Home Networking Annoyances

Introduction

Installing a network is easier than most people think, but maintaining a network is almost as much work as raising children. It seems to go on forever.

Like all computer professionals, I’m constantly asked for help, advice, and opinions. Every event and occasion in my life seems to produce questions about computers, and for the past few years, the vast majority of questions were about home networks. Everybody’s installing one; this is a hot topic!

These freebie consulting sessions have occurred at dinner parties, while standing in line at the bank, and even in an operating room where the anesthesiologist, poising the IV above my arm, asked me to solve her wireless network problem. After a satisfactory response, I was permitted to drift off.

Tons of requests for help arrive in my Inbox every day, and for some reason I saved the questions, along with my responses. When O’Reilly contacted me about doing this book, I knew the reason. Because my Inbox could be accurately described as a source of information for every annoyance a home network owner could encounter, it was fate that I should turn those messages into a book.

IS HOME NETWORKING ANNOYANCES RIGHT FOR YOU?

This book is for people who installed a home network and now have to cope with maintaining it. Hardware, software, and users—especially users—provide daily challenges to smooth, error-free networking.

The person who installs a home network becomes the de facto network administrator. If you’re the admin of your home network, this book is designed to help you prevent, solve, and understand the annoying problems that crop up.

HOW TO USE THIS BOOK

This book isn’t a novel, and it doesn’t have a plot. That means you don’t have to start at the beginning and read to the end to get the information you need. The chapters are arranged into semilogical categories, and the index will get you to the specific information you need.

CONVENTIONS USED IN THIS BOOK

The following typographic conventions are used in this book.

Italic

Indicates new terms, URLs, filenames, file extensions, directories, and program names.

Constant width

Used to show the contents of files, commands and options, or the output from commands.

Constant width bold

Indicates commands or other text that should be typed literally by the user.

Constant width italic

Used for typed text that should be replaced with user-supplied values.

Menus/navigation

This book uses arrow symbols to signify menu instructions. For example, “File → Print” is a more compact way of saying “Click File on the command bar at the top of the screen and choose Print from the drop-down menu.” However, if an instruction directs you to click a tab, check an option, or click a button in a dialog box, I’ll tell you.

Pathnames

Pathnames show the location of a file or application in Windows Explorer. Folders are separated by a backward slash—for example, C:\Windows\System32.

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We have a web page for this book, where we list errata, examples, and any additional information. You can access this page at:

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To comment or ask technical questions about this book, send email to:

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Kathy Ivens has spent more than 20 years as a computer consultant, and has been writing computer books for more than 10 years. She also writes about computers for a variety of magazines and newspapers, and is a senior contributing editor of Windows IT Pro magazine.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

A hearty and heartfelt thanks to all the people who asked me for help with their home or small business networks. I owe a round of applause and an enthusiastic “Thank You” to Brett Johnson of O’Reilly Media for his help and patience.