Home Networking Annoyances

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Networking hardware is annoying on general principle. In fact, most people (including computer professionals) find installing routers, hubs, and network adapters boring. Worse, hardware troubleshooting is frequently quite difficult because the devices are stubbornly noncommunicative. Unlike software, hardware doesn't display error messages to help you determine what to do. I've spent many hours pointing a screwdriver at a computer in a threatening manner and muttering, "I hate hardware."

However, because a simple black box the size of a paperback novel can turn a bunch of individual computers into a network, there's no way to avoid messing around with hardware—this is where your network building starts. In this chapter, you'll learn about various types of network adapters and how to solve the most annoying problems associated with installing an Ethernet, phoneline, powerline, or wireless network.

The Annoyance:

My computer-literate friends, and the articles I read about home networks, tell me I need to buy NICs or network cards. How do I know what I need?

The Fix:

Those terms are nicknames for the same thing—a hardware device called a network adapter. The following are the most common adapters:

PCI Cards fit in a PCI slot inside your computer (the slot is sometimes called a bus).
USB adapters connect to a USB port on your computer.
Embedded adapters are built into the computer by the manufacturer (which means you don't have to buy or install anything).
PC Cards (sometimes called PCMCIA devices) slide into the PC-Card port of a laptop computer.

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The Annoyance:

My computer-literate friends, and the articles I read about home networks, tell me I need to buy NICs or network cards. How do I know what I need?

The Fix:

Those terms are nicknames for the same thing—a hardware device called a network adapter. The following are the most common adapters:

PCI Cards fit in a PCI slot inside your computer (the slot is sometimes called a bus).
USB adapters connect to a USB port on your computer.
Embedded adapters are built into the computer by the manufacturer (which means you don't have to buy or install anything).
PC Cards (sometimes called PCMCIA devices) slide into the PC-Card port of a laptop computer.

The Annoyance:

How am I supposed to know if my computer has an embedded adapter? I bought it a long time ago and I have no idea where I put the paperwork. A friend told me to see if the back of the computer has a device that looks like a phone jack, and if it does, I just have to plug in my Ethernet cable.

The Fix:

Whoa, hold on. If it looks like a phone jack, it might be a phone jack. Many computers come with an internal modem built in, and that might be the device you see. Phone jacks and Ethernet jacks look the same, but they're certainly not the same, and they aren't interchangeable. However, you can find out what you have.

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The Annoyance:

We have two computers in our family room, connected to a router that sits between the two computers. My wife wants to add another computer to the network and put it in the den, which is next to the family room. What's the easiest way to do this?

The Fix:

I'll tell you the easiest way, and then I'll tell you the best way. The easiest way is to string the cable along the baseboard, or below the quarter round, and take it through the opening (under the door if there's a door) and into the next room. This is the easy way because it requires no tools.

The best way is to drill holes and string cable through the holes. This method uses less cable, and in the end, the holes are less conspicuous (and less ugly) than the cable. Drill a hole in an inconspicuous place. I usually pick a corner of the room and drill the hole right above the baseboard. The hole only needs to be slightly larger than the connector at the end of the Ethernet cable, which is about half an inch. Do the same thing in both rooms (measure from a corner or the doorway, so the holes are directly opposite each other).

Cable is floppy, so when I'm cabling adjacent rooms I tape the cable to a thin dowel (I keep the chopsticks I get from the local Chinese restaurant takeout counter for this purpose). Duct tape is great for this type of work because it doesn't come loose if you scrape against the wall. Electrical tape works almost as well. Shine a flashlight through the hole from one room so that you can see the opening clearly, and push the cable through from the other side.

Don't put tape on the Ethernet connector. You don't want to get sticky stuff on the business part of your cable.

The Annoyance:

Our network currently consists of two computers in two adjacent bedrooms. I drilled a hole between those rooms to run cable between both computers and the router. Now we have to add another computer in a bedroom at the end of the hall (with a bathroom and a linen closet between the bedrooms that currently have computers and the bedroom that gets the new computer). The router that connects the computers is in the bedroom closest to the new computer. I think the straightest run, using the least amount of cable, is to drill holes through each room, bringing the cable along the top of the wall in the bathroom and linen closet. However, that's six holes, which seems like a lot of work.

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The Annoyance:

I want to add a third computer to our two-computer phoneline network. The room where I need the computer has a phone jack, but the jack is being used by a telephone.

The Fix:

You can share the phone jack between the telephone and the computer by inserting a modular duplex jack into the wall receptacle. This nifty device, which most people refer to as a splitter, has a regular RJ11 plug on one side. Plug that in the jack. The other side has two RJ11 female connectors. Use one connector for the telephone, and the other for a length of telephone cable that you run to the new computer. Splitters are available everywhere you can buy telephone equipment, including your local supermarket.

The Annoyance:

One of the computers on our phoneline network is in a bedroom without a telephone. We now want to add a telephone in that room, but the PC is monopolizing the only jack.

The Fix:

You have two methods for solving this problem:

Use a modular duplex jack as described in the previous annoyance.
Use the second connector on your phoneline network adapter.

The telephone cable that runs through your walls has multiple wires, and not all of the wires use the same frequency. When cable can contain and manage multiple frequencies, we call it broadband cable. The technical term for the broadband capacity in telephone lines is Frequency Division Multiplexing (FDM). The Plain Old Telephone Service (POTS) frequency serves any device that requires a dial tone: telephones, fax machines, and modems. Because POTS devices share the same frequency, you can't use two POTS devices at the same time.

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The Annoyance:

I find that powerline devices have a wide range of prices, and they have different specifications on the box. Some say they operate at 12 or 14 megabits per second, others are slower (and cheaper). Is there a difference?

The Fix:

Yes, and this is another one of those cases where you get what you pay for. The cheaper, slower devices aren't using today's standards for powerline network technologies. Look for the HomePlug logo on the box, which means the device is built to the specifications of the HomePlug Powerline Alliance (http://www.homeplug.org).

The electric wires running through your walls can do more than deliver power to electric appliances. A great many wires, operating at different frequencies, are enclosed in the electric cable. In fact, the range of frequencies is split into 84 separate carriers.

Multiple technologies exist for sending computer data along the carriers, but the most reliable is the technology endorsed by the HomePlug Powerline Alliance. This industry group has developed the specifications for accessing the bandwidth of power lines by using orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM). You can learn more about the HomePlug Powerline Alliance, and the specifications for powerline networking, at http://www.homeplug.org.

OFDM sends packets of data along several of the carrier frequencies simultaneously, which provides more speed and reliability than previous powerline technologies. Today's powerline network devices operate at 14 mps. Specifications are being considered and tested for powerline communication speeds of 100 mbs.

If a power surge or any other problem disrupts one of the frequencies, the data switches to another carrier automatically. The carriers carry data, not power, so your electric bill is not affected by your use of powerline devices.

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The Annoyance:

I want to expand my wired network with wireless technology, but I keep hearing about interference with the wireless signals. Is it true that opening an electric garage door can stop wireless communications, or that sending data from a wireless computer can open the garage door?

The Fix:

I hear that question constantly, and I've never figured out how that warning became so ubiquitous. Even though wireless computers and remote-controlled garage doors operate with radio frequency (RF) technology, they're on frequencies far, far apart from each other. Most (probably all) garage doors, and the doohickeys you use to open them remotely, use the 433MHz frequency range. Wireless computers in home networks (802.11b and 802.11g) operate in the 2.4GHz range.

The Annoyance:

I like the idea of wireless connections. Can you give me a list of things to avoid so that the transmissions aren't blocked?

The Fix:

Wireless users, and manufacturers of wireless equipment, have pretty much agreed on a list of things that are sure to cause problems. Here are the "top five":

Metal. Don't put an antenna under a metal desk or next to a metal file cabinet. Metal in the walls and ceilings can also block transmissions.
Water. Drain your moat if you want to use your computer outdoors. Move that large fish tank to a room that doesn't have a wireless device.
Cordless telephones (when they're in use).
Microwave ovens (when they're in use).
Amateur radios (when they're in use).

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The Annoyance:

When I move a group of files between computers, sometimes I'm not sure the computers are actually communicating. Isn't there some way to tell?

The Fix:

Follow the flashing lights. Most network hardware comes with LEDs that glow or flash, depending on what's going on. Usually a steady green light means that all connections are working properly, and a flashing green light indicates data exchanges between computers. If you look at your hub or switch and see two flashing green lights, those two computers are talking to each other.

If you use Windows 2000 or XP, you can put an icon for your network adapter on the taskbar. The icon looks like a monitor, and when the computer is communicating over the network, the monitor color changes from black to green. To add the icon to your taskbar, open the Network Connections applet in the Control Panel, right-click Local Area Connection, and choose Properties. On the General tab, check the "Show icon in notification area when connected" box.

The Annoyance:

Three of the ports on my hub have a yellow light, but one port doesn't. The computers all seem to be communicating properly, and everyone is getting to the Internet through the router attached to the hub. Why is one yellow light missing? Is it a sign of impending doom?

The Fix:

A yellow light, available on some hubs, switches, and routers, indicates that the port is operating at 100 mps. The port missing the yellow light is connected to a computer that has a 10mps network adapter. (The ports on your hub are

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To get your network up and running, you have to go through a great many software configuration processes. The hardware devices you install to create a network have software components; the computer communication features must be enabled correctly; drives, folders, and peripherals (e.g., printers) must be configured so that network users can access them; and so on.

In this chapter I'll discuss some of the annoyances you might encounter as you go through these tedious, but necessary, software processes. I'll cover the technical specifications for setting up your network adapters, and the various ways you can set up users so that everybody has their own personalized computer environment. I'll also discuss security and controls for user access (who can do what on a computer).

The Annoyance:

The configuration of my network adapter seems to go on forever. There are all these tabs in the Properties dialog box, and each tab has many options. How am I supposed to know the correct selections?

The Fix:

Your Internet Service Provider (ISP) has all the facts you need to get online. When you signed up for the service, you should have received instructions describing how to configure your network settings. Sometimes the information comes in the mail, sometimes you're directed to a web site. Most ISPs mail you a CD that contains a setup program that runs automatically, or text files that explain the tasks you must perform. (Many people find the setup program annoying—see the next annoyance.)

Once you have the information at hand, you can configure the adapters manually or with the help of a Windows wizard (I discuss these options later in this chapter).

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The Annoyance:

The configuration of my network adapter seems to go on forever. There are all these tabs in the Properties dialog box, and each tab has many options. How am I supposed to know the correct selections?

The Fix:

Your Internet Service Provider (ISP) has all the facts you need to get online. When you signed up for the service, you should have received instructions describing how to configure your network settings. Sometimes the information comes in the mail, sometimes you're directed to a web site. Most ISPs mail you a CD that contains a setup program that runs automatically, or text files that explain the tasks you must perform. (Many people find the setup program annoying—see the next annoyance.)

Once you have the information at hand, you can configure the adapters manually or with the help of a Windows wizard (I discuss these options later in this chapter).

The Annoyance:

My ISP sent me a CD that sets up and configures all my Internet and network settings. A neighbor said that the CD from his ISP installed stuff he didn't need or want, changed his browser settings, and put toolbars on his screen. He told me not to use my ISP's CD. Can I set up my network and Internet connection without this CD?

The Fix:

Yes, you can set up everything manually. Your neighbor is right, and I've seen a number of ISP software setup programs that went way over the top. Call your ISP or go to your ISP's web site and look in the Support section. You should see instructions for setting up your network adapters manually.

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The Annoyance:

My ISP said to configure my network adapter to "Obtain an IP address automatically" and enter the IP address provided by my ISP for the DNS server. The instructions say to enter that data in either the Local Area Network Properties dialog box or the router's configuration pages. Which is the best choice?

The Fix:

You don't really have a choice. If you installed a router, the ISP's instructions should have told you to enter the DNS server information in the router's configuration software. If you're using Internet Connection Sharing instead of a router to share your Internet connection, you have to enter the DNS server information in the Local Area Network Properties dialog box on the computer that's hosting the connection (the computer that has the modem).

The Annoyance:

An article on the manufacturer's web site suggested I make a change to the router's configuration to resolve a problem we're having. A consultant walked me through the original setup, and I can't find the documentation. How do I open the router's configuration pages?

The Fix:

Assuming you didn't change the router's login name and password, you can get into the router's setup pages by opening your browser and entering the router's IP address in the Address Bar. The IP address is provided in the documentation, and all the major manufacturers offer a copy of the manual for download (usually a PDF file, so you'll need Acrobat Reader). However, to save you some time, the following list gives you the default IP addresses of the routers from some of the most popular vendors:

Belkin: 192.168.2.1
D-Link: 192.168.0.1
Linksys: 192.168.1.1

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The Annoyance:

Several people share our Windows 98SE computer, and when anyone opens the My Documents folder, everybody's documents are in it. We've shared the My Documents folder so that we can get to our files when we work on another computer, but searching through everyone's documents to find your own stuff is annoying. How can I create a separate My Documents folder for each user of this computer?

The Fix:

Apparently, the computer isn't set up for user profiles—a feature that automatically gives every user who logs on to the computer an individual copy of My Documents. You could enable user profiles (see the next annoyance), but the feature will work only for users you create after you enable the user profile feature; the system doesn't automatically reconfigure existing users. You can use any of the following workarounds:

Move the My Documents folder (see the later annoyance "Move the My Documents Folder").
Create subfolders for each user in the My Documents folder, and have everyone move his or her documents into the appropriate subfolders, and henceforth use that subfolder to save documents.
Stop sharing the My Documents folder; instead, share each subfolder. Make sure the sharename includes the username to make it easy to identify the folder over the network.
Delete the existing users, enable user profiles, and then add the users back to the system.
Create individual folders for each user right on the root of the drive, and share those folders. This makes it easy for users to get to their documents from remote computers. However, this solution requires users to change their software configuration settings to make this new folder the default location for saving and retrieving files when they're working on this computer. Unfortunately, many software applications don't have a tool for changing the location of datafiles, and you can't ask people to use a whole bunch of mouse clicks to change folders every time they open or save a document. (Well, you can ask them, but they won't do it.)

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The Annoyance:

I installed a software program on our Windows XP computer, but the other users on the computer can't find it. I see it on the Programs menu when I log on, but other users can't see it when they log on.

The Fix:

The software installed its menu item only into your user profile. Some software automatically installs itself for all users (a computer-wide installation), and some installs for the current user. What's annoying is that not all software offers the choice between computer installation or user installation during setup. More irritating is the fact that software that doesn't ask you to choose doesn't announce its installation plans. Once the software is installed, you can make it available to all users or some users.

In Windows Explorer or My Computer, expand C:\Documents and Settings\YourName\Start Menu\Programs (substitute your logon name for YourName). Shortcuts for programs that appear on your All Programs menu are displayed in the right pane (see Figure 2-18).

Figure 2-18: The shortcuts for program menu items are stored in user profiles.

Right-click the shortcut for the program you want to provide for other users, and choose Copy. Then, expand the user profile for another user and paste the shortcut into that Programs subfolder. Do this for each user with whom you want to share the application.

If your user account is configured as Limited User, you cannot access the user profile folders of other users.

The Annoyance:

I selected a program and Windows displayed an error message telling me it couldn't find the software's file. I learned later that another user on the computer had uninstalled the software. It's annoying that Windows removes the program's icon only from the menu of the user who uninstalled it, and not from the other users' menus.

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The Annoyance:

Our network is spread across three floors. Can we take advantage of the connections to send messages to each other?

The Fix:

You have several ways of using the computers for communication, but if everyone is always connected to the Internet, the easiest solution is Messenger from Microsoft. The program comes with Windows XP, and you can download it from Microsoft for Windows 98 and later.

Microsoft has two Messenger software applications available for download. Windows Messenger runs on Windows 2000/XP, while MSN Messenger runs on earlier versions of Windows. You can chat with another user (see Figure 2-20), or even multiple other users, because you're not limited to just one other person in your conversation. Messenger also provides file transfer capabilities between users; two users can share a software window and discuss its contents in the chat window or by drawing directly on the window.

Figure 2-20: It's easier to use Messenger than to bellow at a user on another floor.

The Annoyance:

When I try to take advantage of some of Messenger's features, I get an error message that I can't proceed because of a firewall.

The Fix:

Some Messenger features use specific communications protocols that require support for Universal Plug and Play (UPnP). This isn't the same thing as the Plug and Play feature that automatically recognizes new hardware. UPnP is a technology that lets computers communicate through firewalls by helping the computers find each other (that's an extremely oversimplified explanation, so don't quote me). Most firewalls block UPnP by default, so you have to enable support for this technology manually. The method you use depends on the type of firewall you've employed (see the following annoyances for details).

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The Annoyance:

Some of the network software configuration settings I applied in Windows don't seem to be working correctly (or at all). How do I figure this stuff out? I can't believe I have to hire a consultant to set up a small home network.

The Fix:

Users who aren't computer experts can set up most home networks quickly and easily (although the combination of devices and settings sometimes does require expert help). For Windows support, you should start with Microsoft.

Check the web site for your version of Windows. If you start at http://www.microsoft.com, the left side of the web page has a section named Product Families. Click the listing for Windows to go to the Windows web page. Windows XP is listed on the left side, and if you hover your mouse pointer over the listing, you can select your version of Windows XP (Home Edition or Pro). If you want to look at support pages for earlier versions of Windows, hover your mouse pointer over Other Versions, and click the appropriate listing (see Figure 2-28).

Figure 2-28: Select your version of Windows to visit its web pages.

The web page for your version of Windows has tons of support in the form of Frequently Asked Questions, "How-To" articles, and sections on specific processes such as networking. Navigate through the pages to find the answer to your question. If your network problems prevent you from getting to the Internet in the first place, consult your computer's documentation to find a technical support number.

The Annoyance:

I'm not always sure what category to access on Microsoft's web site. I need a way to find the answer when I've encountered an error message, or have some specific question to ask.

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One of the nifty advantages to a home network is that you can sit in front of one computer and access files on any other computer on the network. For example, perhaps Mom usually works at the computer in the den, and saves her files on that computer. Suppose one of the kids is using the den computer when Mom wants to work on a document. Before the network arrived, Mom would have to ask (or order) Junior to move so that she could work. With a network-enabled house, Mom can use any free computer, and just reach across the network to work on her files. I'm sure this contributes to a more harmonious family atmosphere. Of course, if you have more users than you have computers, you can still expect to have some discordant moments in your household.

In this chapter I'll provide some tips, tricks, and workarounds for the annoyances you might run into as you access all the computers on your network. I'll cover the problems you encounter in network windows (Network Neighborhood and My Network Places), methods for connecting to other computers quickly, and ways to solve connection problems when you can't find computers on your network.

The Annoyance:

There's no easy, intuitive way to see all the remote computers on my network. Why doesn't the Programs menu list commands such as "Go to Computer Named Charlie?"

The Fix:

Imagine working in a large company with 100,000 computers on the network. If the Programs menu listed all the computers on the network, you could have Charlie 1 all the way up to Charlie 145. Which computer belongs to which Charlie? Not very practical. Instead, Windows provides special windows that make it easy to see all the computers on your network. The name of the window depends on your version of Windows:

For Windows Me/2000/XP, the window is named My Network Places.

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The Annoyance:

There's no easy, intuitive way to see all the remote computers on my network. Why doesn't the Programs menu list commands such as "Go to Computer Named Charlie?"

The Fix:

Imagine working in a large company with 100,000 computers on the network. If the Programs menu listed all the computers on the network, you could have Charlie 1 all the way up to Charlie 145. Which computer belongs to which Charlie? Not very practical. Instead, Windows provides special windows that make it easy to see all the computers on your network. The name of the window depends on your version of Windows:

For Windows Me/2000/XP, the window is named My Network Places.
For Windows 98SE (and earlier versions of Windows), the window is named Network Neighborhood.

Except in Windows XP (see the next annoyance), an icon for the network window exists on your desktop. Double-click the desktop icon to display an icon with the name of your workgroup. Double-click the workgroup icon to display icons for the computers on your network. Figure 3-1 shows a Network Neighborhood window in Windows 98SE.

The computer you're using is always referred to as the local computer. All the other computers on the network are called remote computers.

Figure 3-1: The Network Neighborhood window displays the name of the workgroup, as well as icons for the computers in the workgroup.

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The Annoyance:

I added a new computer to my network, but it didn't appear in My Network Places or Network Neighborhood on any of the other computers. I know the cabling and the network settings are correct, but I have to reboot all the computers on the network to see a new computer, which is really annoying.

The Fix:

You don't have to reboot all the computers to see a newly added computer on your network. Just wait 12 minutes. Honest. Could I make that up? Go have a cup of coffee, empty the dishwasher, or change all the burned-out light bulbs in the house. Then open the network folder again, or press F5 to refresh the display if you didn't close the folder. You should now see the new computer.

Why does this happen? The icons in the network windows are controlled by a Windows service called the Computer Browser Service. The service browses the network, peers down the pipes (including the virtual pipes for wireless connections), and checks to see who's on board. The service runs every 12 minutes.

All the computers on a network elect one of their own as a browser master using a complicated scheme that involves a private conversation among the computers. The conversation is held secretly, so you aren't aware of it and can't control or interfere with it. The browser master runs the browser service every 12 minutes, and populates the network folders of all computers on the network with icons representing the computers and shared resources it finds.

The Annoyance:

After I shut down one of the computers, its icon continues to appear in the network window, even though nobody on the network can access it. It's annoying that Windows doesn't seem to know the computer isn't turned on.

The Fix:

Although the icon eventually goes away, it remains in the network folders for quite a bit of time. Of course, because it's not available, selecting it produces an error message similar to the one in Figure 3-5. Before you see the error message, you have to stare at an hourglass for a while, which is a fairly good indication that something is wrong.

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The Annoyance:

When I open My Network Places, the window is filled with icons for the folders I've accessed. In fact, it's so full of icons that it's hard to find the folder I need. I access only a few of these folders on a regular basis. Can I delete the rest of them or will doing that make it impossible for me to get to the deleted folders later?

The Fix:

By default, Windows XP and 2000 display an icon for any shared drive or folder you access. The icons are shortcuts to folders, and it's always safe to delete a shortcut because you're not deleting the original object (the drive or folder).

If you want to access a shared resource after you have deleted its shortcut, you'll have to navigate through the network window, starting with View Workgroup Computers or Entire Network. Of course, Windows will once again add a shortcut to My Network Places.

The Annoyance:

The shortcuts that appear in My Network Places for folders I've accessed aren't all from remote computers. Why do folders from my own computer appear in the window? It just makes the window more crowded.

The Fix:

Any time you access a local folder that's been shared, its shortcut appears in My Network Places. This window can't tell the difference between local and remote shared folders—a share is a share is a share.

This is another one of those things that makes me want to travel to Redmond and ask programmers, "What were you thinking?!" The only reason why I can imagine this "feature" was built into Windows XP and 2000 is that during the development of the operating systems, Microsoft had a contest. It must have awarded a prize to the programmer who wrote code to make My Network Places teem with objects faster than any other programmer could.

But back to your problem. Go ahead and delete the objects from the local computer—it's unlikely you'll ever use them. Why would you open files from one of these shortcuts rather than from within the appropriate software application or My Computer?

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The Annoyance:

I usually think about mapping a drive when I'm ready to access a shared resource in My Network Places or Network Neighborhood. The Windows Help files tell me to use the Map Network Drive command on the Tools menu. That in turn asks me to enter the path to the share I want to map, or makes me open another window and select the shared resource. There must be an easier way.

The Fix:

Actually, mapping a drive to a share in front of your face is the fastest way to accomplish this task. In the window that displays all the shares of a computer, right-click the icon for the shared resource and select Map Network Drive. This action opens the Map Network Drive dialog box seen in Figure 3-23. Windows has already selected the next available drive letter and inserted the UNC to the shared resource. Specify whether you want to reconnect to this mapped drive every time you start the computer, and click Finish. The drive appears in My Computer.

Figure 3-23: Mapping a drive can be a one-step process.

Each of your computer's drives (e.g., hard drive, floppy drive, CD-ROM drive, etc.) has been assigned a drive letter, which you can see when you open My Computer. The drive letters assigned to your computer's drives represent physical components on the computer. You can use the drive letters when you work at the command line—both Windows and MS-DOS recognize the drive letters. You can also create "virtual" drive letters, meaning you assign a drive letter to a shared resource on a remote computer. Because the assigned drive letter has been "mapped" to the shared resource, it is referred to as a mapped drive.

A mapped drive appears in My Computer with its drive letter. You can use it when you work in an application and need to open a remote document. Some software applications can't handle UNCs, so you must provide a drive letter (see Chapter 4 for more information).

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One of the most common activities of network users is accessing files across the network. Sometimes you need to move or copy files from one computer to another, and sometimes you need to use files on another computer when you're working in a software application. In this chapter, I'll discuss some of the annoying "features" in the networkwide file-sharing paradigm, and offer some workarounds that can help you create the perfect scenario for sharing files. I'll explain how to use files from any computer on the network when you're working in a software program, how to share datafiles among multiple users working on different computers, and how to set up your My Documents folder so that you can access its contents from any computer.

The Annoyance:

I usually work on a particular Windows XP computer, but sometimes one of my kids is at that computer and I have to do my work from another one. I can't figure out how to get to my documents on the Windows XP computer. I know my My Documents folder isn't marked "private" because my kids can access it when they are logged on to the computer. Why can't I get to the folder from another computer on the network?

The Fix:

The fact that you didn't configure your My Documents folder as private means its contents are accessible to other users, but only on the computer on which the folder resides. To access the folder over the network, you must specifically enable the option to share the folder on the network.

Right-click the folder icon and choose Properties.
Click the Sharing tab and check the "Share this folder on the network" box (see Figure 4-1).

Figure 4-1: You must specifically enable the option to share your documents folder on the network if you want to use the contents from another computer.

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The Annoyance:

I usually work on a particular Windows XP computer, but sometimes one of my kids is at that computer and I have to do my work from another one. I can't figure out how to get to my documents on the Windows XP computer. I know my My Documents folder isn't marked "private" because my kids can access it when they are logged on to the computer. Why can't I get to the folder from another computer on the network?

The Fix:

The fact that you didn't configure your My Documents folder as private means its contents are accessible to other users, but only on the computer on which the folder resides. To access the folder over the network, you must specifically enable the option to share the folder on the network.

Right-click the folder icon and choose Properties.
Click the Sharing tab and check the "Share this folder on the network" box (see Figure 4-1).

Figure 4-1: You must specifically enable the option to share your documents folder on the network if you want to use the contents from another computer.

The Annoyance:

I want to share my Windows 98SE My Documents folder on the network so that when I'm working at a different computer I can access my own files. When I right-click the folder's icon on my desktop, the shortcut menu doesn't have a Sharing command. It's annoying that Windows won't permit sharing of My Documents.

The Fix:

The My Documents icon on your desktop isn't a folder—it's a shortcut to a folder, and you can't share a shortcut. The actual My Documents folder, which you can share, exists within your user profile at

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The Annoyance:

I needed to copy a bunch of files from a shared folder on a remote computer to the computer I was working on. I got really annoyed by all the folder-opening and right-clicking involved in copying and pasting from one computer to the other. Is there a faster way?

The Fix:

It's a drag—I mean the solution, not my sympathetic response to your annoyance. Open both folders and drag between them. You can also use Windows Explorer to drag files between the right pane of the shared folder to the left pane of the local folder (or the other way around).

The Annoyance:

It's annoying that the Windows Explorer program listing moved to the Accessories menu, causing an extra step to open it. But that pales compared to the real annoyance—the display it presents in the left pane. It takes several mouse clicks to get to Drive C and expand it. This is where Windows Explorer used to open, and where I almost always want to start.

The Fix:

Microsoft introduced the changes to Windows Explorer in Windows 2000, and kept them in Windows XP. I hate it, too. You can force Windows Explorer to open with Drive C selected and expanded. To do so, you have to change the properties of the shortcut to the program. The listing on the Accessories menu is a shortcut (all menu listings are shortcuts), so you could do it right on the submenu, but you might as well create a more convenient shortcut to the program and change that.

To create the more convenient shortcut, right-drag the listing on the Accessories submenu to your desktop (or to your Quick Launch toolbar). When you release the right mouse button, choose Copy Here. Now you've eliminated one annoyance—you no longer have to move to the Accessories submenu to open the program.

Right-click the icon for the shortcut you just created and choose Properties. In the Target text box, add the following parameter to the existing path:

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The Annoyance:

We have an Xbox that everyone enjoys. Is there a way to connect the device to our network?

The Fix:

If you have gamers in the house, look for game adapters that let you attach PlayStation 2, Xbox, or GameCube devices to the network. Most network equipment manufacturers offer these adapters, and many of them support wireless communication.

Installation might seem a bit complicated, but that's because you can't configure the game adapter unless it's connected to a computer via Ethernet cable. After you've configured the adapter, you can remove it from the computer and attach it to the game console. Complete directions come with the device.

The Annoyance:

Everyone in our household has a music collection on his or her computer. Sometimes you can hear different music from every computer, which is incredibly annoying. On the other hand, sometimes someone is playing something everyone likes, but with computers on different floors, it's hard for everyone to enjoy it. We need some suggestions for fixing our music problems.

The Fix:

For the first annoyance (the cacophony of multiple tunes echoing through the house), buy headsets. Every sound controller I've ever seen has a headset jack. For the second annoyance, the solution is a network music device. These nifty gadgets are available from almost any manufacturer of network hardware.

I've tested two different types of network music boxes: one that lets any network user send a tune to the family stereo system, and one that is self-contained (it's a stereo system that comes with its own speakers). Both are wireless bridges, which means they can connect to a wired system and send/receive wireless signals. If you use the device that sends music to your home stereo system, think about adding speakers so that users all over the house can listen.

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