ABSTRACT
When you connect more than one computer together, you are creating a network. At the very simplest level, you can connect two Macs together by stringing a cable between them! That cable in most cases would be an Ethernet cable, but could also be Firewire. Computers talk to each other by sending and receiving data from both ends, so that when one is transmitting the other is receiving, and vice versa. At one time this meant when using a single cable between two computers, it needed to crossover from one end to the other. Modern Macs sense this, switching automatically,
Generally, each Mac has only one Ethernet port (as the RJ45 sockets are known), so if you have more than two Macs that need to be linked, they have to have a sort of junction box having at least one port for each Mac. This box can be a hub, switch or router (often supplied with a 4-port switch). A hub is the least intelligent, the router the most sophisticated, but for a simple wired network a switch is ideal. The type of cable you use is known as UTP Cat 5e or Cat 6. The UTP standing for unshielded twisted pair; in layman’s terms – fairly uncomplicated wires!
