "peer-to-peer" networks that share data between the kids computer downstairs and dad's computer upstairs. A home network fits on the simple end of the spectrum. It has a "server" and it shares information with other computers and devices in the home. It also provides services like backing up all of your home computers and providing a single point of access to your photos and music. By doing this, it eliminates the worry involved with any one computer suffering a catastrophic failure sometime in the future. If one of your computers should fail, after it is repaired, it can come back to life with all of its data and files restored to how things were before the failure.