9:33 PM 26/05/2006 - More Network Nightmares

First, for all of those people with a grudge against Microsoft Windows, I bet you I can name one thing more crappier than Windows, and that is the Networking software built into the operating system.

I have had a two computer network for years now, and its always an uphill battle to keep it working right. I've been throught it with Win95, Win98, Win98SE, WinME and now WinXP Home Edition.

With the earlier versions, from WinME and back, my major problems where:

• Could not get Internet Connection Sharing to work. I don't know how much conflicting information I downloaded from the internet over the years before I was finaly able to make it work only to discover it was a real drain on my computers resources (it bogged down my system like you wouldn't beleive), so I went back to using a proxy server. see ICS
• Problem number two, trying to share folders. I usually set a folder or two on each computer to make it easier to copy files back and both from one system to the next. For security reasons its usually not recommended to share your entire hard drive. Anyway, to make a long story short, it only worked about half the time, if I was lucky. It seemed liked everyday I had to fool around with it to get it to work.

Then came WinXP, The Saviour of Operating Systems!!, NOT!!!

OK, I admit I don't really have a grudge against Windows, I think its very easy to use. Its easy to use when it works right but as usual its hard as hell to fix when things go wrong. Lets not even mention all of the security concerns and issues. And then there is the latest version of their built in networking software,... IT STILL SUCKS!!!

At first when I set up my network it was working OK, but then, as usual, the same old same old. I seem to spend half of my time just trying to figure out I to access my shared files. I have a firewall, but i don't think I have to worry about hackers because most of the time I can't even access the files myself.

Just a neat little trick I discovered. When I have trouble accessing my shared files I just click on Start - and then Search - Files and Folders - (I have an older system , P2-266 with 64MB RAM, so I like to turn of all that Microsoft Eye Candy and use the classic look. So it may be a little bit different on your setup) But somewhere you should see the option to search for computers. Click on that and just type in the name of another computer on your network. It works sometimes, and wont hurt to try.

The only plus was that sharing the internet was a snap. It acually worked without being to much of a burden.