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• Bringing up the network...

  Windows 95/98/NT is a "peer-to-peer" networking method and there must be at least two "peers" (computers) to be on and active on the network for it to be "UP" and useable.
  
  You will probably need to do a little configuration for the network to work. If you go into the Windows Settings, open the Control Panel and the open the Network icon, you will see three tabs - Configuration, Identification, and Access Control. Select the Identification tab, the one in the middle, first. There are two setting here that are important. Specify a Computer name that you want your computer to be known by on the network and remember that this must be unique. If you don't use a unique name for your computer such that two computers have the same name, Windows95/98 will complain and require you to change one of them. But one good thing about the complaining, you will know that your network is actually working because one computer "saw" another computer with the same name! The Workgroup name should be the same on all the computers in your home.

  
  Having set the Identification properties, don't worry about the "Access Control" tab which is by default set to share-level access control and is the easiest to manage - you probably don't want to complicate your life by changing it. Now the Configuration "page." Selecting the Configure tab in the Network, you'll see a box that should show a "Client for Microsoft Networks, your network card, and two protocols that were added by default when Windows "found" your network card: IPX/SPX compatible and NetBEUI. Your network will "work" with just these two protocols but to make your network more useful and perform a little better, it is recommended that you add the TCP/IP Protocol which is accomplished by selecting "Add" and " Protocol" and under Microsoft, the "TCP/IP" Protocol. While on the "Configuration" page, I also will usually add a service by again selecting "Add" "Service" and then again under Microsoft, selecting "File and printer sharing for Microsoft Networks."
  
  Before leaving the Network setting, there is one more task to perform. TCP/IP is the protocol of the Internet and used for all communications. It is a "routable" protocol because every device on the "network" has a unique "dotted" decimal address in the form of nnn.nnn.nnn.nnn. Now select the TCP/IP line on the network configuration page that references your adapter such as TCP/IP -> [Network Adapter Name] and then select properties. The default page shown is IP Address, and defaulted to "Obtain an IP address automatically." This generally won't work on your home network unless it is really sophisticated and you wouldn't be reading this article because you would know all this! You need to select the "Specify an IP address" and then it will "turn on" the two data entry areas shown.
  
  In specifying an IP address, a couple of considerations: There are public IP addresses on the Internet and it is important for a lot of reasons, which I won't go into here, that you don't use an address that is in the "Public" area. You should use a "Private" IP address as these are not used "Publicly" and usually "blocked" at your Internet Service Providers "gateway" to the Internet so that they are invisible to the rest of the world. The most common one is called the 10 Net area and this is any IP address in which the first number is a 10 as in the example --- and you thought only Bo Derek was a 10!
  
  In the example, I have set the first number or "octet" to a 10 and the next two numbers shown are not bad choices but can be anything you want them to be up from 0 to 255. The important thing is that you make the first three "octets (nnn.nnn.nn), left to right, the same on all of your networked PCs. These three octets defines the "subnet" of your network where peer-to-peer networking takes place. The last number or octet on the right must be unique, just like the computer name. I would recommend that you write down and document each number to which a computer is assigned.

  The second number is the "Subnet mask' - just use the one shown and everything should work fine. You now should select the "Gateway" tab. As you see in the example, this one is set to 10.0.3.1. This "points" at my main or primary computer on my network which is always on and serves as the "master" browser so that all the computers can see the all other computers on the network. This gateway "machine" must be in the same "subnet" i.e., having the same first three numbers as all the other computers in the network. All the other tabs in the TCP/IP page should be left at their defaults. No "DNS" is needed for your network, just in case you were going to ask…
  
  Once you have done all this and said ok on the Network page. Windows will generally want to do some things including copying files so be sure to have your Windows Installation CD handy. Or, if the Windows Installation files are stored on your computer, be sure you know how to get to them so that you can tell Windows how to find them if it doesn't automatically.

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