With prices ranging from $300 to $500, it is no wonder that everybody wants to have one of those netbooks or mini laptops. For the small business person, the netbook represents a low-cost alternative to regular-sized desktops and laptops, although small screen and keyboard size will remain to be an issue against netbooks.

Netbooks are being sold with pre-loaded with Windows XP Home or one version (called distribution) of Linux or another, so you can basically do basic office functions on your netbook because of pre-installed office software: MS Office on Windows XP and Open Office on Linux.

You can even supplement your existing office software by downloading useful office software like GIMP (for photo editing), Scribus (for newsletter and other page design projects), KMyMoney (for double-entry accounting), and Glabels (for making labels).

If you are running a small office or a home-based business, you can easily connect your Windows XP netbook to your computer Windows computer network. If your computers are not yet connected, here are the steps to networking them:

1. Take note of each of your computers location and hardware. Find out where the LAN port is in each computer and map out where each computer is located relative to each other. This is very important in determining where you can hide network cables (if youre using a Local Area Network).

2. Choose which computer will be your Internet Connection Sharing (ICS) host if you are sharing the Internet connection. The ICS host should be your most powerful computer (not necessarily your netbook). To make it easier, make sure that your ICS host runs on Windows XP. The rest of your computers can run on the older Windows 98 or Windows ME.

3. Choose whether you want to network through Ethernet LAN or Wireless LAN. If you opt for Ethernet LAN you need to run cabling between the computers. To have sufficiently powerful internet connection between the computers, the network cables should not be more than 20 feet each.

4. Run the Network Setup Wizard on your ICS host computer. Just click on the Start Menu and click on Network and Internet Connection.

5. Run the Network Setup Wizard on the other computers. Make sure that they are connecting to the network created on the ICS host.

There are many advantages to networking your netbook with other computers in your office. The main advantage is that you can share printers and drives between computers. You also eliminate the need for transferring files through CDs or flash disk and minimize the risk of transferring viruses. You also get to save up on storage space since you can work on a shared file, yet store it only in one computer.

Although the latest models are definitely more powerful than the earlier models of mini laptops, it is doubtful if a mini laptop is powerful enough to be the ICS host in a computer network.