Networking XP Pro

  • Thread starter Thread starter Bill McDade
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Bill McDade

I'm not sure if this the right newsgroup, but here goes. I have agreed to
try to set up a network which will consist of four XP Pro machines connected
to an old machine which will be used as a file server. I have never done
this before and I am no computer whiz. That's the bad news.

The good news is I have time. I am doing it partly just to see if I can, and
partly because one of the four machines belongs to me. There are only five
people in the company (landscape design) and I am a landscape architect by
profession. Can someone recommend a book aimed squarely at configuring a
network consisting of only XP Pro machines?

I don't want to make this any more difficult than it has to be, because once
completed, I will probably never do it again. Thanks for any
recommendations!
 
"Bill McDade" said:
I'm not sure if this the right newsgroup, but here goes. I have agreed to
try to set up a network which will consist of four XP Pro machines connected
to an old machine which will be used as a file server. I have never done
this before and I am no computer whiz. That's the bad news.

The good news is I have time. I am doing it partly just to see if I can, and
partly because one of the four machines belongs to me. There are only five
people in the company (landscape design) and I am a landscape architect by
profession. Can someone recommend a book aimed squarely at configuring a
network consisting of only XP Pro machines?

I don't want to make this any more difficult than it has to be, because once
completed, I will probably never do it again. Thanks for any
recommendations!
Click to expand...

This book should fill the bill, Bill: "Step by Step Home Networking
with Microsoft Windows XP", by Matthew Danda and Heather T. Brown,
Microsoft Press, ISBN 0-7356-1435-0.

These web sites have additional information:

http://www.practicallynetworked.com
http://www.wown.com

Please come back to this news group any time with additional
questions. Good luck!
--
Best Wishes,
Steve Winograd, MS-MVP (Windows Networking)

Please post any reply as a follow-up message in the news group
for everyone to see. I'm sorry, but I don't answer questions
addressed directly to me in E-mail or news groups.

Microsoft Most Valuable Professional Program
http://mvp.support.microsoft.com
 
"Bill McDade" said:
Hi Steve,

Thanks very much for answering. I found the book at Amazon. Since I posted
my original message one of the guys in the group asked me about getting an
additional machine to make it a seperate print server to serve all the
machines on what will be our new network. He wants a seperate machine
because we each have our own printer now and his thinking is that if we add
a print server each person would have access to all printers if one went
down, ran out of ink, etc.

I think his thinking is similar to why we want to have a network for the
computers; backup in case one of the individual computers goes down. That
would make our network four XP Pro machines, one fileserver and one print
server.

Knowing about this addition to our network, do you still think "Step by Step
Home Networking with Microsoft Windows XP" is t5he correct book? I'm asking
because of the addition of the print server and because the book's title
says "Home Networking". Is there even a difference between home networking
and office networking?
Click to expand...

That book will be fine, Bill. A better title for it might be "SOHO
(Small Office / Home Office) Networking with Microsoft Windows XP".

There's no meaningful distinction between home networking and office
networking unless you have a computer acting as a domain controller
and running a server operating system. Windows XP and older versions
aren't server operating systems.

Here's an alternative to using s separate computer as a print server:
get a dedicated print server, which is a box with an Ethernet
connection for the network and one or more parallel ports for
connecting printers. They're less expensive and more reliable than
using a computer. These web pages show some examples:

http://www.netgear.com/products/printservers/printservers.asp
http://www.linksys.com/products/group.asp?grid=34&scid=32
http://www.dlink.com/products/category.asp?cid=10
--
Best Wishes,
Steve Winograd, MS-MVP (Windows Networking)

Please post any reply as a follow-up message in the news group
for everyone to see. I'm sorry, but I don't answer questions
addressed directly to me in E-mail or news groups.

Microsoft Most Valuable Professional Program
http://mvp.support.microsoft.com
 
Thanks again for the information you provided. I looked at a configuration
from D-Link and it looked to set up a printer network the hardware cost will
be about $200-300 which is less that adding a dedicated computer to act as a
print server which is acceptable.

One last question, at what point should we consider buying a server
operating system and what advantages does it provide? I think our network
might continue to grow.
 
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