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Why Start a Network

What are the benefits of having your own network?
You get to...

Share your high-speed Internet connection
Share your music, pictures, and other files
Secure your computers against Internet threats
Play head-to-head games online
Share your printer

If you have more than one computer, a home network will let you share resources among them. Any computer can print on a shared printer located anywhere in the house. And your computers can share all kinds of files—music, digital pictures, and documents. Keep all your digital music on one computer, and listen to it anywhere in the house. Organize and keep all of your family's digital pictures in one place, so it's easy to find the ones you want and make backup copies on CD-R. Use extra free space on one computer when another's hard drive starts to fill up. Play network computer games either head-to-head, or on a team.

If you sign up for a cable or DSL Internet connection, a home network will allow all your computers to share the line. Everybody can keep a private e-mail account and surf the web at the same time. You can also play online computer games with friends and opponents from around the world.

Plus, the same router that lets you share Internet access also helps to protect your computers from Internet threat.

What Kind of Network is Right for Me?

Now that you've decided to start a network, it's time to decide what kind of network best suits your networking needs.

Basically, there are two kinds of networks, wired and wireless. The most basic difference is that wired networks communicate through data cables, while wireless networks communicate through radio signals.

Wired networks have been around for decades. By far the most common wired networking technology found today is known as Ethernet. The data cables, known as Ethernet network cables or Cat 5 cables, connect the computers and other devices that make up the networks.

Wireless networks are relatively new. They don't use cables for connections; instead, they use radio waves, like cordless phones.

Why choose a wireless network?
Freedom—work anywhere
Quick, effortless installation
No cables to buy
Save cabling time and hassle
Easy to expand

Wireless networks are rapidly becoming more popular and coming down in price. Since they don't require cables, you can use the devices anywhere in an office or home, even out on the patio. There's no need to roll out an Ethernet network cable to each room of a house; you can network anywhere—without wires. Outside of the home, wireless networking is available in hotspots at coffee shops, businesses, airports—great when you're on the road and need to get some work done. For convenience, wireless networking is the answer.

Why choose a wired network?
Lower cost
Faster speed—up to 1000Mbps
Longer possible range

Wired networks have been around for years. They use the most affordable products and provide the fastest speeds of transmission. The distance between devices, such as computers, on a network is also much less restricted in wired networking—up to 300 feet with Cat 5 Ethernet cables or 1,800 feet using fiber optics. When you need to move large amounts of data at high speeds, such as professional-quality multimedia, wired networking is the most efficient way to do it.

Small and Medium-sized Business Networking Solutions

When it comes to business-class networking, NETGEAR has the answers. Our extensive line of networking solutions is designed to satisfy the particular needs of small and medium-sized businesses, government agencies, and the educational community and help them expand their networks. We deliver a broad range of end-to-end networking solutions to companies consisting of just a few employees or made up of much larger configurations. Our products provide connectivity for remote and branch offices, and within departmental and campus environments, and enable telecommuters and the remote mobile workforce to stay securely connected to the main office. We center on value-rich products priced to appeal to any budget-minded buyer looking for cost-effective solutions that can also offer wide compatibility across operating systems, related products, and network protocols.

Remote Office Branch Office Main Office

About NETGEAR’s Business Networking Products

Security VPN Firewalls
NETGEAR's ProSafe™ VPN Firewall router products deliver a complete network security solution by offering significant security, total-cost-of-ownership, and performance advantages over competing solutions. Our broad line of innovative network security products combine to form comprehensive, scalable solutions that meet your needs both today and tomorrow, whether you need to securely connect remote offices or provide access to mobile employees.

NETGEAR's provides a choice of standards-based wired and wireless VPN/Firewall routers, equipped with 2 to 100 VPN tunnel support capability, as well as all-in-one devices composed of an access point, router, and print server. Combined with NETGEAR's ProSafe VPN client software, NETGEAR ProSafe Firewalls deliver a total solution for secure data transmission. Our products are easy to configure and provide reliable, secure Internet connectivity. Standard features include a Stateful Packet Inspection (SPI), firewall AES and 3DES Encryption, Denial of Service (DoS) protection, Network Address Translation (NAT), and DHCP. NETGEAR's IPSec VPN solutions offer resilient, secure connectivity for full network access between headquarter locations, remote offices and telecommuters.. NETGEAR's security products are VPNC tested and certified to ensure interoperability with many other popular security products.

Business-class Switches
NETGEAR offers a wide range of powerful, easy-to-use switches to meet specific needs at all levels of the network, from unmanaged Fast Ethernet at the edge to Layer 3 Gigabit at the core. Designed for robust and advanced networks, our Layer 3 Gigabit switches offer a full suite of capabilities to enable future technologies and applications such as Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP). Our Layer 2 switches offer intuitive interfaces and affordable pricing, perfect for companies moving to management, and equipped with all the features they need to expand. Our unmanaged switches are available in sizes from 5 to 50 ports, with speed options from Ethernet to Gigabit Ethernet. Your company can grow from an unmanaged network to a simply managed network to a Layer 3 managed network using our switches at every level, all with the same high benchmark of quality, performance, and affordability.

Wireless Local Area Network (LAN) Technologies
NETGEAR's wireless technologies extend the range of cabled Ethernet environments to an entire building or campus by providing easy network access for mobile users or for hard-to-wire locations, such as conference rooms. Our access points can be deployed as part of a “hotspot” solution, and include support for Power over Ethernet (PoE) for placing in discrete locations using antennas and accessories. Using our access points or a wireless VPN/firewall router, any small business network can easily integrate wireless and Ethernet technologies for secure mobile access to e-mail, the Internet, and corporate network resources. NETGEAR wireless LAN products ensure maximum privacy and security with the highest levels of encryption using Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP) encryption and Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA) or 802.1x technology. Our extensive range of wireless products supports the 802.11g, 802.11b, and 802.11a standards.

Let us help you with your Small Business Network needs!