In setting up your garden office, you may want to think about the addition of a computer network. This is beneficial if you have multiple computers in your office. Networking will allow quick and easy file sharing. If, for example, you have a desktop computer you do the majority of your work on, but also have a back up laptop for when you are away from the office, there may be information that needs to be on both computers.
If you do not have a network set up, you would have to use external flash drives, email, or CD’s to transfer the data. With a network, all it takes is accessing a second computer from your primary one, and sending or receiving the data. There are two options when it comes to networking: wired and wireless.
Wired networking is faster than wireless, and both are simple to setup in a garden office. With wireless networks, there is a greater chance of losing data while sending it across the network due to outside interferences such as walls, floors, or metals that the signals may have to travel through to reach its intended target. When this happens, the computer will have keep resending the data until it reaches the other computer, causing the network to be slower. Wired networks do not have to deal with outside interferences and therefore data generally does not have to be sent multiple times.
In terms of security, wired networks are better because with wireless, the router is broadcasting the network out to all computers. Therefore, anyone within 200-300 feet of your office can gain access to it. If not properly setup and secured, these people can just get right in to your wireless network. With wireless networking being fairly new, loopholes and vulnerabilities are still being patched, which will eventually make it safer.
To complete a wired installation you will need a router and some networking cables. You can then choose to run the cables from the computers to the router across the floor, or attempt to hide them.
In most professional offices these wires are ran through a tube that is attached to the walls and up into the ceiling where it crosses the room to the router and then comes back down out of the ceiling to plug into the hub. Wireless networking is bit easier, as there are no cables. You just have to hook power up the router and follow the manuals to connect the computers to it.
Wired networking is a bit more cost effective than wireless, only because it’s been around longer. Wireless capability is the latest technology available in the world of computer networking. Therefore, like everything new, it is more expensive.
You may have to consider the costs of technical support if you get lost on setting up wireless network, as fewer people know how to troubleshoot this form than that of a wired network.
