Why build a home network? Ten years ago, the only answer to that question would be, "Because I'm an incurable geek." But with so many products and services out today for home networks the question now is "Why wouldn't you want to?"

A home network will let you share high-speed Internet access with any computer in the house—the spouse's, the kids', and even visiting Grandma's MacBook are within reach. A network lets you control what the kids are doing on the Web, share data and multimedia files across all your computers, automate backups for all those computers and even use Webcams to see what that new puppy is doing in the living room while you're at work. With a network, the bedroom computer upstairs can print to the color printer in the downstairs study and the media PC in the living room can show a movie on the PC-connected TV in the master bedroom.

All this is accomplished simply by hooking your Windows PCs together and adding on network-oriented products makes the network even more useful. Find out how to hook up your home in our step-by-step Home Networking guide.