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Listen to the podcast: Networking
Sucks Transcript This is Leo Notenboom with news, commentary and answers to some of the many questions I get at askleo.info. One of the areas that I find myself actually avoiding these days when answering questions on Ask Leo! is local area networking. I have an article or two covering the basics, but more and more "regular people" are starting to ask more and more of their home and small business networks. The problem is that, well ... networking sucks. Networking Windows machine together remains incredibly difficult for the average user. Making a connection that is both secure and flexible - two concepts that are inherently at odds with each other from the start - is a very common stumbling block. There are no simple solutions. Things like the network setup wizard work, sort of, in common cases. But even though it sounds contradictory, those common cases are becoming less and less common. It seems like almost everything impacts networking. Operating system versions, or even variations between flavors like Home and Pro. Workgroup names. Obscure Windows settings. Firewalls installed, or not, enabled, or not. Access points, routers and broadband modems that act as routers. Everything from cabling, to nitty-gritty protocol quirks will sometimes stymie even the most patient user. And yes, like many of my readers, I to have spent multiple hours trying to get one system to connect to both another system and the internet at the same time. Without much success - though I do understand now why: in my case it happened to be a DSL modem that was unexpectedly also acting as a router. The prognosis for everyday folk in similar scenarios, which are slowly becoming more common, is pretty darned bleak. Some things are getting better. Wireless networking, for example, has made great strides over the past few years. For average users, it's gone from being "nearly impossible" to merely "difficult" in that time. Yes, I do plan to address networking, but it'll be a long and difficult process to explain in layman's terms. And even then, that layman will have to be very, very patient. I'd love to hear what you think Visit ask leo dot info, and enter 9309 in the go to article number box. Leave a comment, I read them all. This is a presentation of askleo.info, a free on-line technical question and answer service. Hundreds of questions and answers are online and ready to help solve your computer problems. New questions and answers are added daily. That's askleo.info. Related:
Article 9309 | Posted October 20, 2005 |
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Thanks for a very interesting program
Andrew Smith
Auckland
New Zealand
Posted by: Andrew at October 21, 2005 5:59 PMI agree! It seems that networking software has
Posted by: Larry at November 4, 2005 11:51 PMbecome more user friendly in the recent couple of
years, but networking multiple OSs can still be
daunting. We have multiple WinXP systems,
Linux, and Mac computers successfully networked,
but it has taken many, many hours to get them
to a harmonious state. Please take up the task
of explaining, in simple terms, the process(es)
of networking for those of us who are most
interested of USING a network instead of
tinkering. I'll be eagerly listening.
Networking does suck.
I never know where to turn when things go wrong. When I call up Linksys or D-link or Comcast or Verizon or any of the major company's "help" lines they only give me very basic advice like "upgrade your router's firmware" or "make sure you don't have any viruses" and then they hang up and leave me staring at the same problems I've been having for years. DNS servers randomly becoming unavailable... Random computers on my home network locking up everybody else's connections. Firewall logs that don't make any sense. Games that suddenly skyrocket to 2000 ping with 70% packet loss. Routers that lock up. That aggrivating little "limited or no networking connectivity" message. I just want it all to work. What's even more frustrating to me is that I'm the most tech savvy of the 6 people in my residence and the other 5 rely on me to solve their computer problems. When unexplainable things occur on the network I have NOBODY to turn to. Networking issues have driven me to tears more than once... Right now I'm struggling with some sort of network congestion issue without any clue as to what's going on. I tried googling a few things and found this podcast. It made me feel better knowing that even people that are supposed to know what's going on struggle with this stuff at times.
What I'd really like to see is a guide that covers more advanced topics involving obscure commands and settings, but still follows a "try this. Now try this. Now try this." approach instead of confusing me with 15 different things to keep track of at the same time. I need answers and all I ever get is more headaches.
Aaaaaaaarrrrrrrrgggggghhhhhhhh,
Posted by: Alex Johnson at June 25, 2006 8:31 PMAlex Johnson
I just recently learned how to network XP & Vista.
Posted by: John at May 13, 2008 12:42 PMIt took me a week to figure out what to do.
The easy step is to go into your router and turn
off the security and let your laptop pick up
the signal and then turn the security back on.
Im still a novice in networking but yeah
at times it can be a real pain to figure out.