Important networking information for Mac OS X users
For your network to operate properly, each computer on the network must use software that supports networking.
Operating systems
Peer-to-peer networking can't get much simpler than this: the Macintosh operating system is network-ready. You won't need to install a different operating system than the one that's already in use on your computers.
Just because you have the proper operating system doesn't necessarily mean that your network will run the way you want. Special controls in a network operating system, called protocols, must be present in your operating system to ensure that the programs you run on the network-including AccountEdge-are able to send and receive messages with the other computers on the network. These protocols determine how messages are delivered across the network. Fortunately, these protocols are already present on most Macintosh computers; the most you might need to do is activate them (we'll perform this step later in these lessons).
What network software does AccountEdge require?
The standard network protocol on all Macintosh computers, AppleTalk, is used to run AccountEdge. Alternatively, if you don't want to use AppleTalk on your Macintosh network, you can choose to use the TCP/IP protocol to run AccountEdge.
We'll discuss how to check your computers to see whether the proper protocols are enabled.
More information about TCP/IP
Interested in this strangely named network protocol? Here's some basic information about how it works.
TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol) is the protocol that's used in many large networks-including the Internet-but is increasingly popular in smaller networks, as well, mainly because of its speed.
TCP/IP has a direct method of transferring data from one device to another. Each computer in a TCP/IP network is assigned a specific, unique IP address that identifies the computer to the network and the rest of the world. All IP addresses are stored in a centralized registry or a distributed directory service, often located within a company using a router, or outside of a company at an Internet Service Provider (ISP).
When one device needs to communicate with another device in a TCP/IP network, it sends a packet of data to the centralized registry. The registry then locates the intended device's IP number and directs the packet immediately to that device. (For example, if Computer1 is trying to send data to an AccountEdge company file on Computer2, Computer1 will send its request to the centralized registry. The registry will then pass on Computer1's request directly to Computer2.)
Once a device has found the device with which it wants to communicate on a TCP/IP network, the two devices can communicate directly. Since each device on a TCP/IP network has a fixed address by which it is identified, however, the devices rarely lose contact with each other until the connection is intentionally broken.
Networking Overview - Network software and their protocols