18.2 Installing Drivers

Regardless of which kind of network adapters you install in your computers, your next obligation is to install their software drivers. Fortunately, Windows XP comes with built-in drivers for almost all recent networking cards. When you turn the PC on after installing the card, you'll generally see XP install its driver almost automatically. If you're not so lucky ”say you're using an old or nonstandard (read: cheap) network adapter ”see Chapter 14 for advice on what to do when Plug and Play fails.