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How to set up a network in Vista Pag 3
GO WIRELESS WITH YOUR ROUTER
To manually
configure a new wireless router, see the step-by-step guide here . While
most wireless routers give the option of configuring from a wireless or wired
connection to your PC, the wireless option should really only be used as a last
resort. That's because every time you change a setting on the router, you'll
lose the wireless network connection until you make the same change on the
wireless network adapter in your PC. If the router needs the PC to be configured
with a fixed IP address (192.168.0.1, for example), you car do this by following
the steps in the initial part of Is the IP 0~?' in the troubleshooting section
on page 68 and selecting 'Use the following lP address' instead of the 'Obtain
an IP address automatically' option.
A passphrase forWPA orWPA2
encryption can be between eight and 63 characters long, and contain a mix of
letters (case sensitive), numbers and spaces But no spaces at the beginning or
end). Rather than typing into the PSK Ipre-shared key) field, you remove the
risk of typos by copying from XP or Vista's wireless configuration file and
pasting the passphrase. Conversely, if you configure the router first before
anywireless PCs, you should type the passphrase into Notepad, save the file to
use with the wizard inXP orVista, and then copy and paste into the PSK field for
the router. Also, if you do configure the router first, be sure to change the
default SSID to something that's difficult for potential hackers to guess.
WIRELESS SECURITY
A wireless network with the
router's default settings is like a house with no security screens, all of the
doors and windows wide open and a sign on the front lawn that says 'Hackers
welcome'. We've already discussed the basic security procedures: using strong
encryption and changing the default SSID, password and username (if possible) for
your wireless router.This is a good start and may be adequate for many home
networks. There are other techniques beyond the scope of this story, but there
are a few things you can do: disable SSID broadcast, disable the DHCP server on
your router and set fixed IP addresses for PCs on the network (after turning off
DHCP, restrict the range of allowable IP addresses for wireless connections to
those on your network) and lastly, enable MAC (Media Access Control address
filtering to nominate the particular network devices allowed to connect. These
techniques will further deter casual hackers, but be aware that a determined pro
could still wriggle in and capture your PCs, particularly if they're always
powered on.
SHARE A PRINTER
When a printer is shared in either XP or Vista, the
operating system is supposed to install the printer driver on another PC on the
network the first time that PC (the client) connects to the printer. Although
Vista does this more seamlessly than XP (where you usually have to provide the
required driver for XP) r sometimes the remote installation falls over and you
need to install the printer on the client yourself. To do this, make sure that
you have a network connection to the PC that has the shared printer installed.
Then, in XP:
