Procedure for Setting up a (Wireless) LAN (Win 98)
(Firewall-Routers: Jack's Wireless LANs -Rick's Routers- Joe's Routers - Kelly's Router)
Typical LAN wiring sketch shown HERE (Rev. 4 May 2001)
"Networking the world, one person at a time"

SMC 7004 WBR Access-Point Installation

The setup instructions that come with the unit are fairly straight forward.  It is necessary that one computer be hard-wired to the access point with an ethernet cable, in order to gain access to the device to set up the unit for access to the internet.  Additional notes can be found (HERE).  Access to the unit is made through an internet browser like Netscape and Internet Explorer.  You type in the IP address of the Access Point (as amended).

Local Computer

1. Install the PC-Card hardware and software in 'wireless' computers or Etherenet-card hardware and software on 'wired' computers.
NOTE: The Orinoco card drivers and software may need to be updated from the internet.
    a. Access the ORINOCO site here.
 Later versions of the Orinoco card didn't need any downloads from this site.
 I like the Orinoco card, because it shows a graphical representation of the signal strength at the computer site.
2. To prevent the computer (on bootup) from stopping  at each computer on the LAN that's not running:
From Control Panel > Network > Configuration > select Client for Microsoft Networks > Properties > General.
3. Select Quick logon.
(Trouble Shooting)
2. Check: Control Panel > System > Device Manager and look for conflicts;  especially look at Other Devices.  If the needed driver is here, remove it and re-boot the computer, so that it will recognize a new hardware device.  Re-install the driver.
3. Check these Control Panel > Network > Properties screen shots.

4. In: Control Panel > Network > Configuration dialog box, highlight the network device installed.
5. Under Network > Identification, "Workgroup" must have the same name as the Access Point.
(This is also where the computer name and description are set.)
6. In Network > Configuration >  "Files and Print Sharing", check both boxes.

ALL Computers
(Assuming they have been set up as above)

1. In Windows Explorer, right-click on a drive that is to be shared.
2. Select "Sharing".
3. Under the "Sharing" tab, select "Shared as", and there will be a suggested drive name.
4. If this name is not changed, the drive will appear on the other computers as:
          "drive_letter ON 'computer_name' (mapped_drive_letter:)".

Run Network Neighborhood on the Local Computer

1. Expand the tree until a "shared DRIVE LETTER" of a remote computer appears.
2. Right click on this drive and select "Map Network Drive".
3. Select "Reconnect at logon".  Notice that the "path" is already established.
4. Select an unused drive letter; press OK.  (Repeat for the other computers; unused drive letters will be listed)
5. The local computer should see the remote computer without rebooting.
6. Do the same Network Neighborhood setup on the remote computers, so they can see the local computer.

Windows 2000 Addendum

Instead of "Network Neighborhood", we have "My Network Places" -ugh!  The only thing we encountered was our inability to browse to a few Windows 98 computers - Windows Explorer seemed to "lock up."  We had to type in the path directly by using "Add Network Place" in "My Network Places." For example, "\\ComputerName\SharedDriveLetter"

We have confirmed our suspicion that this is caused by something corrupted in Windows 98.  For one problem computer, which had multiple Windows 98 partitions, we CAN browse to it successfully from Windows 2000 with one of the "other" Windows 98 partitions.

Both Windows 98 and Windows 2000 show you previously mapped network drives in the drop down list when you select Windows Explorer > Tools > Map Network Drive.  Generally speaking, when mapping network drives in Windows 2000, the "paths" are shown as in Windows 98, and the drives can be mapped by just selecting an available drive letter.

Some LAN Test Results

Jack's wireless Bay Networks 2Mbps system = 3MB per minute.
Jack's wireless SMC 11Mbps system = 18MB per minute.
Rick's 100Mbps hard-wired NetGear system = 77MB per minute
Jack and Joe's DSL download speed is 9MB per minute downloading the 3MB ZIP file from:
    http://gpsinformation.net/exe/timsbury.zip
 

Jack Yeazel