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Windows XP Professional Network Verification
You should have checked first your Network
adapter, then you should verify /
configure the
network setup ( Windows XP Professional is different than Windows XP Home Edition ) :
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In the
Control-Panel, select the
System icon:

(or right-click "My Computer" on the desktop
and select Properties)
Select the tab : Computer Name
The "Full computer Name" must be
UNIQUE on the network : all other
systems MUST have a different name.
Unless you have an NT,Win2000 or
soon an XP-server, you are using the
Workgroup method of networking,
and all systems on the network should
use the SAME workgroup name.
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If
required, use the button "Change..."
and adjust the values. |
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In the Control-Panel,
select the
Network Connection icon:

(or right-click "My Network Places" on the
desktop
and select Properties)
Select your Local Area Connection,
then right-click and "Properties"
or
from the "Network Tasks"
(left side)
"Change settings of this connection" : |
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All required components
for a LAN
are installed by default:
- Network Client
- File and Printer Sharing
- TCP/IP network protocol
If your network requires a different
protocol, you can install IPX/SPX or
even NetBEUI
(although not "supported"
anymore by Microsoft)
It is a good choice to use TCP/IP
protocol , but I suggest to configure
it (via "Properties")
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For TCP/IP-protocol to work,
each system needs to have a
UNIQUE IP-address.
By default, TCP/IP is configured to
"Obtain an IP address automatically":
XP will first try to locate a DHCP
server on the network and if no
DHCP-server is found, it will use
Auto-IP-Generation (like in Windows
98/ME and Windows 2000) to
generate an IP-address.
If you select to use such
automatically assigned IP-addresses,
you can open a "Command Prompt"
windows and type : IPCONFIG to
find out, which IP-address has
assigned to your system. |

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Since the Automatic
IP-address generation
will cause a delay before the network
becomes available (while searching for the
DHCP-server) , I prefer to define the
IP-address myself , especially since I have
on my network also a Windows95 and NT4
system, which are not able to generate
automatically an IP-address and need to be
configured manually.
Also, with more and more people getting
Broadband Internet connections via ADSL
or cable-modems, I prefer to configure the
LAN myself to avoid conflicts with the
network settings for the connection to the
ADSL or cable-modem.
I suggest to use an IP-address from the
range 192.168.1.x and Subnet-mask
255.255.255.0.
A quick look under "Advanced..."
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with Windows 2000 Server,
Microsoft has
introduced "Active Directory", which
allows to use a network without
NetBIOS
(reducing network overhead, important
especially for WAN configurations).
But unless you have a Windows2000
server (or later a Windows XP server) on
your network, you still need to have
NetBIOS enabled to be able to communicate
with other Windows systems :
make sure, that "NetBIOS over TCP/IP"
is NOT disabled. |
You are now ready to access the network via
"My Network Places" and to allow other system
to access data on your system by Sharing.
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