i need to set up a home network. i used microsoft inst.but it keeps going on into dsl. every place you go it goes to dsl. im one of the poor slobes that cant get dsl. i live in the country. in microsoft wizard i get as far asunder pci ethernet adapter properties, underadvanced tab, its supposed to say duplex mode on left and full duplex on right. i get somthing else. they all bounce from 98 to xp. there must be somthing different for ME edition.
You have a dial-up connection to the Internet? You want to connect several home computers by ethernet? If you're using a dial-up connection, why are you installing a pci ethernet card?
Please clarify your question by including more detail about the instructions you're trying to follow, what you expect compared to what's happening, that kind of thing.
ok,i thought i was clear but, if you go in 98 manual or 95 or go on help in me, it takes you thru networking your home pc,s. i want to network my pc,s  togeather to share with each other, and also go on line with each one. to make them share with each other you have to network them togeather. to do so you need net cards, right? all units have identical cards. i have a 10 port hub. all light the hub. but my setup is wrong somplace. it fails the ping test. cant read the other pc,s. in all instructions they start out with everything fine and then goes to dsl. like i said i have to use dail up. Poster rated this answer.
Do all of the computers have the same workgroup names? Have you assigned IP address to each computer? If you are using a hub it will not assign a IP address to each computer. Have you checked to see if there are any conflicts in device manager with the network cards? To share a dial up connection you will need to use internet connection sharing. It has been some time since I have used internet connection sharing but we can get through that. Main thing is first to get the computers talking to each other. Post back the answers to the questions.
yes on ip address. yes im using a hub. all net cards are installed w/no conflict. i used the microsoft wizard to set it up but it fails ping test. one pc shows the hand shake but only 1 hand shows on the hand shake. thats telling me that the others are not set right, right?
Ok, some things are unclear, but I think we can do this anyway.
1. First step you need is physical configuration. All pcs need LAN cards and need to connect to the same hub. One PC needs to have a modem, and an associated connection to your ISP.
2. Assign that last mentioned PC an IP address in the private range (like 192.168.0.1).
3. Now assign IPs to all the other PCs, making them all unique, and put the IP address of the modem PC in as the default gateway for all the others.
4. Lastly, on the modem PC, right click your connection for your ISP and click properties. On the advanced tab, check the box saying "Allow other network users to connect through this computer's internet connection."
Now whenever you have this computer dialed in, you should be able to access the internet from all other PCs. Hope all that helps.
ok. went to properties under advanced tab. it says....enable software comp., record log file. enable software is checked. next is allow net proticall, under that is ....netbui, ipx/spx comp. tcp/ip. tcp/ip is checked. Poster rated this answer.
Ok. I've seen this type of problem. You're systems are confused as to whether they connect to the Internet directly over DSL or someth9ing like that. Some ideas.
1. Remove all the networking (software and settings) from all the computers. Right click on network neighbourhood or on the Lan connection, remove all protocols one by one and shutdown the system. If possible, leave the network card - if that also gets removed don't worry. Do this for all systems and shut them down. And keep them off for now.
2. Disconnect one system - the one you want to connect to the Internet, from the LAN (cable to the switch/Hub), connect it's modem, power-on the modem and start it up (I hope you'll have removed all networking before doing that).
When it starts up, it'll install/re-install the drivers for the modem as required. Set-up your dial-up connection first. Get that working - as you would for a stand-alone system.
Once this is done and it can connect to the Internet by modem / dial-up, shut it down, connect it's LAN cable and re-start it.
Now when it asks for LAN information, give it an IP Address (prefer 192.168.0.1).
4. After doing this for all the systems in the LAN check that you have a working network. All systems see each other and the 1 system connects to the Internet via dail-up.
Finally, just go to the system that connects to the Internet and set-it-up for Internet connection sharing (ICS) on the LAN card AND on each of the other systems, go to network (TCP-IP) properties and change the IP Address to "Server assigned" - DHCP.