Networking in today's business environment includes everything from web access to printing, so this section may grow to address quite a variety of issues. We welcome your questions on networking and Internet-related issues.
Goodbye, sneakernet
Although networking has gotten a whole lot simpler in the years since Novell first released Netware and Microsoft made its first tentative steps toward Windows networking with Windows for Workgroups 3.1, it can still be tricky. The most common problems occur when trying to network computers or peripherals (printers, etc.) while running different operating systems. It's safe to say that the latest releases of Windows and Mac OS X have made networking simple enough that most people can handle the setup themselves. However, if you are still running Windows 95, Win98, Windows NT or any other OS that's giving you network grief, it is unlikely that whatever I might be able to tell you will provide a certain answer -- there are just too many things that can go wrong. With that said, there are a few things you can do that will maximize your chances of success.
Your local electronics superstore will almost certainly sell routers, wireless network cards, hubs, cables and other parenphenalia you might need. For a basic two-computer network, all you need is a pair of Ethernet cards (about $15 each) and a "crossover cable." At that price, having more than one PC in a room and not having them networked doesn't make sense! If you prefer you can use a standard Ethernet cable and a hub. If you want to connect them both to an internet connection, use a Router. You probably won't need to install any special networking software -- your operating system will almost certainly have everything you'll need for a basic setup.
Once networked, computer users can share files, printers and even set up an "intranet" (private website) quickly and easily. Goodbye, sneakernet!
Of course, networks can get pretty complicated. However, as Intel says, "learning about server technology today will enhance your opportunities tomorrow." To ease the complexity, Intel and a number of other companies are currently developing a series of advanced network and PC-management capabilities in their product lines as part of an initiative known as "Wired for Management." Expect to hear more about WFM in coming months, or drop by www.intel.com/businesscomputing for more info.
Upgrades
Q: Our company wants to provide sample software applications and marketing materials to potential customers via our own Windows NT Home page. We want to be able to control access to our WWW page and force the user to complete a survey form before downloading any sample software. We of course cannot due this if our Home page is located on the ISP's UNIX computer. Does the Computer Paper have any articles dealing with this issue? Some of the problems I see are identified below: As our company is unable to get a digital ISDN line from the telephone company that leaves use with a dedicated modem (56K) line. Of course this conjures up images of very slow access speeds for anyone trying to access our home page. On the other hand chances are that the party accessing our home page will be running a 56K modem as well, so both ends of the connection represent a bottleneck. Thus I don't feel this should be a problem??? The other options is to leave our Home page with the ISP and use hyperlinks which point to our Windows NT server home page. This way we can control who is downloading our sample software products etc. If Computer Paper has any articles on this topic I would appreciate such. Thanks.
Paul
A: I am of the opinion that you should be able to do this using your existing ISP, if you have a reasonably good technical contact at the service provider. Almost all ISPs offer "CGI-BIN" capabilities, although you usually have to specifically request information on how to access them. You could ask them what is required to post data from a form using a web page hosted on their site.
There are many books on CGI and Perl scripting available at your local computer bookstore, and TCP's Web Weaving series has some relevant info as well. http://tcp.ca/
Part 3, "Forms and Using CGI" is particularly relevant.
As well, your clients may only be on 56K, but if there's a bunch of them and they're all trying to use the same 56K pipe on your end, they may experience delays. One solution would be to park a server in an ISPs building, on its internal network.
In a worst case scenario (i.e., no help or CGI support from your ISP), you could still do it by simply encrypting the data with a password (you could use the shareware title "WinZip" or a number of other products). Then, have a web page on your ISP's site that uses the mailto: tag to send the form via email to you. Upon receipt, you simply send them the password that unlocks the encrypted data
Would more RAM Help?
Q: Hello, I would like to hear your opinion on the following: I have a PC 486DX4/100 with 16 Ram Simms 72 pins. I do enjoy the internet through MTS-Sympatico. What I would like to know if it would make a big difference in the speed to receive information from the interne if I would add another 16 Ram to make it 32 Ram. I also would like to know what or if there is a difference between "EDO" Ram and "SIMMS" Ram. I would very much appreciate it if you could answer me very soon.
Thank you, U. Toews
A: If you use Windows 3.1, you would not see much benefit by going to 32MB. Windows 95 or newer releases will see a greater benefit -- Windows 98 users will see a HUGE benefit. However, a faster modem (or cable modem or other high-speed access device) would give you a greater boost. Also, upgrading your motherboard to a Pentium or better processor would help. I'd recommend a cable modem if that is an option in your area. The cable modem services I've tested have been very fast and quite inexpensive ($25/mo).
Email using Outlook
Q: I've just purchased a Dell Latitude with all the bells and whistles. Unfortunately, I'm having no luck whatsoever getting Microsoft Outlook to function. As such, I can't use my email off the Web. Part of the problem maybe the nature of my email hook-up, I use a telnet dial up to reach the local college where I have an account with the university I work for. As such, while I am serviced through the college, my actual email account is with the university which is 500 km away. Goofy eh? As such, when the computer wants to know the address for the Microsoft server I haven't a clue. I can't even tell them where my "post office" is on my own machine. Any suggestions for this overmatched Luddite?
All the best,
Jon Swainger
University of Northern British Columbia
Fort St. John Campus
A: You may find that Dell's technical support staff can help you -- they are top-rated in the industry. Windows 95 and NT have a scripting option in the dial-up networking service, but you will have to ask the university what sequence of events its server expects. As for Outlook, it, like Microsoft's earlier Exchange client ("Inbox") and Internet Mail client, uses standard SMTP (simple mail transport protocol = outgoing) and POP3 (post office protocol = incoming) protocols. If the email system you are accessing doesn't support a protocol that Outlook can handle, it won't work.
You might ask the university's techies whether they support Eudora or Netscape as email clients. If the answer is "yes," then you can use Outlook, as these better-known email programs also use SMTP and POP3 protocols and exactly the same procedures would apply. If the answer is "no," ask the university IT staff for help.
Need Statistics
Q: I'm doing some research on Canada and would like to know what the percentage of the population has PC access and internet access. Someone suggested your magazine as a good place to find out. I've been searching on your site and have found some useful info but I'm still missing those two tidbits of information. I would appreciate it if you could give those statistics or point me to where I can find them.
A: One source of research on the Canadian market is Evans Research at http://www.plesman.com/evans/. You have to pay for full reports, but you can get some statistics from their press releases. Another source is the report of the Information Highway Advisory Council at the federal gov't's Strategis site at http://strategis.ic.gc.ca/IHAC, which has figures on how Canadians use technology.
Twisted Pair Network for Mac
Q: I've heard about a Macintosh networking system that uses regular telephone (twisted pair) wiring. Is this true?
A: Yes. The system (now discontinued) was called PhoneNet and it was from Farallon (which subsequently changed its name to Netopia.). Find out more at www.farallon.com.
Q: Can a small star network share a cable modem? Is there a network card you would recommend? Would there be any advantage to using a 100baseT card in a cable modem confuration? Are there any problems with this idea that I haven't thought of? Are you sick of questions yet?
A: "Sharing" is not supported by most cable service providers in a home configuration, however, Shaw Cable and some other providers have a higher-cost "@work" option that permits multiple computers in an office to share the cable modem's bandwidth (typically about 30K/sec). Ahem. However, it is said to be possible without paying extra -- however, you'd need to run a server, and the cable company would definitely not like to know that you are doing this. See http://www.plainsboro.com/kman_speaks/cablemodem.html for details and likely problems.
SyGate is a software solution that runs on Windows 95/98. It allows you to share a cable modem, analog modem, ISDN and ADSL modems. Visit www.sygate.com/install.htm for a step-by-step guide to sharing a cable modem using SyGate 1.1. A free trial version is downloadable. The three user version is US$49. A similar product is named WinGate.
Another solution -- a tad more expensive -- is to put NT 4.0 Server on one of your computers, then run MS Proxy Server2.0 on it. This, some say, works better than WinGate or Sygate.
However, software based routers, proxy servers, and address translators have inherent performance penalties. Thus, there are hardware-based solutions, too. NAT1000 is an IP address translator. It will let you connect up to 1000 nodes. One user in the comp.os.ms-windows.networking.win95 newsgroup recommends calling your cable modem service provider to see if they have multi IP addresses available. Some providers are reportedly beta testing a service, where you may have as many as three computers attached to a single cable modem, for a nominal additional fee (a price of US$6.95 for each additional connection was mentioned). Then, all you need, as a post from Usenet user Timothy Stewart said, is an inexpensive Ethernet hub, a network card in each computer, and a little knowledge about how to set up a small LAN. This way, you aren't "stealing" cable bandwidth, and you don't have to worry about tweaking around with proxies or address translators, which eat up CPU and I/O time, no matter what anyone tells you. Check Usenet for more info on these topics.
Would 100baseT yield any advantage over 10baseT? -- Not really, especially since most cable modem installations include a 10baseT Ethernet card as part of the deal. Nevertheless, the available bandwidth of cable, ADSL and other high-performance networks will almost surely increase in a year or two, so I'd consider it a reasonable investment. I'd recommend a good quality 100baseT-compatible hub, such as one of the models from 3com, Linksys, or Cnet. (I have the last two, and don't have any complaints with either). There are many good Ethernet cards. Even the bad ones seem to work fine. :-) I use a D-Link 530TX and 538TX PCI cards in most of my PCs. I also use a Connexperts AMD-compatible PCI model from Applied Creative Technologies in one of my PCs, a Megahertz PC Card in my portable, and a 3Com 10/100baseT XL card in another desktop unit. The Connexperts model (www.connexperts.com) has been the least trouble overall.
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