How to Connect My Computer to a Network?

After you install the operating system, you must configure your computer to participate in a network environment. What is a network you might ask? A network is a group of computers and other devices, like mobile phones and network printers that are connected to each other. This way all these devices are able to share information's and resources. Shared resources can include folders, printers and Internet access connections.

In order to connect to a network, a device must have a network interface card (NIC). The network card is a hardware component that allows a device to connect to the network. Some network cards are integrated into the computers motherboard and some others come as an extra module.

Besides the physical connection that allows you to connect to the network, you will also have to configure the operating system in order to participate in the network. Every computer or network device requires an IP address, a subnet mask and a default gateway. This address identifies the computer on the network. Let's say that this is the name of your computer inside the network. The subnet mask is used to identify the network on which the computer is connected and the default gateway identifies the device that the computer uses to access the Internet or another network. We can configure the IP address manually or automatically.

Manual IP Configuration

If you choose the manual configuration you will have to go to every single device and type the required values via the keyboard. Remember that you need to login as an administrator for this job. The IP address that we enter manually is called "static IP address" and is permanently assigned to the device.

Dynamic IP Configuration

Computers and other network capable devices can also be configured to receive an IP address dynamically. This allows a device to request an address from a DHCP server that has a pool of IP addresses. When you close the device the IP address becomes available again and another computer can use it. The automatic configuration is very beneficial because you can save a lot of time and avoid assigning the same IP address to more than one computer on the network.

Along with the IP address, you must also configure the computer name. This is the human friendly name that other users will use every time they want to access your computer on the network. Every individual system must have a unique name assigned to it. Finally, you can type a computer description to provide additional information on the location or function of the device.