Set up a secure network at home or the office  Fully revised to cover Windows 10 and Windows Server 2019, this new edition of the trusted Networking For Dummies helps both beginning network administrators and home users to set up and maintain a network. Updated coverage of broadband and wireless technologies, as well as storage and back-up procedures, ensures that you’ll learn how to build a wired or wireless network, secure and optimize it, troubleshoot problems, and much more.  From connecting to the Internet and setting up a wireless network to solving networking problems and backing up your data—this #1 bestselling guide covers it all. Build a wired or wireless network Secure and optimize your network Set up a server and manage Windows user accounts Use the cloud—safely  Written by a seasoned technology author—and jam-packed with tons of helpful step-by-step instructions—this is the book network administrators and everyday computer users will turn to again and again.

Table of Contents:
Introduction 1 About This Book 1 Foolish Assumptions 2 Icons Used in This Book 3 Beyond the Book 3 Where to Go from Here 4 Part 1: Getting Started with Networking 5 Chapter 1: Let’s Network! 7 Defining a Network 8 Why Bother with a Network? 11 Sharing files 11 Sharing resources 11 Sharing programs 12 Sharing messages 12 Servers and Clients 13 Dedicated Servers and Peers 13 What Makes a Network Tick? 15 It’s Not a Personal Computer Anymore! 16 The Network Administrator 17 What Have They Got That You Don’t Got? 18 Chapter 2: Configuring Windows and Mac Clients 21 Configuring Windows Network Connections 22 Joining a Windows Computer to a Domain 27 Configuring Mac Network Settings 29 Joining a Mac Computer to a Domain 33 Chapter 3: Life on the Network 37 Distinguishing between Local Resources and Network Resources 38 What’s in a Name? 38 Logging on to the Network 40 Understanding Shared Folders 42 Four Good Uses for a Shared Folder 43 Store files that everybody needs 43 Store your own files 44 Make a temporary resting place for files on their way to other users 44 Back up your local hard drive 45 Oh, the Network Places You’ll Go 45 Mapping Network Drives 47 Using a Network Printer 50 Adding a network printer 51 Printing to a network printer 52 Playing with the print queue 53 Logging off the Network 55 Chapter 4: More Ways to Use Your Network 57 Sharing Your Stuff 57 Enabling File and Printer Sharing 58 Sharing a Folder 59 Using the Public Folder 61 Sharing a Printer 62 Using Microsoft Office on a Network 64 Accessing network files 64 Using workgroup templates 65 Networking an Access database 67 Working with Offline Files 68 Part 2: Designing Your Network 73 Chapter 5: Planning a Network 75 Making a Network Plan 75 Being Purposeful 76 Taking Stock 77 What you need to know 77 Programs that gather information for you 79 To Dedicate or Not to Dedicate: That Is the Question 80 File servers 81 Print servers 81 Web servers 82 Mail servers 82 Database servers 83 Application servers 83 License servers 83 Choosing a Server Operating System 83 Planning the Infrastructure 84 Drawing Diagrams 84 Chapter 6: Dealing with TCP/IP 87 Understanding Binary 88 Counting by ones 88 Doing the logic thing 89 Introducing IP Addresses 90 Networks and hosts 90 The dotted-decimal dance 91 Classifying IP Addresses 91 Class A addresses 92 Class B addresses 93 Class C addresses 93 Subnetting 94 Subnets 95 Subnet masks 96 The great subnet roundup 97 Private and public addresses 98 Understanding Network Address Translation 98 Configuring Your Network for DHCP 99 Understanding DHCP 100 DHCP servers 100 Understanding scopes 101 Feeling excluded? 102 Reservations suggested 103 How long to lease? 104 Managing a Windows Server 2019 DHCP Server 104 Configuring a Windows DHCP Client 105 Using DNS 106 Domains and domain names 106 Fully qualified domain names 108 Working with the Windows DNS Server 109 Configuring a Windows DNS Client 110 Chapter 7: Oh, What a Tangled Web We Weave: Cables and Switches 111 What Is Ethernet? 112 All about Cable 114 Cable categories 116 What’s with the pairs? 117 To shield or not to shield 117 When to use plenum cable 118 Sometimes solid, sometimes stranded 118 Installation guidelines 119 The tools you need 120 Pinouts for twisted-pair cables 121 RJ-45 connectors 122 Crossover cables 124 Wall jacks and patch panels 124 Understanding Switches 126 Comparing managed and unmanaged switches 126 Daisy-chaining switches 128 Stacking switches 128 Looking at distribution switches and access switches 129 Powering Up with Power over Ethernet 130 Looking at Three Types of Network Rooms 131 Chapter 8: Setting Up a Wireless Network 133 Diving into Wireless Networking 134 A Little High School Electronics 135 Waves and frequencies 135 Wavelength and antennas 137 Spectrums and the FCC 137 Eight-Oh-Two-Dot-Eleventy Something: Understanding Wireless Standards 139 Home on the Range 140 Using Wireless Network Adapters 141 Setting Wireless Access Points 142 Infrastructure mode 142 Multifunction WAPs 143 Roaming Capabilities 144 Wireless bridging 144 Ad-hoc networks 145 Configuring a Wireless Access Point 145 Basic configuration options 146 DHCP configuration 146 Connecting to a Wireless Network 147 Paying Attention to Wireless Network Security 149 Chapter 9: Connecting to the Internet 155 Connecting to the Internet 155 Connecting with cable or DSL 156 Connecting with high-speed private lines 157 Sharing an Internet connection 158 Securing Your Connection with a Firewall 159 Using a firewall 159 Comparing residential gateways to firewall routers 161 Looking at the built-in Windows firewall 161 Providing a Backup Internet Connection 163 Part 3: Working with Servers 165 Chapter 10: Virtualizing Your Network 167 Understanding Virtualization 167 Understanding Hypervisors 169 Understanding Virtual Disks 171 Understanding Network Virtualization 173 Looking at the Benefits of Virtualization 174 Choosing Virtualization Hosts 176 Understanding Windows Server 2019 Licensing 176 Introducing Hyper-V 178 Understanding the Hyper-V hypervisor 178 Understanding virtual disks 179 Enabling Hyper-V 180 Getting Familiar with Hyper-V 181 Creating a Virtual Switch 182 Creating a Virtual Disk 184 Creating a Virtual Machine 188 Installing an Operating System 192 Chapter 11: Setting Up a Windows Server 195 Planning a Windows Server Installation 196 Checking system requirements 196 Reading the release notes 196 Considering your licensing options 196 Deciding your TCP/IP configuration 197 Choosing workgroups or domains 197 Running Setup 198 Adding Server Roles and Features 203 Creating a New Domain 208 Chapter 12: Managing Windows User Accounts 213 Understanding How Active Directory Is Organized 214 Objects 214 Domains 215 Organizational units 215 Trees 216 Forests 216 Understanding Windows User Accounts 216 Local accounts versus domain accounts 216 User account properties 217 Creating a New User 217 Setting User Properties 220 Changing the user’s contact information 220 Setting account options 221 Specifying logon hours 223 Restricting access to certain computers 223 Setting the user’s profile information 224 Resetting User Passwords 225 Disabling and Enabling User Accounts 226 Deleting a User 226 Working with Groups 227 Creating a group 227 Adding a member to a group 228 Creating a Logon Script 230 Chapter 13: Managing Network Storage 231 Understanding Disk Storage 231 Hard disk drives 231 Solid state drives to the rescue! 234 It’s a RAID! 234 Three ways to attach disks to your servers 236 Focusing on File Servers 237 Understanding permissions 237 Understanding shares 239 Managing Your File Server 240 Using the New Share Wizard 241 Sharing a folder without the wizard 245 Granting permissions 247 Part 4: Managing Your Network 251 Chapter 14: Welcome to Network Management 253 What a Network Administrator Does 254 Choosing the Part-Time Administrator 255 The Three “Ups” of Network Management 256 Managing Network Users 257 Acquiring Software Tools for Network Administrators 258 Building a Library 259 Pursuing Certification 260 Helpful Bluffs and Excuses 261 Chapter 15: Supporting Your Users 263 Establishing the Help Desk’s Charter 264 Tracking Support Tickets 265 Deciding How to Communicate with Users 267 Using Remote Assistance 268 Enabling Remote Assistance 269 Inviting someone to help you via a Remote Assistance session 270 Responding to a Remote Assistance invitation 273 Creating a Knowledge Base 275 Creating a Self-Service Help Portal 275 Using Satisfaction Surveys 276 Tracking Help Desk Performance 278 Using Help Desk Management Software 279 Chapter 16: Using Group Policy 281 Understanding Group Policy 281 Enabling Group Policy Management on Windows Server 2019 282 Creating Group Policy Objects 283 Filtering Group Policy Objects 289 Forcing Group Policy Updates 292 Chapter 17: Managing Software Deployment 293 Understanding Software Licenses 294 Using a License Server 297 Deploying Network Software 298 Deploying software manually 298 Running Setup from a network share 299 Installing silently 300 Creating an administrative installation image 301 Pushing out software with Group Policy 302 Keeping Software Up to Date 302 Chapter 18: Managing Mobile Devices 305 The Many Types of Mobile Devices 306 Considering Security for Mobile Devices 307 Managing iOS Devices 308 Understanding the iPhone 308 Understanding the iPad 309 Integrating iOS devices with Exchange 309 Configuring an iOS device for Exchange email 311 Managing Android Devices 314 Looking at the Android OS 314 Perusing Android’s core applications 315 Integrating Android with Exchange 316 Part 5: Securing Your Network 317 Chapter 19: Welcome to Cybersecurity Network 319 Do You Need Security? 320 The Three Pillars of Cybersecurity 321 Two Approaches to Security 322 Physical Security: Locking Your Doors 323 Securing User Accounts 324 Obfuscating your usernames 324 Using passwords wisely 325 Generating passwords For Dummies 326 Secure the Administrator account 328 Managing User Security 328 User accounts 329 Built-in accounts 330 User rights 331 Permissions (who gets what) 331 Group therapy 332 User profiles 333 Logon scripts 334 Securing the Human Firewall 334 Chapter 20: Hardening Your Network 337 Firewalls 337 The Many Types of Firewalls 339 Packet filtering 339 Stateful packet inspection (SPI) 341 Circuit-level gateway 342 Application gateway 342 Next-generation firewall 343 Virus Protection 343 What is a virus? 343 Antivirus programs 345 Safe computing 346 Patching Things Up 346 Chapter 21: Securing Your Email 349 Defining Spam 350 Sampling the Many Flavors of Spam 351 Using Antispam Software 352 Understanding Spam Filters 353 Looking at Three Types of Antispam Software 356 On-premises antispam 356 Antispam appliances 357 Cloud-based antispam services 358 Minimizing Spam 359 Chapter 22: Backing Up Your Data 361 3-2-1: The Golden Rule of Backups 361 How Often Should You Back Up Your Data? 363 Choosing Where to Back Up Your Data 364 Establishing Two Key Backup Objectives 365 Backing Up to Tape 366 Understanding Backup Software 367 Examining File-Based Backups 368 Full backups 369 Copy backups 370 Incremental backups 370 Differential backups 371 Backup and Virtualization 371 Verifying Tape Reliability 373 Keeping Backup Equipment Clean and Reliable 374 Setting Backup Security 375 Chapter 23: Planning for Disaster 377 Assessing Different Types of Disasters 378 Environmental disasters 379 Deliberate disasters 379 Disruption of services 380 Equipment failure 380 Other disasters 381 Analyzing the Impact of a Disaster 381 Developing a Business Continuity Plan 382 Holding a Fire Drill 383 Part 6: More Ways to Network 385 Chapter 24: Accommodating Remote Users 387 Using Outlook Web App 388 Using a Virtual Private Network 389 Looking at VPN security 390 Understanding VPN servers and clients 391 Connecting with Remote Desktop Connection 393 Enabling Remote Desktop Connection 394 Connecting remotely 395 Using keyboard shortcuts for Remote Desktop 397 Chapter 25: Life in Cloud City 399 Introducing Cloud Computing 400 Looking at the Benefits of Cloud Computing 401 Detailing the Drawbacks of Cloud Computing 402 Examining Three Basic Kinds of Cloud Services 403 Applications 404 Platforms 404 Infrastructure 405 Public Clouds versus Private Clouds 405 Introducing Some of the Major Cloud Providers 406 Amazon 406 Google 407 Microsoft 407 Getting into the Cloud 408 Chapter 26: Going Hybrid 409 What Is a Hybrid Cloud? 409 What Are the Benefits of Hybrid Cloud? 411 Elasticity 411 Flexibility 412 Agility 412 Innovation 412 Operational efficiency 412 Integrating Identity 413 Azure Active Directory 413 Single sign-on 414 Looking at Hybrid Cloud Virtualization Platforms 416 Part 7: The Part of Tens 419 Chapter 27: Ten Networking Commandments 421 I Thou Shalt Back Up Thy Data Religiously 421 II Thou Shalt Protect Thy Network from Infidels 422 III Thou Shalt Train Up Thy Users in the Ways of Safe Computing 422 IV Thou Shalt Keepeth Thy Network Drive Pure and Cleanse It of Old Files 423 V Thou Shalt Not Tinker with Thine Network Configuration unless Thou Knowest What Thou Art Doing 423 VI Thou Shalt Not Covet Thy Neighbor’s Network 423 VII Thou Shalt Not Take Down Thy Network without Proper Notification 424 VIII Thou Shalt Keep an Adequate Supply of Spare Parts 424 IX Thou Shalt Not Steal Thy Neighbor’s Program without a License 424 X Thou Shalt Write Down Thy Network Configuration upon Tablets of Stone 425 Chapter 28: Ten Big Network Mistakes 427 Skimping on Hardware 427 Turning Off or Restarting a Server Computer While Users Are Logged On 428 Deleting Important Files on the Server 429 Copying a File from the Server, Changing It, and Then Copying It Back 429 Sending Something to the Printer Again Just Because It Didn’t Print the First Time 430 Assuming That the Server Is Safely Backed Up 430 Connecting to the Internet without Considering Security Issues 430 Plugging in a Wireless Access Point without Asking 431 Thinking You Can’t Work Just Because the Network Is Down 431 Running Out of Space on a Server 432 Always Blaming the Network 433 Chapter 29: Ten Things You Should Keep in Your Closet 435 Duct Tape 435 Tools 436 Patch Cables 436 Cable Ties and Velcro 436 Twinkies 437 Replacement Parts 437 Cheap Network Switches 438 The Complete Documentation of the Network on Tablets of Stone 438 The Network Manuals and Disks 438 Ten Copies of This Book 439 Index 441