 Number 211a - Year End 2000 |
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| Home Networking | ||
| by Andrew Hayes, Algorithmica Japonica - October 1999 | ||
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You want to setup a home network, for whatever reasons. Since this is actually quite a complex task, and not just because of the wide range of products available on the market, we'll proceed with this exercise through the eyes of Mr. Jones, an avid home computer user. (We all know him. Right?)
Mr. Jones decides to upgrade his existing Pentium computer, as his newly installed software products are slowing down his Windows 95 installation rather a lot. (No surprises there.) He heads off to Akihabara and returns with a brand new system, including all the bells and whistles one expects, like Pentium III, Windows 98 Release 2, tape backup unit, CD-RW, 3D graphics card, 3D sound card, keyboard, mouse and 19" monitor. He installs the various software packages that he uses onto his new computer with no problems (Surprise). Great. Everything is working fine, and apart from this other computer system just sitting on the floor collecting dust, he is happy. Mrs. Jones sees the old computer and asks her husband "Can I use this to do Internet shopping?" "Sure" he replies, "I will need to get another modem, but no problem". "What about printing the pages that I find?" she asks. "That's a little more difficult." He says, "I'll need to get a printer switch box, and you will have to remember to turn it to the right position before you print". (He thinks she's not quite up on this computer stuff.) "OK, but can I backup my document data to offline storage in case the hard drive crashes and is irretrievably lost?" she inquires. "Only the new computer has a tape unit, but I'll see what I can do." He says. (It seems she's quite knowledgeable in the ways of computers after all). So Mr. Jones decides to build a small home network so that he and his wife can both browse the Internet, use the printer, and store her documents on a shared folder on the new machine so that they get backed up onto tape. So he goes back to Akihabara and buys a home-networking kit comprising 2 Ethernet Network Interface Cards (NICs), 2 lengths of Category-5 Twisted Pair cable, and an Ethernet Hub. He goes home and follows the instructions to install 1 NIC into the old computer and 1 NIC into the new computer. He then plugs each NIC into the Hub using the Cat-5 cables, and plugs the Hub into a mains outlet. So far so good. Since he bought the same model NICs, and they both come with drivers for Windows 95 and Windows 98, they are automatically detected and setup when he restarts both computers. He then configures his network settings so that each NIC has a unique IP Address in one of the Private Ranges (10.x.x.x, 192.168.x.x, and 172.16.x.x to 172.31.x.x) and an appropriate Subnet mask. He chooses 10.0.0.7 and 10.0.0.8 because, being a James Bond fan, they are easy to remember, and a subnet mask of 255.255.255.0. (The default for the selected IP addresses.) As he already has Dial Up Networking (DUN) setup, he doesn't need to add the TCP/IP Protocol, the Microsoft Network Client service, or File and Print Sharing services. (I know, I know. There is more to setting up networking under Windows than what is above, but like Mr. Jones, we use the Internet (www.tokyopc.org) or News Groups (news.tokyopc.org) to find out the real detail, and I say why spoil a good story?) He reboots both his computers again (doesn't see any error messages), and then opening the network |
neighborhood on the new machine shows the old computer in the Browse list under the heading 'Workgroup'. (Like, who ever changes the default workgroup name?)
He quickly sets up sharing the Printer and some Folders for his wife's files. Success! "Why isn't my Internet access working?" asks his wife, 20 minutes later. "Oh. Doesn't it work? It should do." says Mr. Jones, sort-of-innocently. (Uh oh. He forgot about that.) So he looks into how he can go about sharing his 56K modem with the other computer. "Sharing! 56K! It'll take forever to download my MP3 files!" exclaims Mr. Jones. "I'd better find a better solution." He looks into Proxy services and modem pools, but decides that if they are both going to be browsing the Internet he should really get ISDN, which will at least allow him to expand to a 128K bandwidth if he needed. (And he probably will.) After hearing so much about them, he goes to www.bricks.co.jp and reads about ISDN and the choices that there are before sending an e-mail to Naomi (naomi@bricks.co.jp) requesting a new ISDN line to replace his existing PSTN line. She asks "What TA/DSU do you have?" He replies that he doesn't have one and could she suggest one, but mentions that he wants to share the ISDN connection with another computer on a network. "So you'll need an ISDN Router." She says, confidently. "I suggest buying an MN128SOHO. You'll find one in Akihabara." Again, Mr. Jones heads off to Electric City and buys the ISDN Router. That night, Mr. Jones sets up the ISDN Router (including assigning an IP address and setting up protocols, all of which was explained in the manual that came with it), removes the Cat-5 cables from the Hub, and plugs them into the back of the ISDN Router instead, along with the analog phone and fax machine. The next day, NTT automatically change his line over to ISDN (like they said they would, and that Naomi confirmed) and all the phone devices are working perfectly. With a few changes to the network settings, both he and his wife now have shared access to the Internet. Joy of joys! I hope this helps those that are contemplating this 'step-up' in their computing experience, and that it's not all Doom(II) and gloom, and long coffee-filled nights. A lot of us have already been there, and come out with those little bits of knowledge that make it all worth while and that we are quite willing to share.
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Number 211a - Year End 2000
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