If crawling through the attic and fishing cables is keeping you from networking your computers, look to your phone jacks for the answer. HomePNA Phoneline networking, Powerline networking, and 802.11b wireless networking. Right now, it might not occur to you that you need a home network, but as the number of Internet-aware devices in your home increases, that could change. It also allows users to share resources. Multiple phone lines are expensive and taking turns to browse the Web is no fun.
Networked computers make it easier to transfer files and share programs.
You can also play multiplayer computer games, both with other family members and with others on the Internet, although some ISPs have acceptable use policies that limit this, so be sure to check your service agreement first. Regardless, home networking is on the rise. Experts expect the market to grow from 1.3 million U.S. households at the end of 2000 to more than 9.5 million households by end of 2003. Wired networks require some type of physical cabling to interconnect devices. Wireless networks are just that.