Foolestroupe -

You can have as many networks as the machines on your system have the resources to handle.

The first network most people are interested in probably is the network to share an internet connection.

Most internet interface devices, including a dialup modem, will use the TCP/IP protocol, and for this protocol Windows usually will use idents in the 192.168.0.xxx range. I have a "dedicated server" on one printer, to allow it to connect directly to my LAN, and it also uses the 192.168.0.xxx range.

If you use the "Internet Connection Sharing" (ICS) built into all Windows versions since WWG3.11, you connect one machine, via modem or a second etherlink card, to the internet and set that machine only up to use ICS. That machine will get the 192.xxx.xxx.0 address on the TCP/IP network. All other machines are set to "connect via local network" if they are to "share" the connection. The "ICS host" machine will assign a TCP/IP identity to each of the other machines when the net starts.

With ICS, you can have up to 10 machines all sharing the same internet connection.

An individual machine can still use its own modem if there's an available internet interface. You can't have two machines trying to dialup on the same line at the same time, but some "internet boxes" allow more than one machine to connect "independently." If you have any such device, it should have its own instructions.

The second network of interest is the LAN to share information between machines. (It makes no difference which network is set up first.)

If you use a Windows "simple network" with the NetBEUI protocol, devices on that network will use idents in the 168.xxx.xxx.xxx range on that network. I believe the machine on which you "create" the local network usually takes the "0" address, and other machines get an address more or less in sequence during network setup. Info on the exact method of address assignment is vague. Finding what address an individual machine is using on the NetBEUI network is an "exotic exercise." You seldom actually need to know.

You can have up to 10 computers in a "simple network." The simple network is identical (mostly) to what Win98 and earlier called a "workgroup," and is also called a peer-to-peer network since there actually is no "server" to manage the connections.

Using ICS and a simple network, the only hardware you need is an etherlink card/port on each machine, an etherlink hub with enough ports to plug them all into, and of course enough cables to make the connections. If your internet connection is via etherlink, you do need a separate (second) etherlink card in the computer that connects directly to the internet box.

A third network that is common happens if you add a USB hub. The hub allows connection of multiple devices, so it has to be part of a "USB network." The only way you're likely to notice that this network has been added is that WinXP will notifiy you that it wants to install a "bridge" to avoid "looping" in your multiple networks. Some other Win versions may do the same, but WinXP is the only one I've connected a "large USB hub" to.

In principle, you could have additional networks, but each network must have its own protocol and/or "hard assignments" of machine addresses. Manual assignment of machine identities reportedly is possible with the simple/peer network, but is not recommended.

Theoretically you can create more than one "group" using simple networks (I think?), so that different sets of users can connect to specific other machines. Each "group/peer-to-peer/simple network" is a separate "network" if you do this. This seems a bit silly with fewer than a half-dozen machines, but might be of use if you have users requiring significantly different restrictions on what they can access. Most such cases probably can be better handled with a single group using "privileges" appropriately.

John