Vent - Home Networking Hard Work!

This was a lot of work!

My excellent adventure in home networking was a lot of hard work. Why
is it so hard? Here's what took me five hours to complete last
Friday. My objective was to bring up two PCs in my home on a wireless
network. I succeeded, but what a struggle.

1. Run Lavasoft Ad-aware on both PCs. Remove accumulated spyware (87
pieces in all mostly tracking cookies, but also some hits to registry
on both machines), disable Windows XP SP1 firewall which apparently
blocked none of it including two nasty pieces on one machine (Gator,
Weather Bug).

2. Load Norton Internet Security (firewall) on both PCs. Run script
to identify programs that access the Internet. Download two updates
of about 6 Mb each on both PCs. This is while still on dial-up.
Watch TV while downloads proceed, about 30 min each. Update Norton
Anti-virus software to work with Norton firewall. More waiting on
dial-up downloads at 4.5 kbs. Daytime TV stinks. Why can't these
updates be loaded after I've got the cable Internet at 1.5 Mbs?
Disable Norton firewall rule that mis-identified my faxmodem
software/service driver as a trojan horse. Reconfigure work-related
Check-Point 1 VPN software to work with Firewall. Get firewall to
automatically write a rule for VPN network. After two reboots it
pronounces itself satisfied with the rules, but later decides to
re-write them every time the PC boots. I'll live with it.

3. Install cable modem and software. Register cable modem on network.
Thought I'd done this when I set up the account. Wrong.

4. Load Microsoft wireless patches (KB826942) as add-on to SP1.
Patches are superior to Belkin router's drivers which was dated 2002.
Belkin customer support agrees Microsoft drivers should be used on XP
machines.

5. Install Belkin router, WEP 64-bit encryption, and get router
identified on cable company network. Router has a firewall also.
Left it at default settings. Direct connect router to 1st PC's
ethernet port (on systemboard).

6. Determine Beklin 802.11g PCI wireless card has a broken external
antenna. Return to OfficeMax. Swap it for Belkin USB 2.0 802.11g
wireless node for $10 more and install it successfully on 2nd PC, add
WEP hex keys to let it see the router.

7. Set up additional email accounts on cable company Internet service.
Modify SMTP for all existing email accounts with POP access. Start
telling people in address book about new email address. Dial-up email
addresses are vapor in six weeks.

8. Enjoy home network always on at 1.5 mbs at cable modem. No more
dial-up contentions for a family with 2 PCs.

Whew!

BTW: Belkin's 24 x 7 user support was excellent.

(E-Mail Removed) (Ohadi Langis) wrote in news:419955.0409191909.18b840
@posting.google.com:

> This was a lot of work!
>
> My excellent adventure in home networking was a lot of hard work. Why
> is it so hard? Here's what took me five hours to complete last
> Friday. My objective was to bring up two PCs in my home on a wireless
> network. I succeeded, but what a struggle.

> 3. Install cable modem and software. Register cable modem on network.
> Thought I'd done this when I set up the account. Wrong.

Ewww... does your cable service require the software?! I usually avoid
bundled software like the plauge.


Poor you... took you 5 hours. Typically takes me <10 minutes to get things
up and running (if I don't need to load AV or Anti-Spyware software). With
time and practice you'll be able to setup your internet connection quickly.
It's quite basic after a few tries.

--
Lucas Tam ((E-Mail Removed))
Please delete "REMOVE" from the e-mail address when replying.
http://members.ebay.com/aboutme/coolspot18/

You are absolutely right.

* Dumped the cable modem software. Turned out it was not required.
This would have saved 15 minutes.

* If PCI card hadn't been broken would have saved an hour.

* If I didn't have to download updates to Norton Internet security via
dial-up before broadband account was working, would have saved 90
minutes

These changes alone would have reduced the level of effort by 50%.

:-(

Lucas Tam <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message news:<Xns956A28D6D6D6Dnntprogerscom@140.99.99.130> ...
> (E-Mail Removed) (Ohadi Langis) wrote in news:419955.0409191909.18b840
> @posting.google.com:
>
> > This was a lot of work!
> >
> > My excellent adventure in home networking was a lot of hard work. Why
> > is it so hard? Here's what took me five hours to complete last
> > Friday. My objective was to bring up two PCs in my home on a wireless
> > network. I succeeded, but what a struggle.
>
> > 3. Install cable modem and software. Register cable modem on network.
> > Thought I'd done this when I set up the account. Wrong.
>
> Ewww... does your cable service require the software?! I usually avoid
> bundled software like the plauge.
>
>
> Poor you... took you 5 hours. Typically takes me <10 minutes to get things
> up and running (if I don't need to load AV or Anti-Spyware software). With
> time and practice you'll be able to setup your internet connection quickly.
> It's quite basic after a few tries.