AppleTalk currently handles this very well. If you take a group of Macs and plug them into an Ethernet hub, then you have a working AppleTalk network without any expert intervention, and without needing to set up special servers like a DHCP server or a DNS server. With current Macs with IEEE 802.11 "AirPort" networking built-in, you don't even need the cables and the hub.

On Windows PCs, Microsoft NETBIOS provides a similar ease-of-use for small networks.

One major problem with this situation is that it requires application developers to support one protocol for wide-area communication and a different protocol for local communication. For example, a game developer writing a multi-player game will usually support IP to allow game-play across the Internet. A developer selling a game for $50 doesn't have the technical support budget to provide telephone support for people trying to configure their own "Net 10" IP network at home, so for the sake of ease-of-use, that developer also has to support AppleTalk (in the Macintosh version) and NETBIOS (in the Windows version). Unfortunately, even after doing all that work they haven't really solved their problem, because if someone with a Mac laptop wants to play a network game with their friend who has a Windows laptop, they are still in the position of having to set up their own IP network, because IP is the only cross-platform protocol their two machines have in common. Network printer vendors have the same multi-protocol support issues. It would be much better if a single common protocol worked in all environments.