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What's a LAN FAST!! The Definition of FASTWhat exactly is a LAN, you ask? In simple terms, a LAN is basically a bunch of computers networked together in close proximity to each other. A LAN has many uses, only some of which are gaming related. As we detailed above, playing gamesover a LAN has some great benefits, most prominently the lack of latency, or ping. Playing games over a LAN eliminates the uneven playing field that plagues online gaming today. (i.e. A player on an ISDN has an advantage over a player on a modem.) But wait, there's more. Over a LAN, you can also share files and printer access, which comes in handy if you have multiple computers at home or want to snag something from a friend's computer. By now, you're probably saying, "Hey, I want a LAN! Where do I get one?" The bad news is, you're going to have to grease up those elbows and open the computer case to do it, but the good news is, we're here to walk and guide you through how to do it. Let's start with the easy stuff and go over the different types of networks out there. To eliminate any chances of confusion, we're only going to cover Ethernet and Fast Ethernet. There are far more complicated networks out there, such as Gigabit Ethernet, token ring, FDDI, and ATM, but the chances are, you'll never come across a need for them. Ethernet is easily the simplest and cheapest option. It runs at 10 Megabits per second (Mbps), or roughly 1.2 Megabytes per second, which is more than sufficient for a small LAN. In this next section, you may come across some strange technical words - don't worry, all you need to learn from it is that there are two ways to implement an Ethernet Network. Windows Networking Guide. The joy of Windows Networking Now you've done it. You've gotten yourself addicted to that silky smooth LAN connection. Are you tired of spending your weekends trudging your computer to various LAN parties? Do you spend your nights giving free Quake lessons to inept college students just to get that daily LAN fix? Your 200 ping over modem just doesn't do it for you anymore; you need that 20 ping. So now you've bought all the necessary network components and connected all your systems, but where do you go from there? How do you configure the network in Windows? We covered all the LAN basics in our How to Set up a Small LAN guide, and now it's time to follow that up with the really tricky part - Windows networking configuration. It's not too complicated, but it's certainly a situation where a little preparation and patience can make up for long hours of frustration. Plug N' PrayInstalling the network card in Windows will probably be the most difficult part of setting up your LAN. The quality of your NIC card, and the number of legacy cards in your system will determine how easy the installation will be, and how many problems you'll run into afterwards. We're going to assume you're running Win95 or 98, as they react identically to any kind of NIC installation routine. The Windows Setup Wizard After physically inserting the card into the system, boot up your computer. Hopefully, Windows will detect the new hardware and launch the Add New Hardware Wizard. At this point, Windows will either ask for the Win98 CD or more commonly, ask for a driver disk from the manufacturer. When Windows asks if you have the driver files, insert the NIC installation disk into your floppy drive. If Windows does not detect your new hardware, the card may be seated improperly, or you may not have a Plug'n'Play card. If you have a PCI NIC or know your card is plug and play, try switching slots. Many motherboards tend to assign different IRQ addresses to different slots, and if one of your PCI slots is designated a slave slot, your system may not recognize the card. In the event that your ISA network card isn't Plug'n'Play, you'll probably have to run a setup program from disk manually - check the instruction manual or disk that came with the card. The NIC installation disk might also include a DOS setup utility that will allow you to test and configure your card. Once the installation is complete, Windows will ask to restart your system. Potential ConflictsAfter rebooting your system, check the Device Manager in the System window of the Control Panel. Make sure there isn't a yellow exclamation symbol next to your network card. If there is a symbol, there's probably a resource conflict between the NIC and another system component. Older non-PnP legacy cards tend to eat up valuable resource settings, and reduce the possible number of configuration options for your NIC. Try changing the resource settings of the NIC. Double click the device and check the Device Status box in the General tab. Any system resource conflicts will be listed here. If you are experiencing a problem, click on the Resources tab and view the Conflicting device list. You should then be able to select the "Set Configuration Manually" button and choose a new I/O range or IRQ to free the conflict. Once done, you'll need to reboot; go back to Device Manager and confirm that the network card is recognized properly. Once Windows recognizes your NIC without any resource conflicts, you're ready to start selecting protocols. Meet the Network Properties After everything is installed you'll need to setup the windows 95/98 peer to peer networking. This is the standard Windows setup for a low security network. Go into the Control Panel and select the "Network Icon. This will bring up your network properties screen.
Your network card should appear in the list of installed network components. If it's not there, the network card isn't installed properly. Our generic network card appears as a NE2000 Compatible. Your network card will probably appear under a different name. Check to see if Windows already installed TCP/IP and IPX/SPX for the network card. If they are already installed, you should see something like "TCP/IP -> NE2000 Compatible" and "IPX/SPX-compatible Protocol -> NE2000 Compatible"
If they're not there, you'll have to install it yourself. Don't worry, it isn't hard. You just need your Windows 95/98 install CD, or have the installation files somewhere on your hard disk. TCP/IP Setup We'll install TCP/IP first. Go to the network menu and highlight your network card. Now, click on the add button. That will take you to the "Select Network Component Type" window. Highlight protocol, then click add.
That will open the "Select Network Protocol" window. Go down the left side, and select "Microsoft" from the list of manufacturers on the left. Then select "TCP/IP" from the list of Network Protocols on the right. Click OK.
That will return you to the Network window, and you should now see "TCP/IP -> NE2000 Compatible" in the list of installed network components.
Now repeat the above steps, but choose "IPX/SPX-compatible Protocol" instead of "TCP/IP" in the "Select Network Protocol" window.
Now you should have a new "IPX/SPX-compatible Protocol -> NE2000 Compatible" line in the list of installed components.
Lastly, repeat the above steps again, but choose "NetBEUI" in the "Select Network Protocol" window. NetBEUI will make Microsoft file and printer sharing much better. After installing NetBEUI, go to its properties window, and check the " Set this protocol to be the default protocol" in the advanced tab. Don't install NetBEUI if you aren't going to use Microsoft file and printer sharing. One of the things you'll commonly see with a new network is the default protocol NetBIOS, which allows for network-specific programs to run across IPX. You probably won't need this, so feel free to select it and hit the "Remove" button. When it comes to networking, the key is to keep everything simple. We're all unique! After installing TCP/IP and IPX/SPX, we need to assign the IP address and subnet mask. Each computer on the network must have a unique network address. Highlight the "TCP/IP --> NE2000 Compatible" line in the list of installed components. Now click on properties.
That will open up the TCP/IP Properties window. Select "Specify an IP address." According to RFC 1918, private IP addresses should stay within these ranges: 10.0.0.0 to 10.255.255.255 Of course, if none of the computers on the LAN have access to the Internet (through modem or otherwise), feel free to use any address. However, it's generally considered good practice to stay within the internal-networking scheme above. For the subnet mask, use the ever-popular 255.255.255.0 for all the computers. We suggest assigning the first computer 10.0.0.1, the second 10.0.0.2, the third 10.0.0.4, and so on.
Leave WINS, Gateway, and DNS disabled. These settings exist to facilitate connections to the Internet and/or large networks. You won't be needing them for a small LAN. However, chances are at least one of the computers in your network will have access to the Internet. That computer is going to require a "real" IP, one approved for Internet use and assigned by your ISP. In this case, it's useful to have IPX/SPX configured correctly for Windows Networking, so the other computers on the network will still be able to communicate properly. Network Clients You'll also need to install Microsoft Networking so the systems participating on the LAN can communicate through the TCP/IP and IPX protocols. Access Network Properties, select "Add," "Client."
Select "Microsoft," and "Client for Microsoft Networks."
Share and Share AlikeIf you want to be able to share resources with the other computers on the net such as trading files and programs or sharing printers, you'll need to enable Microsoft File and Print Sharing. Click the add button in the Network window. Select service at the bottom of the list.
Click add. That will open the "Select Network Service" window. Select "Microsoft" on the left, and then select "File and Printer Sharing for Microsoft Networks" on the right. Click OK.
There should be a new "File and printer sharing for Microsoft Networks" line at the bottom of the installed network components list.
Doublecheck your Net Now you want to go back and verify that everything is set up correctly. Pull up TCP/IP and select the Bindings tab. Verify that both "File and Print Sharing" and "Client for Microsoft Networks" are checked, and do the same for IPX/SPX. You must share something (a printer, drive, folder, anything) on the system for it to appear in the network neighborhood of other computers on the network. You can do this by right-clicking on the drive to be shared, and select "sharing..." Select a share name, hit "apply" and your drive or printer will appear on the network. You'll probably have to reboot again, at which point you'll see the "Network Neighborhood" icon displayed on your desktop. When you double-click Network Neighborhood, you should see at least two icons - "Entire Network" and your own computer as named in the "Identification" tab of Network properties. New NamesRemember that your computer's name does not necessarily match the name you've given for your system's "My Computer" icon. If you can see your own computer on the network, you're just about there. Follow the same directions for each of the other computers you wish to connect to the LAN, and they should begin to appear on the network (don't forget to actually plug the physical cable into the NIC, you can't imagine how many "problems" stem from this little oversight). Windows should broadcast its presence to other systems on the network, but it isn't the fastest service in town - it may take up to 15 minutes or more for a system to be initially polled and recognized. A reboot may speed things up, but if each system can see itself in Network Neighborhood, try sitting tight for a few minutes, and hit try View | Refresh a few times. A little patience might save you the trouble of going through the whole process over again. If everything is set up correctly, you'll see each system listed in the Network Neighborhood. From here, you should be able to load up any multiplayer game capable of TCP/IP or IPX networking and go head to head, or set up shared directories on your hard drive to easily exchange files. That's it for our Small LAN Windows 95/98 Networking guide. We hope we've provided you with enough information to setup a small LAN of your own, and if you have any questions, ask them on the FS Hardware message board. Just click on the message board link in the side bar.
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