Lesson 1 - Building a Small Peer-to-Peer Network

   Introduction

Peer-to-peer networks are very common. They are used to share resources between a small number of users, and do not rely on a network server. Generally, a peer-to-peer network contains 10 or less nodes, usually within a small business or home office. All popular desktop operating systems (OSs) have built-in capabilities for peer-to-peer networking, thus creating a small network is a fairly simple and straightforward job.

In this lesson, you will use standard Ethernet components and the Microsoft Windows 98 OS to build a small network. Follow the steps in this lesson for each computer that you want to connect to your test network.

   Objectives

At the end of this lesson you will be able to:

1.	Build a small peer-to-peer network
2.	List the components necessary for operation of a peer-to-peer network
3.	Diagram a typical protocol stack that can be used to transfer information between two clients in a peer-to-peer network

Key Point
Most desktop OSs have built-in support for peer-to-peer networking.

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