Most every Mac can be a part of a LocalTalk network . LocalTalk networks connect to your Mac through the Printer port. To create a simple LocalTalk network you can simply connect a standard printer cable to the printer ports of two Macs and you have a slow but effective network. This is an easy way to transfer information between two computers. If you only need to periodically need to connect two computers, especially if one or both of them isn't ethernet capable, this is a great way to move information around.
Ethernet networks are what most businesses use for networking.
Ethernet is considerably faster than LocalTalk. A file that takes only a couple minutes to copy from one computer to another through ethernet could easily take a half an hour or more through LocalTalk. Many PowerMacs and Quadras have ethernet capabilities built-in, we'll discuss later how to tell what networking capabilities you have on your Mac. Some of you maybe wondering why you would want to network your Macs. The biggest reason is file sharing .