I have read messages after messages, in this forum, regarding all the tweaks and hacks you guy are doing to get your systems networked. This has got to be totally un-necassary because my network was working flawlessly at one stage. My stupid mistake has left me angry and frustrated now of over 5weeks with being unable to communicate with WinXP and Win2k properly. What was that big mistake i make? I removed the nic and replaced it with another after installing WinXP, thats what! When i replaced the nic i continued to have problems which i have not been able to resolve. No matter what do. I have followed every recommendation in these forums and nothing works. The motto of the story is, dont touch anything thats not broke.

Think about it guys. Do you really think that MS requires users to go into the registry to delete keys so as to remove the lag time it takes to connect to another machine? Do you really think that M.S. requires users to unclick on firewall, enable IPX and mess around with the network properties like that? Do you seriously believe that their intention is to get you to enable Simple networking and and frustrate you to no end before you get a simple peer to peer network working? What kind of viable product would they have if the average user had to tweak their system to no end. This doesnt make any sense. Is it a question of hardware compatability? Could be! Has anyone tried? Those users who have working networks the first time. Do they all pretty much have the same setup(network cards, sound cards, routers, nics? etc)? What brand of nics are those users using, who got their networking portion working the first time without having to load IPX? This is where we should be looking for our answers. Could one of those users who installed XP and got the networking portion working the very first time please list their configuration?

Nope, i think there is a simple answer to all of the above. Its
not called "LET TWEAK XP AND GET IT TO WORK". If tweaking is the answer then how can one explain that my network worked the very first time after installing XP? Everything and i mean everthing was set at default!!!!!!!!!!! Just set up my network thru the wizard and away she went. We even copied 800 mp3 files from my win2k system to a folder on XP without incident. Something that i cannot duplicate since i replaced my nic.

Food for thought guys. Think about it!

network works fine here
3 xp machines and 1 win me machine

static ip's
ics on 1 of th xp machines
dsl allways on
no ipx was installed no tweaks added

90% of computer problems happen between the keyboard and the chair.

Laugh! well if thats what you do whilst sitting at your computer then good on you. Enjoy yourself. Thats what life is all about, NOT!

First, anyone that is willing to edit the registry, tweak their system, etc.. is:
A) Not the average user and (B) Accepting the fact that they may hose up their system while tweaking.

Now, the severity of hosing may depend on the level of said user. In addition, the level of said user can reduce the downtime caused by a hosed tweak - either by reverting to backup, fixing said problem, or lastly, a full re-install.

Lastly, two words: Planning and Backups. Always have a good plan and a good backup. That goes for anybody.

If I hose my system I am back in business in about 20 mins. Ghost is a wonderful thing.

DT

But how do you know if it's broke or not? Here you are with no network for 5 weeks and your stating your opinion on how unnecessary tweaking & hacking is? Replacing the NIC was not your problem. YOU are the problem.



No. MS doesn't "require" you to do jack. They also "commonly" frequently suggest editing the registry whenever you search their knowledgebase. So NO MS doesn't "require" you to edit the registry but if you want to fix/tweak a setting then you HAVE to.



??? Didn't know MS made up people's own security policies. Just because MS leave's protocols out of their OS's and/or recommends other protocols does not mean that those protocols are ideal for the situation and "messing" around with network properties is required if your setting up a network. I don't know how the heck you do it....magic?



Their "intent" is to sell an OS to the masses with these "HUGE" features, that being their overriding goal they tend to forget all of the smaller (while no means less important) things that make up the OS. This is bad.



Dos,9x,NT..All needed to be tweaked. Linux needs to be tweaked. Mac's need to be tweaked. There are various levels of "tweakage" but all to some degree require tweakage....and it never ends. UNLESS you buy a webtv/console....well even then.




No. It's the U-S-E-R in almost 95% of all situations. In networking that percentage drops quite a bit but it's still pretty high.




A SIMPLE answer? There are tons of different network configurations that can be configured throughout the world with XP. Just because your network was so simple to setup does not mean that it should be/will be for everyone else.....and now you can't duplicate it because you replaced your NIC. ;(


I think you need to redefine your definition of tweakage.....and you definetly need more experience in computer maintentance,marketing, and networking.

The first thing that comes to mind when reading your reply is how RUDE you really are. It is not me who is a problem, it is you who is RUDE. Judging by the number of posts in your stats, I'm hopeing that somewhere in all your 1300+ posts, you were at least some help to somebody looking for help in these forums instead of being insulted by your rotten mouth and your poor use of the english language.



I never mentioned security policies, you did and since you did my reply is "I KNOW THAT!" I was simply stating that my setup was left at default and IPX was not loaded. Read my msg again!



The rest of your message was not even worth replying to. It simply lacks substance and continuity. Your communication skills are seriously lacking. Get an education will you. :ROLLEYES

Funny, I found this to be the first rude post in this thread, and I am not surprised by the response you received. Now, you are encouraging a flame war with your last post. So what is the point of this then? You came in posturing about how everybody is wasting his/her time doing tweaks, when it *could* be simple hardware compatibility. While your post may be correct, your posturing reduced the effectiveness of it.

Also, the reference to security policies IS valid since you wrote about the *possible* need to disable a firewall in order to share files (which I haven't seen, since all of my WinXP installs have worked fine with NT4/2K networks). Any alteration of such a device would affect the security of a workstation/server/network.

So, how about the next time you want to convey your thoughts to other users of this board, you do so without the mocking behavior. Food for thought.

LOL, i wanna get in this too, too bad i don't feel like typing a lot.....LOL, clutch, have Phillip make me a Mod again. lol.

Bottom Line -

1. If you aren't skilled enough to be editing the registry or other files, you shouldn't do so.

2. Read technet and see what microsoft's answer to a problem is before you start changing settings.

3. Have a good backup (Drive Image, Ghost..etc)

4. Be prepared to have crap happen from time to time...

- Ben

Great bottom line Ben.

But the real issue I think is that at least I whant to personalize my computer (and everything else for that matter).

I want my machine to be perfect, fast and reliable. And ost important easy for ME to use. Thats the thing... I want my room to suite me. I want my car to suite me.

And if you want these things to suite you, then you have to mess around a bit to get it that way. In it's original state any MS Os is made to suite as many ppl as possible and the limited easy to use options embedded are for the normal user. If you know a bit more you will most likely wanna get more fro your Os and your machine. Its all about getting more that you have without paying more (eg. clocking your processor and stuff)