Corey's Network Corner
~~Corey
Seaton
Configuring
Windows To Recognize the Network Cards
(I'm
sorry but I don't have any experience with Macintosh networking, and
Linux networking is completely dependent on your distribution… feel
free to email me for general tips, but for anything complex you'll need
to ask someone with specific experience)
Now that you've
installed the hardware, you need to configure Windows to recognize and
use the network card properly. This means Windows needs a "device
driver" for the card, which is basically a piece of software that
tells Windows how to control your hardware (that is, how to
"control" your "device", hence the name). With any
modern network card this should be simple - when you start up your
computer, Windows should recognize that there's new hardware and look
for drivers for it. Insert the driver disk that came with your card (it
did come with one, right?!) and install the device drivers. If there's
anything unusual about your card, e.g. the drivers are in an obscure
directory on the disk; the card will (hopefully) have come with
instructions on how to install the drivers.
If your card didn't
come with drivers, the chances are that it will be compatible with an
older card that Windows has device drivers for. Let Windows "search
for the best driver for this device", and it'll probably come up
with something like "RealTek…" or "3Com…” Whatever
it says, just try it out - it will probably work!
If Windows didn't
display any message about detecting new hardware, don't worry. You just
need to go into the Windows Control Panel and choose "Add New
Hardware" and follow the prompts.
Let Windows search for
new hardware. With any luck it should now find your card and ask you for
a driver disk - if you have one, use it, otherwise let Windows use
whatever driver it comes up with (as above). If Windows still can't find
your card, you're probably in trouble - the card may be faulty. Ask the
vendor for help.
Checking that the card
is there: Now go into Windows Control Panel and choose
"System". In Windows 95/98/ME, go to the "Device
Manager" tab; in Windows 2000, go to the “Hardware” tab and
click on “Device Manager…” Look for the "Network
adapters" section. In this section you should find the network card
that you just installed (and on the computer that's acting as the server
you should also see the network card that came with the cable modem).
Make sure the card is working properly - click on the card and then
click on the "properties" button. Windows should tell you
"this device is working properly". If not, you'll need to work
out why not - there may be a hardware conflict, or you may need to
restart your computer, or you may be using the wrong device driver, or
the card may be faulty. In any case, you need to have the card working
properly (i.e. getting the message "this device is working
properly") before you proceed to the next step. The following
pictures are from the Windows 98 device manager; but it’s very similar
for all versions of Windows.
Happy Networking!
Corey
Corey Seaton is a Systems Support
Officer with Queensland Health. He also moderates an email group
on Home Networking. Why don't you join and talk to others who are
networking their home PCs? Networking
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