Microsoft Vista Home Networking Setup and Options
The most daunting part of upgrading to Windows Vista may be trying to figure out where in the layers of menus the networking and file-sharing options are hidden.
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Seemingly minor and easily overlooked settings can still have profound security implications. Here are some steps you can take to make sure your wired or wireless home router — and by extension, your network — is as secure as possible.
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MikroTik's The Dude
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Windows XP has a built-in Network Setup Wizard that makes it easy
to configure a computer running Windows 98, Windows 98 Second Edition,
Windows Millennium Edition, or Windows XP as an Internet Connection
Sharing client. You'll need to check our previous setup articles
if you're configuring a Windows
95 client or a Windows
2000 client.
Start the Network Setup Wizard.
If the Wizard refuses to run, saying that it can't find
a network card, make sure that your network card is properly
installed. If it is, the driver program for your network
card probably doesn't conform to the Network Driver Interface
Specification (NDIS) standard. In that case, you'll have
to configure the client as described on our Windows
95/98SE/Me Setup page.
If a Windows 98 client computer is running Internet Explorer
5.0 or an earlier version, this screen appears, advising
you to update to version 5.01 or greater. Click OK
to continue. If you wish to upgrade Internet Explorer, cancel
the Wizard and run it again after the upgrade is complete.
Specify This computer connects to the Internet through another
computer (the ICS server), and click Next.
If the computer has more than one network connection, this
screen appears. Specify Let me choose the connections
to my network and click Next.
Select the connection to the ICS server and click Next.
In this example, I'm using a wireless network.
Enter a computer description and computer name. The description
appears in My Network Places or Network Neighborhood on other networked
computers. The computer name must be unique on the network. For
maximum compatibility with all versions of Windows, use 1-12 alphanumeric
characters, with no blanks.
Enter a workgroup name, which should be the same on all
of the networked computers. Once again, use 1-12 alphanumeric
characters, with no blanks. Be default, the Wizard uses
the name MSHOME. If your network uses a different name,
enter it here.
The Wizard displays the settings that you've made. Scroll
down the list to see all of them. To change a setting, click
Back. To accept the settings, click Next.
To stop running the Wizard, click Cancel.
The Wizard then configures the computer's network settings. The
process may appear to stop for a time, but let it continue to completion.
If the Wizard is running on a Windows XP computer, this
screen appears. Specify Just finish the wizard and
click Next.
When the configuration is complete, the Wizard's Completion screen
appears. Click Finish to exit.