Dream of simple set-up a nightmare in making

By CHRIS BARTON

As with most things to do with computers, networking two or more together is not always a smooth process. In my case, it threatened to become a nightmare.

But thanks to the patience and ability of Darren Clarke - who runs Service Direct, providing technical training for Dave Cronin's installers - disaster was averted.

What was the problem?

The PCI on the Pentium 166MHz motherboard was incompatible with the PCI 802.11 card. A password on the BIOS had to be broken by changing jumper settings. The fallback was a PCMCIA card reader, but that was incompatible with Windows 95, which meant an OS upgrade to 98.

Translation: The hand-me-down computer in Monika's room was older and less powerful than the one in the study. Something on its motherboard circuitry hated the wireless networking card we wanted to use, so it refused to work. There was also an unknown password blocking access to a secret part of the computer's system that only geeks visit. Darren had to break into this part of the computer by taking a deep breath and changing some switches on the motherboard's circuitry. He then installed a PC card slot, which is a bit like a floppy disk slot - only it takes credit-card-sized devices. Into this slot, Darren plugged a wireless networking card, which should have worked fine, but something in the Windows 95 operating system running the computer hated the card and it refused to work. We upgraded the computer by installing Windows 98 and everything worked fine. The process took six hours.

Moral 1: The older your computer, the harder it is to wirelessly network.

Moral 2: If you're going to network computers, make sure you have someone like Darren to stop you smashing the infernal device into small pieces.

So I shouldn't try this on my own?

As Dave points out, sometimes everything comes together in 10 minutes - especially if your computer is Windows 98 or newer, and you have a universal serial bus (USB) plug at the back. In those conditions, wireless networking is often just a matter of installing the modem and plugging in a couple of wireless cards. If you have no idea what the last two sentences mean, you should get an expert in.

How far does a wireless network reach?

It depends a little on the construction of your house. Mine is a timber frame dwelling and the distance between the two computers is about 10 metres, passing through two walls. A concrete block dwelling would be a bit more difficult, but by clever placement of the cards, Dave reckons you can usually find a way. So, could I network with my neighbour and share a single internet connection? In theory, yes - the card's signal will reach between 50m and 100m - but don't tell Telecom, because they may not like it.

What about security?

The downside with wireless networks is that a hacker driving down your street with a notebook computer and wireless 802.11 card could use your internet account. To make that more difficult, we encrypted my home network with scrambling keys - so that only those who know the keys can gain access.

How hard is it to make the software work?

Once the hardware is installed, you still have to do some things with the computer's software. Thankfully, under Windows XP, which is what my computer in the study uses, that wasn't too hard. Just follow the instructions on the networking "wizard" and it's done. Well, almost. We also had to tell ZoneAlarm - the firewall I installed on both computers to keep internet nasties out - to allow access between the computers so they could share files and the printer. Because the computer in Monika's room was now accessing the net, I also took the added precaution of installing antivirus software on that machine too.

How much does all this cost?

It depends how you go about the process. Getting someone like Dave (Net-Direct) to come in and do it all for you is going to cost $599 just to get your fast internet connection set up on one computer. That price includes a broadband modem and the filters to make your line Jetstream-capable. Depending on what Jetstream plan you choose, you'll also have to pay Telecom a connection fee and then, of course, your monthly internet access fee. If you want to buy all the bits and pieces yourself, the Net Direct set-up and installation charge is $159.

But that just gets you a fast connection. If you want to network two computers to share that connection, it will cost more - about $200 extra for a modem that can take wireless cards, then about $295 for each wireless card. There will also be an extra installation fee, depending on how many computers you want to network and how old they are. A good place to find comparative prices on modems and wireless network cards is Acquire