At 10:48 PM 1/8/02 -0500, you wrote:
>You need to go to settings/control panel/network.  When the dialog box
>comes up, click add, then choose protocol, Microsoft, then IPX/SPX or
>netbeui.  These are the protocols the computers use to communicate.  YOu
>need to bind it to your network adapter.  TCP/IP is for getting on your
>WAN, not for communicating between the computers.


This is incorrect. Netbeui is a simple native windows protocol. The
advantage to Netbeui is that you load it and it works. Nothing to
configure.However, it is a very basic protocol, and doesn't offer anything
in the way of configuration, and or security. You wouldn't want to use it
on a secure LAN, or where you were using a router or NAT.

IPX/SPX is a Netware communications protocol and has no place on a home
network, unless you are using it to connect to a office network that
requires it, from home .

TCP/IP is the most advanced protocol of the three, and while a little more
difficult to learn and setup, is by far the preferred method for a home
LAN. TCP/IP is a routable protocol, which means that all messages contain
not only the address of the destination station, but the address of a
destination network. This is the reason it is used on the Internet. But
there is no reason why it can not, nor should not, be used on a home LAN.

Home routers,  as well as Win98, ME, and Win2000 ICS, use it for this
reason. ICS and most home routers tell you to let the router handle the
addressing using DHCP, However, you can configure your home router to use
fixed IP addressing. Home routers don't have to use DHCP as long as you
follow a standard private address scheme, and don't exceed the routers
range....for example the router, or in the case of ICS the NAT, is the
gateway and is always 192.168.0.1. The clients would be other addresses
192.168.0.X. My Netgear router handles addresses up to 192.168.0.32 so I
wouldn't want to use 40 as an address.

I use fixed addresses on all my clients when running my Netgear 314 as my
Internet router. Why?... because when I want to check something by pinging
it, ... I know exactly what that PCs address is. I also have Linux clients
and fixed addresses make it easier for me to handle them. However on a big
network, letting the router handle the addressing using DHCP would be
easier to administer.

To learn more about setting up a home network check out the FreePCTech
Networking FAQs http://freepctech.com/guides.shtml

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