| If you're installing a new network adapter, follow the manufacturer's instructions for installing with Windows XP or Windows 2000. Even if it does not come with specific Windows XP instructions, the installation should be a snap. Just follow these steps: 1. | If you have purchased an internal card, shut down Windows, shut off the computer, unplug it, open the case, install the card in an empty slot, close the case, and restart Windows.
TIP If you've never worked inside your computer, jump ahead to Chapter 30, "Installing and Replacing Hardware," for advice and handy tips. If you are adding a PCMCIA or USB adapter, be sure you're logged on with a "Computer Administrator" account, and then just plug it in while Windows is running.
If you're using your computer's IEEE-1394 port, there's nothing to install or configure.
| 2. | When you're back at the Windows log in screen, log in as a Computer Administrator. Windows will display the New Hardware Detected dialog when you log in.
| 3. | The New Hardware Detected dialog might instruct you to insert your Windows XP CD-ROM. If Windows cannot find a suitable driver for your adapter from this CD, it may ask you to insert a driver disk that your network card's manufacturer should have provided (either a CD-ROM or floppy disk).
If you are asked, insert the manufacturer's disk and click OK. If Windows says that it cannot locate an appropriate device driver, try again, and this time click the Browse button. Locate a folder named WindowsXP, Windows2000 (or some reasonable approximation), W2K, or NT5 on the floppy, and click OK.
NOTE The exact name of the folder containing your device driver varies from vendor to vendor. You might have to poke around a little on the disk to find it. | 4. | After Windows has installed the card's driver software, it automatically configures and uses the card. Check the Device Manager to see whether the card is installed and functioning. Then you can proceed to "Installing Network Wiring" later in this chapter.
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 For more detailed instructions about installing drivers, Checking Existing Adapters If your adapter was already installed when you set up Windows XP, it may already be ready to go, in which case you can skip this section and jump down to "Installing Network Wiring." Follow these steps to see whether the adapter is already set up: 1. | Right-click My Computer and select Manage.
| 2. | Select Device Manager in the left pane, and open the Network Adapters list in the right pane.
| 3. | Look for an entry for your network card. If it appears and does not have a yellow exclamation point (!) icon to the left of its name, the card is installed and correctly configured. In this case, you can skip ahead to "Installing Network Wiring."
If an entry appears but has a yellow exclamation point icon by its name, the card is not correctly configured.
| 4. | If no entry exists for the card, the adapter is not fully plugged into the motherboard, it's broken, or it is not "plug and play" capable. Be sure the card is installed correctly. If the card is broken or nonplug-and-play, you should replace it. Check out Chapter 30, "Installing and Replacing Hardware," for troubleshooting tips.
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NOTE If you see an exclamation point icon in the Network Adapters list, skip ahead to Chapter 22, "Troubleshooting Your Network," for tips on getting the card to work before proceeding. Here's an additional tip: network adapters are really inexpensive. If you're having trouble with an old adapter, just go get a new one.
Installing Multiple Network Adapters You might want to install multiple network adapters in your computer if You simultaneously connect to two or more different networks with different IP addresses or protocols. You'd use a separate adapter to connect to each network. You want to share a broadband cable or DSL Internet connection with your LAN without using a hardware sharing router. I strongly recommend using a hardware router, as I'll discuss in Chapter 19, but you can also do it using one adapter to connect to your LAN and another to connect to your cable or DSL modem. You have two different network types, such as Phoneline and Ethernet, and want the computers on both LAN types to be able to communicate. You could use a hardware Access Point, but you could also install both types of adapters in one of your computers, and use the Bridging feature to connect the networks. I'll discuss bridging later in this chapter.
I suggest that you use the following procedure to install multiple adapters: 1. | Install and configure the first adapter. If you're doing this to share an Internet connection, install and configure the one you'll use for the Internet connection first. Configure and test the Internet connection as well.
| 2. | Click Start, Control Panel, Network and Internet Connections, Network Connections. Select the icon named Local Area Connection and choose Rename This Connection in Network Tasks. (Or, right-click the icon and select Rename.) Change the connection's name to something that indicates what it's used for, such as "Connection to Cable Modem" or "Office Ethernet Network."
| 3. | Write the name on a piece of tape or a sticky label and apply it to the back of your computer above the network adapter, or to the edge plate of the network card.
| 4. | Install the second adapter. Configure it and repeat steps 2 and 3 with the new Local Area Connection icon. Name this connection appropriately, for example, "LAN" or "Wireless Net," and put a tape or paper label on the computer too.
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If you follow these steps, you'll be able to distinguish the two connections easily in the future, instead of having to remember which "Local Area Connection" icon is which. |
