Networking For Dummies. Doug Lowe

alt="Warning"/> The main complication of working with offline files is what happens when two or more users want to access the same offline files. Windows can attempt to straighten that mess out for you, but it doesn’t do a great job of it. Your best bet is to not use the offline files feature with network resources that other users may want available offline, too. In other words, it’s okay to make your home drive available offline because that drive is accessible only to you. I don’t recommend making shared network resources available offline, though, unless they’re read-only resources that don’t contain files you intend to modify.

Before you can use offline files, you must first enable the Offline Files feature. To do that, open the Control Panel, double-click the Sync Center icon, and click Manage Offline Files. This brings up the Offline Files dialog box, shown in Figure 4-7. Next, click Enable Offline Files and then click OK.

      After you’ve enabled offline files, using the offline files feature is easy: Just open the Computer folder, right-click the mapped network drive you want to make available offline, and choose Always Available Offline.

      If you don’t want to designate an entire mapped drive for offline access, you can designate individual folders within a mapped drive by using the same technique: Right-click the folder and then choose Always Available Offline.

      When you first designate a drive or folder as available offline, Windows copies all the files on the drive or folder to local storage. Depending on how many files are involved, this process can take a while, so plan accordingly.

      FIGURE 4-7: Enabling offline files.

After you designate a drive as available offline, Windows takes care of the rest. Each time you log on or out of the network, Windows synchronizes your offline files. Windows compares the time stamp on each file on both the server and the local copy and then copies any files that have changed.

Here are a few other thoughts to consider about offline files:

       If you want, you can force Windows to synchronize your offline files by right-clicking the drive or folder and choosing Sync.

       Make sure that no files in the folder are currently open at the time you set the Make Available Offline option. If any files are open, you’ll receive an error message. You have to close the open files before you can designate the folder for offline access.

       The Properties dialog box for mapped drives includes an Offline Files tab, as shown in Figure 4-8.

       Employers love the offline files feature because it encourages their employees to work at home during evenings and weekends. In fact, every time you use the offline files feature to work at home, your boss sends Bill Gates a nickel. That’s how he got so rich.

      FIGURE 4-8: Offline file properties.

Part 2

      Designing Your Network

IN THIS PART …

      Create a network plan.

      Understand and use TCP/IP.

      Work with cables, network adapters, switches, and other important networking components.

      Use wireless devices in your network.

      Get connected to the Internet.

Chapter 5

      Planning a Network

      IN THIS CHAPTER

      

Making a network plan

      

Taking stock of your computer stock

      

Making sure that you know why you need a network

      

Identifying basic network decisions that you can’t avoid

      Okay, so you’re convinced that you need to network your computers. What now? Do you stop by Computers-R-Us on the way to work, install the network before drinking your morning coffee, and expect the network to be fully operational by noon?

      I don’t think so.

      Networking your computers is just like any other worthwhile endeavor: Doing it right requires a bit of planning. This chapter helps you to think through your network before you start spending money. It shows you how to come up with a networking plan that’s every bit as good as the plan that a network consultant would charge thousands of dollars for. See? This book is already saving you money!

Making a Network Plan

      Before you begin any networking project, whether a new network installation or an upgrade of an existing network, start with a detailed plan. If you make technical decisions too quickly before studying all the issues that affect the project, you’ll regret it. You’ll discover too late that a key application won’t run over the network, the network has unacceptably slow performance, or key components of the network don’t work together.

Here are some general thoughts to keep in mind while you create your network plan:

       Don’t rush the plan. The costliest networking mistakes are the ones that you make before you buy anything. Think things through and consider alternatives.

       Write down the network plan. The plan doesn’t have to be a fancy, 500-page document. If you want to make it look good, pick up a small three-ring binder. This binder will be big enough to hold your network plan with room to spare.

       Ask someone else to read your network plan before you buy anything. Preferably, ask someone who knows more about computers than you do.

       Keep the plan up to date. If you add to the network, dig up the plan, dust it off, and update it.

      

“The best laid schemes of mice and men gang aft agley, and leave us naught but grief and pain for promised joy.” Robert Burns lived a few hundred years before computer networks, but his famous words ring true. A network plan isn’t chiseled in stone. If you discover that something doesn’t work how you thought it would, that’s okay. Just change your plan.

Being Purposeful

      One of the first steps in planning your network is making sure that you understand why you want the network in the first place. Here are some of the more common reasons for creating or upgrading a network, all of them quite valid:

       Everyone in the office needs access to the Internet. Probably the most common reason for setting up a small network is to share an Internet connection. And even in larger networks, shared Internet access is one of the primary benefits of the network.

       My