General Comments on Networking

Funny how things snowball, isn't it? There I was last week, thinking that I'd just got my PC set-up just how I wanted it - broadband connection, flat 17" LCD screen, hi-fi sound, plenty of RAM and disk space and a none-too-shabby processor speed, when into the Nibelung household comes another supposedly broken-down PC, a kind of payment-in-kind for services rendered to a lady colleague at work. The nature of these services was purely technical, I hasten to add - that's the official party line, and I see no need to deviate from it! So there I am with another PC, this one sat on the dining table (always a "popular" place to ...  Read the complete review

****************WARNING************************ This is a bloody long article Got more than one PC? Lots of people are now well into their second generation of PC's and have loads of old bits lying around. Maybe you want to share printers or connect to the Internet from several PC's. Maybe you want to play games against one another or share files, images and the like. You need a network mate, that's what you need. Now, try as I might I can't find a definitive guide to setting one up. You have to work from bits and pieces you find all over the place. So, deep breath, here is Jeff's rough guide to setting up a network. ...  Read the complete review

I do not consider myself to be particularly skilled in the art of computing - I switch it on, use the applications and pray that nothing malfunctions. I had never imagined that I would have my own home network...albeit only two PC's. Due to some recent conflict over PC usage for internet access, I started to look at the options for getting the PC upstairs hooked up as well. After a little research, the idea of a wireless home network appealed to me - after all, nobody wants to run wires all round the house. I purchased a twin pack of ACTIONTEC USB WIRELESS ADAPTERS from Jungle.com. They arrived the next day - great service. These are very small ...  Read the complete review

Picture the scene. My friends and I (note the good English!) have just finished our A-levels, and have about 3 months free to have some fun. One of your friends parents go away, and he decides to have a party. But this is no normal party, this is a network party! It may sound a little sad to most people, but it's actually quite a lot of fun. Computer games you see, that's the reason! A lot of the computer game doubters say that they are an anti-social affair, but that could not be further from the truth. Computer games are better when played with or against another person, but unfortunately for us PC gamers the chance to do this is not all that common. ...  Read the complete review

Recently I wanted to connect two PCs to a single printer. This must be quite a common requirement, and I know there are various ways of doing it. I selected a Belkin Bitronics autoswitch for parallel cable connection, and when used in this mode it doesn't require a power supply. One of the computers required a 10 metre cable, and I had a lot of trouble tracking this down. I located it at misco, and incidentally their catalogue contains a very useful section on cables and connectors, with detailed diagrams so that you can be sure to get the correct one. In this case I needed a DB25 A-A male parallel cable. The system now works really well, with each PC appearing to ...  Read the complete review