Tips and Tricks

Network configuration can take a long time unless you have a few tricks up your sleeve. Use this section to help you find faster, easier, and better ways to set up and use your network.

Installation

• If you are setting up several systems with identical hardware, NICs, and software, consider making an image file of the first system after you complete its installation with a program such as Drive Image Professional, and then connecting the other computers and "cloning" the first computer's hard disk to each additional system. Check with the imaging software vendor for details.

• Don't click OK in the Windows Networks properties sheet until you have made all the changes you want to make (see the previous list) on a Windows 9x or Me system. Whenever you click OK, you are prompted to reboot the system to apply the changes.

• If you're salvaging old 10BASE-T Ethernet cards for a network, use Category 5 UTP and dual-speed hubs to make switching to Fast Ethernet in the future easier. I recommend this only if your systems use ISA cards; new 10/100 Ethernet cards cost less than $20 each.

Sharing Resources

• If you want to have network drives or folders show up as part of My Computer so you can search them and see them easily in Windows Explorer, map a drive letter to each one. This step is desirable with any combination of operating systems and is a virtual necessity on networks in which Windows 2000 or Windows XP computers are accessing shared resources on a Windows 9x computer. Browsing the network is very slow without mapped drives, but access to shares through a mapped drive letter is very fast.

• To more easily keep drive mappings straight, I use the drive letter I plan to use for mapping on other workstations as the name of the shared resource on my peer server. In other words, if I want to map the D: drive on my peer server as "P:", I name it "P" when I set its sharing properties. Then, as I view the folder from another computer, I know from its name that I should map it as "P:". This enables multiple PCs to easily map the same resource as the same drive letter on different systems, which makes it easier if people in your office play musical computers.

Setting Up Security

• If you're building a peer-to-peer network, keep in mind that passwords are the only way to keep unwanted users out of your system.

• Create a group of several users and assign rights on a group basis when you have several users who need the same access rights.

Sharing Internet Connections

• If you are planning to share an Internet connection using Microsoft Internet Connection Sharing or other computer-based sharing programs, don't set up File and Printer Sharing on the computer that does the sharing (the proxy server or gateway computer); share drives on other computers instead, or install a self-contained network storage device. Refer to Chapter 17 for software you can add to your computer to keep it safe on the Internet.

• Routers and gateway devices are an economical way to share broadband access in a home or small office, and they are easier to manage and more reliable than using ICS or other sharing programs. Routers and gateways can also act as firewalls to protect your computer from unauthorized access from the Internet.