The Downside of Networking
It’s not a personal computer anymore!
After you hook your computer up to a network, it’s not a personal computer anymore. You are now part of a network of computers, and in a way, you’ve given up one of the key things that made PCs so successful in the first place — independence.
Here are a few ways in which a network robs you of your independence:
✦ You can’t just indiscriminately delete files from the network. They may not be yours.
✦ The network forces you to be concerned about security. For example, a server computer has to know who you are before it will let you access its files. So you’ll have to know your user ID and password to access the network. This security feature is to prevent some 15-year-old kid from hacking his way into your office network via its Internet connection and stealing all your computer games.
✦ Just because you send something to a printer doesn’t mean it immediately starts to print. Someone else may have sent a big print job before you, so you’ll just have to wait.
✦ You may try to retrieve an Excel spreadsheet file from a network drive, only to discover that someone else is using it. You’ll just have to wait.
✦ If you find a really cool series of movies of astronauts walking on the moon at the NASA Web site and download them to the network server, you may get calls from angry coworkers complaining that no room is
left on the server’s drive for their important files.
✦ Someone may pass a virus to you over the network. You may then accidentally infect other network users.
✦ You have to be careful about saving sensitive files on the server. If you write an angry note about your boss and save it on the server’s hard drive, your boss may find the memo and read it.
✦ If you want to access a file on a coworker’s computer but that person hasn’t yet arrived at work to turn on her computer, you have to go into her office and turn it on yourself. To add insult to injury, you have to
know that person’s password
✦ If your computer is a server, you can’t just turn it off when you’re finished using it. Someone else may be accessing a file on your hard drive or printing on your printer.
Network administration: Someone has to do it
Because so much can go wrong, even with a simple network, even small networks need to be managed. As a result, at least one person should be designated as the network manager (sometimes also called the network administrator). This way, someone is responsible for making sure that the network doesn’t fall apart or get out of control. For a small network, the network administrator doesn’t have to be a technical genius. In fact, some of the best network administrators are complete idiots when it comes to technical stuff. What’s important is that the manager be organized. The manager’s job is to make sure that plenty of space is available on the file server, that the file server is backed up regularly, that new employees can access the network, and so on.
It’s not a personal computer anymore!
After you hook your computer up to a network, it’s not a personal computer anymore. You are now part of a network of computers, and in a way, you’ve given up one of the key things that made PCs so successful in the first place — independence.
Here are a few ways in which a network robs you of your independence:
✦ You can’t just indiscriminately delete files from the network. They may not be yours.
✦ The network forces you to be concerned about security. For example, a server computer has to know who you are before it will let you access its files. So you’ll have to know your user ID and password to access the network. This security feature is to prevent some 15-year-old kid from hacking his way into your office network via its Internet connection and stealing all your computer games.
✦ Just because you send something to a printer doesn’t mean it immediately starts to print. Someone else may have sent a big print job before you, so you’ll just have to wait.
✦ You may try to retrieve an Excel spreadsheet file from a network drive, only to discover that someone else is using it. You’ll just have to wait.
✦ If you find a really cool series of movies of astronauts walking on the moon at the NASA Web site and download them to the network server, you may get calls from angry coworkers complaining that no room is
left on the server’s drive for their important files.
✦ Someone may pass a virus to you over the network. You may then accidentally infect other network users.
✦ You have to be careful about saving sensitive files on the server. If you write an angry note about your boss and save it on the server’s hard drive, your boss may find the memo and read it.
✦ If you want to access a file on a coworker’s computer but that person hasn’t yet arrived at work to turn on her computer, you have to go into her office and turn it on yourself. To add insult to injury, you have to
know that person’s password
✦ If your computer is a server, you can’t just turn it off when you’re finished using it. Someone else may be accessing a file on your hard drive or printing on your printer.
Network administration: Someone has to do it
Because so much can go wrong, even with a simple network, even small networks need to be managed. As a result, at least one person should be designated as the network manager (sometimes also called the network administrator). This way, someone is responsible for making sure that the network doesn’t fall apart or get out of control. For a small network, the network administrator doesn’t have to be a technical genius. In fact, some of the best network administrators are complete idiots when it comes to technical stuff. What’s important is that the manager be organized. The manager’s job is to make sure that plenty of space is available on the file server, that the file server is backed up regularly, that new employees can access the network, and so on.
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