Small businesses with more than two personal computers are finding that it makes the same economic sense for them to share files, printers, modems and other resources as it does for larger companies. More and more, computer users who have more than one PC and several peripherals at home are starting to build home office networks. Sharing such resources as printers, Zip drives and modems makes a lot of sense in environments where financial resources are limited. Be it for entertainment purposes, such as network gaming or for business applications where sharing of data is essential, having computers networked is more prevalent than ever.
Sharing makes economic sense.
Rather than buying a printer for each PC, you buy one printer and let everyone on the network use it. And, since you're only purchasing one printer instead of two or three, you can probably afford a better printer. The same goes for modems, scanners and other peripherals. Sharing also makes practical sense. Anyone who has collaborated on a project knows how difficult it can be to keep track of document versions when other workers in the office are constantly exchanging floppy disks and each user has a copy of the same file on his or her hard disk.