Many devices (like printers and scanners) now have network capability so that they don't need to be connected any one computer. I find that having a network printer is useful and I still have lots of dot matrix printer tractor feed paper. It is possible to continue using older printers that have only USB or parallel ports. I have a D-Link DP-G321 (print server) but D-Link no longer makes these devices.
| TP-Link TL-WPS510U |
TP-Link TL-PS110U |
TP-Link TL-PS110P |
Another useful device to have on a home network is a file server. Digital data is extremely fragile and the best way to protect it is to store your data in multiple different locations. It's not always cost effective to use cloud-based backup (like Microsoft OneDrive and Google Drive) so local backup drive can be a good option. I started off with a Netgear SC101 as my Network Attached Storage (NAS) device that used a pair of PATA (Parallel ATA) hard drives and it worked great while it worked. However, after one of the hard drives failed, it was challenging to recover the data because it was stored in a proprietary Z-San file system. Modern NAS drives are pretty much plug & play as well.
| Synology DS218j |
Western Digital WDBFBE0040JBK-NESN |
Buffalo LinkStation 220 |
After my SC101 burned out and never wanting to do things the easy way, I decided to put one of my old Windows XP computers back into service as a file server with a couple of SATA (Serial ATA) hard drives in Raid-1 Configuration. It worked great until a Windows 10 security patch prevented me accessing it on my network. More about my file server project here: Home File Server.