|
Feedback - Page Two Here on the Feedback page we've collected feedback and comments received from visitors to homePCnetwork.com. These cover everything from opinions about our site to "real-world" experiences and tips on home networking. Please go to our Contact page to send us a comment. If you send an e-mail, make sure to tell us in your e-mail if you do NOT want us to share your comments, otherwise we'll assume that it's OK. We will never use full names or e-mail address, just your first initial and last name. Check back here often for updates.
We've separated our Feedback page into multiple pages. You
can browse through this page, page
one or go to the index of
all the feedback. Home networking and Internet security I'm sure y'all have heard about the various horror stories of sophisticated crackers 'breaking' into peoples computers for their own nefarious purposes. The sad truth is that most people have no idea of how to secure their home network against attack and how easy it is to attack their PC. This web site does an excellent job of explaining the attacks, the defenses, and even performs a 'pretend' attack to see how vulnerable your home PC is to internet based attacks. I'll briefly summarize. Windows98 (and I suspect 95 as well) automatically assumes that you want to share your information to the world if you have an internet connection and have a home network where you share drives. Technically, this is because your two networking protocols (TCP/IP (the internet) and NetBEUI (normal Win95 and 98 intranet)) are bound together when you set your PCs up for networking. This allows the gifted (or not-so-gifted) cracker full access to any shared resources on your machines. Now you are thinking that how will anyone on the internet find my PC. It's easier than you think according to the Gibson Research people and I believe them. There are programs that scan the internet looking for wide open machines. Not to instantly destroy, but in case something interesting comes up later. Do you keep you bank account information on a networked PC? It may be wide open for anyone who wants it. You can quickly remedy part of the problem by setting passwords on shared resources, but let's be honest. Microsoft has not shown itself to be the most secure network around and it's a real pain to type in a decent password (more than 8 characters, mixed upper-lower case and numerals) every time you want to print to the laser printer in the office. The best way to solve this is to unbind your internet protocol from your home network protocol. How to do this: 1) Right click on Network Neighborhood 2) Click on your Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) and then click the 'properties' button. 3) You should get a nice message from Bill Gates telling you that this might not be the best idea. Click OK to ignore the message. 4) Under the TCP/IP properties you will see a tab marked 'Bindings'. Click there. 5) Uncheck the Client for Microsoft Networks and File and Printer Sharing boxes. Leave anything else (though there probably won't be anything else). 6) Click OK and restart your computer. This will keep people from being able to access shared resources on your home network (like your C: drive) via the internet. Be sure to visit the Gibson site to check your PCs vulnerability or lack thereof. If you really need to share files across the internet like this, then I suggest that you invest in a decent firewall. - K. McCarthy 12/14/99
Which Server Operating System to Select for a Home Network The answer depends on your client systems. You want to use a server solution that will integrate easily with your desktop systems. I am assuming you are using Windows 9X and/or Windows NT desktops and maybe Macs. Possible choices: 1) NT Server 4.0 Pro:
Con:
2) NT Workstation 4.0 Pro:
Con:
3) Linux or FreeBSD. Pro:
Con:
As far as reliability is concerned, there is a lot of hype going around about which operating system is better. Usually it comes down to the person managing the system, and what their skill level is with the OS they are using. It has been my experience that NT is extremely stable and solid when it is installed properly. I installed an NT Server in a large bank here in Canada, and it was used in a production environment for over 10 months with no reboots. The only reason it was rebooted after 10 months was to install Y2K patches and a service pack! - J. Sloan 9/30/99
Notes on the WebBeetle Internet Router I noticed on your front page that you are planning on doing a
review of Protec's WebBeetle. I just wanted to point out a couple of features of the
device that I have discovered in about a month of using it.
A more convenient direct cable connection I may have done you one better on the direct cable
connection. Reaching around to the back of my desktop computer is a pain, so I made a
connection where there's a connection in front. I did it like this:
I ordered the Diamond Homefree Phoneline kit Desktop Pac, which equips two computers, for $99, directly from Diamond's website. It arrived as advertised 3 business days after receiving the order, and the shipping was free. The hardware is a PCI adapter card for each PC. It's hard to distinguish from a typical cheap Ethernet card until you look at the connector and see that you simply plug in a phone cord. A second jack allows you to hook up to your modem without using a phone line splitter. Once the hardware is installed, you install software from Diamond's CD-ROM. The first component installed is the network driver, which becomes a part of your Windows configuration allowing your applications to communicate over the network. Then a setup "Wizard" walks you through sharing your drives and printers, and then installing Wingate, which allows multiple machines to share an internet connection. Machine #1: Pentium II 350 MHz, Win98 The card did not function in the first PCI slot I tried. By watching the plug and play BIOS messages after power-up, I discovered that this slot's interrupt signal is shared with the AGP video adapter. This was not evident from simply looking at Win98 device manager's list of interrupts. Once I moved the card to a different PCI slot it was detected and I could install the software. Once I pointed Win98 to the CD-ROM, installation of the driver software should have begun. However, I was rudely greeted by a message "error loading DLL" and the install process locked up requiring a reboot. After some investigation, I found that this error occurred on attempting to load any network driver, not just the Homefree driver. I also traced it (by reading the INF files) to a file called netapi.dll. I figured my best alternative was to try reinstalling Win98 networking, or even reinstalling all of Win98. To my surprise, the first message displayed when I started the Win98 setup program was that my version of netapi.dll was not valid. This file was then updated. I aborted the Win98 setup, rebooted, and was able to use Diamond's CD-ROM to set up all the network functions. Note that what happened on this machine applies to any PCI network card, and not just the HomePNA cards. My point in detailing this is that there are a large number of unsophisticated users out there who want this product but will not be able to deal with these types of installation issues. Machine #2: 6x86 100MHz, Win95 original version I could not set this machine up using Diamond's automated install procedure. Although the hardware was detected OK, I couldn't install the driver and get the network to communicate. What worked was to load the latest version of the driver from AMD's website (AMD makes the controller chip, which uses AMD's ethernet logic and Tut Systems homePNA transceiver) and do some adjusting in control panel network. At this point I was able to communicate between machines using Windows network neighborhood. I then installed the Wingate software from the Diamond CD-ROM, to try to access the Internet through the modem in Machine #1. It almost worked. If I tried to access a web page through the network, I could get the modem to dial, and the Wingate server on machine #1 reported seeing the DNS traffic. But web pages (HTTP) weren't passed through Wingate, so web browsing was not possible.I was running Internet Explorer 3.02 on Machine #2. Diamond's documentation seemed to emphasize using Internet Explorer 4.0. I decided to upgrade. After loading IE 4.01 I found my network communications to be completely dead. Control panel network, and device manager, reported that all the hardware and software was configured correctly and operating OK. A significant amount of time spent tweaking the network configuration and reinstalling the hardware did not improve the situation. I began to conclude that there must be some type of compatibility issue with the original Win95 version (either with IE4.0, the network driver, or both). At this point I decided to go ahead and upgrade to Win98 on machine #2. Again I installed the latest driver from AMD, since I was tired of dealing with the CD-ROM setup. It worked immediately, and I followed with a successful Wingate install from the CD (by the way, you do this by going to the Wizard directory on Diamond's CD). So after I upgraded to Win98, it really was only a few minutes from installing the Homefree card to being on the Internet. The netapi.dll problem did not occur on this machine. My wiring is not particularly challenging compared to the claims of HomePNA's capabilities. The total run between machines is about 90 feet, and is good quality. Some of it is rated for Category 3 (standard Ethernet). About 5 "branch" circuits are wired together at the phone company's box. There are 9 jacks on the phone line, with 4 of these connected to a phone or computer. Homefree Phoneline moved a 6.7 MB file between computers in 63 seconds, which corresponds to an impressive 85+ percent of the rated 1Mb/second link speed. During this test I couldn't hear any distortion or noise on the telephone handset, and repeatedly lifting and hanging up the phone did not appear to disrupt the file transfer. Unfortunately I didn't have time for more sophisticated testing. The documentation is unimpressive, and will not help novice or intermediate users in dealing with the logistical issues of adding the network hardware to a machine that may already be loaded with peripheral devices. Users only learn how to share out entire drives, with read-only permission. Sharing of folders, setting permissions, or dealing with any glitches that occur while setting up the network connection require the user to learn Microsoft networking. The setup program that comes with this kit does not seem to deal with "exceptions" (including old versions of Win95) very well. But if the user has a clean installation of Win98, and the system's PCI configuration has been set up correctly, it will succeed in getting the network up almost immediately. However, most home networks are going to look like my test setup. There will be at least one machine that is more than 3 years old. Perfectly usable, but for which no one is very anxious to support new software. Although it worked this time, in general operating system upgrades are not an acceptable solution. The features and ease of use of Wingate are top-notch. Someone should review it on this website if it hasn't been already. The basic advantage of this product is that it works over the existing phone wiring in your house. Unfortunately I found that the user needs to have the same skill level required to install and operate an in-home ethernet network. - P. Pirillo 4/1/99
Hey Great page, wish I would have found it about four months ago ! Here's some additional info for you. 1. Another good software company for sharing modems is www.wingate.com 2. Also there is a new book out "Networking Home PCs for Dummies" by Kathy Ivens. Keep up the good work - D. DeCaprio 3/7/99
Great Site !!! I was searching for an answer to networking my home PCs And you have provided all of the answers. - R. Gent 2/16/99
Greetings: I just wanted to thank you for this wonderful website! Bravo! Three cheers! Best regards - R. Keller 2/10/99
On the D-Link Network kit and "Editor's Choice" award Thanks again for a great site. I just finished installing a D-link 905 networking kit, and would not have been able to do it without the information on your site. I'd like to quarrel with your rating of that kit, however. The documentation that comes with the kit is simply atrocious. The kit that I have came with a booklet on the card(s), a booklet on the hub, and nothing else. A note in the back of the NIC booklet says, essentially, "hey, there's all these operating systems out there and we couldn't possibly put instructions for all of them into a booklet of this size, so look at the readme files on the diskette". I did, and the readme said, again essentially, "insert the diskette and let Windows do plug and play". When Windows finished, I had two computers that recognized the NIC cards, but I was still unable to "see" one computer from another. After various attempts over what seemed like a long time to find missing files, de-install and re-install the cards in each of the PC's, and a walk through the Windows network troubleshooting menu, I went back to your web site and realized that D-link does not instruct the user on setting file and printer sharing, the Windows network dialog box, computer and network naming, sharing the "C" drive, or the Network card properties box -- all key to getting this (or any) network up and running. So I did all that, and still couldn't view the 2nd PC. Although both PC's recognized that there was a network in place, each PC only recognized itself, not the other PC. Attempts such as "find computer", etc., all failed. After more searching of your site and two others, I discovered the Windows "map network drive" utility. When I "mapped" the network drive (for the new "E" drive) and checked the "reconnect" at logon box, the second computer appeared in Windows Explorer, and everything was fine. I've since learned that if this last step is not performed on a small network, the network will "work" but individual units will not see each other. The D-link web site has absolutely nothing in terms of tech support or FAQ information. I sent them a summary e-mail of my problems and questions, but still have not heard back from them. Remember that, for most of us, the purchase of a kit results from the lack of background to build a piecemeal network on our own. If the kit is not fully documented, we're stuck half-way into the process without a source for completion. Given the lack of documentation and lack of information from their web site, this kit is simply not satisfactory for the uninitiated such as myself. Again, thanks for a great and very useful site. - D. Krentz 3/1/99
Disclaimer: I have no stake in the Anchor Chips Company. The following message is true, and I benefit in no way by sending this to you. My wife and I both use our computer frequently, but, of course, never at the same time, so, about 2 or 3 months ago, I decided to buy a used computer, perhaps a Pentium 100 or 120, to go along with my Hewlett Packard, a 166 MHz Pentium. Most of the used Pentiums, I found, were selling for about $400. Then came the eMachine. I am now sitting at my Pentium Celeron (with L2 cache) 333 mhz with a DVD for which I paid a total of $700 plus tax and license. I then decided to network the two, so I bought the EZLink USB network (from Fry's Electronics), installed it (using USB ports, of course), and, voila, and almost instant network. It took about 10 minutes, or so to install the software, and another 2 or 3 minutes to install the hardware. A very easy, quick setup. And it works, too. The eMachine came with very little software, Word 4.5 and Windows 98. But with the network, sharing the "C' drive of the HP with the eMachine, I was able to "drag and drop" most of the software installed on the HP onto the eMachine. And it was easy. Of course, my printer is also hooked into the network. - R. Coover 3/6/99
On the Diamond HomeFree Wireless kit I thought I would pass along my horror (not yet completed :-( ) related to the HOMEFREE product from Diamond Multimedia. I spent about a week, with my system networking non-functional for work, working with tech support over the phone, but was never able to get the problems resolved. What follows is the email I sent to Diamond back on Nov. 30, 1998. I never heard from them, even after several emails to different CS areas. I tried the phone of course, but never got through. I even tried the FAX number they post on their website. I finally had to wait for the charge to show up on my credit card, then contacted my Credit card company to dispute this as I could not reach Diamond to obtain an RMA to return the product. I was contacted by the CC company and given a different fax number to send too, which I did a week and a half ago. I STILL haven't heard from Diamond ! At any rate, I would suggest very strenuous testing for this product. It seems like a good idea that is not quite ready for prime time. Folks who are doing generic stuff, like your testing MIGHT be getting done, may work out decent. But for power users such as myself, this product was not only of poor quality, but flat out broke things ! Enough ranting :-), here is the email I had originally sent to Diamond. If you would like further details, please don't hesitate to ask: I purchased your HomeFree product on 11-13-98, via the web. My order number is ######. After working with tech support both on the phone and via email, and being unable to resolve issues caused by the HomeFree product installation, I am requesting an RMA number so I can return the product for a refund. The problems encountered were: 1) I use RLA (Remote Lan Access) for network access to work for my client from home, and this connectivity was interrupted during the period HomeFree was installed, because of network modifications it makes. 2) Internet access was very poor during the time HomeFree was installed. Graphics and HTML pages regularly broken, or fractured. Response time 20-30% of what it normally is. I worked with Tech Support for about a week, (at a cost of nearly $50 dollars, using your NON-800 support number), during which time I was unable to work from home for my client. After finally getting frustrated, I un-installed the HomeFree software and hardware, and most things returned to normal. However, my RLA access was still not functioning correctly. Only when I re-installed Winsock32 was my client access restored to normal. - D. Barnes 3/5/99
The information is clear, easy to understand, and provides a wealth of information for the home/soho person. Installation instructions are easy to follow with the step by step method...Extremely grateful, - C. Lukas 1/19/99
An Update on the Intelogis Passport (see below for more): As a follow-up to the material you posted on my experience with Intelogis Passport -- Customer support sent me replacement PC-Plug-Ins for the ones I thought were faulty, and they instantly solved all my problems. I've had a reliable network of 3 PCs and two printers running for a couple weeks now. Everything works fine -- shared Internet connection, remote gaming, printer access, file transfers, etc. Others seem to have had different experiences, but in my case all my troubles seem to have been faulty hardware. If Intelogis has bad units still in their distribution channels, I hope they can recall them and replace them with good units. Letting the customers weed out the bad units is an awful way to do it! - D. Leeper 1/12/99
I read your review for the [Netgear] Fast ethernet kit, and I would like to point out a couple of things that have changed since the PCMag Editor's choice award for the 10mbit kit. First, the NICs have changed from using the DEC chipset to a customized PNIC chip. The PNIC is supposed to be a cheap knock off of the DECTulip. It does not match up as well as it could to the DEC, particularly at 100mbps. One of the main things that NetGear scores points for in general is their 24/7 technical support. Very few other companies, and almost no networking companies, still have that. If you are installing on the weekend and have problems with one of the other kits, who are you going to call? Ghostbusters? Uh, no. Lastly, if you don't know already, the hubs from Linksys and Netgear both use the same chips in them, as well. D-Link uses a newer dual speed version in their 4-port hub. If you can afford it, a better choice for the dual speed hubs is one of the 8 port versions, since they can have both 10 and 100 connections simultaneously. Since I had to help review the kits for the PC Magazine story, I can tell you that if the Netgear kit had a 100 Mbit hub instead of the 10mbps, iit would have been a better value--then. Since Netgear has gone for a cheaper chipset on their NICs, they are no longer the great value they once were. Too bad. If you would like a nice kit to review that is comparable to the ones you have finished already, the Kingston kits were also excellent performers. They have stuck with the DEC Tulip chipsets still. Keep up the excellent work, - R. Snedegar 12/19/98 [homePCnetwork Note: We took his advice and asked Kingston to send us a kit for review.]
On the Linksys NIC and Riva 128 conflict: The problem with the Linksys and the Riva128 video card is probably an IRQ conflict. All Riva128 cards require an IRQ and if the BIOS PNP manager gave the same one to the Linksys card then problems could ensue (eventhough they theoretically should be able to share an IRQ). Try changing the PNP settings in the BIOS to see if you can get the 128 video card to work with the Linksys card. Some BIOS that I have seen have a section where you can manually assign an IRQ to each PCI slot (in PCI Configuration Setup). - B. Whitworth 12/29/98
"Here's more data for you re Intelogis Passport from one user who's had decidedly mixed results. I finally got a reliable network of 2 PCs and 2 printers going. Everything works. Printing, Internet-connection-sharing, remote gaming, and even AOL connection via proxy. I estimate the net speed to be (at least) 150 kbps. My initial problem appears to have been a bad PC plug-in. When I got my hands on a new unit, all my problems vanished. HOWEVER, in trying to add yet another (3rd) PC to my network, I've encountered 3 *more* bad PC plug-ins in a row, and I can't even find any more for sale in my area to try! I think Intelogis has serious quality control problem. The design of the system looks sound, but I've (apparently) hit a string a bad units (in my local area). Summary: I've had 6 PC plug-ins to test in my setup. Plug-ins #2 and #3 work all the time, no matter where I plug them in or what PC they're connected to. They find each other and the two printers on the first try every time. PC Plug-ins #1, #4, #5, and #6 have *never* worked, no matter where I plug them in or what PC they're connected to. They either can't find any of the other plug-ins or they can't do more than list one or two of them with a '?' and a 'No Name' designation in Passport Administrator. Units #5 and #6 were bought locally, so I can return them there. Scot G., a very agreeable tech support person at Intelogis, has authorized the others to be returned to Intelogis for replacement. He said they *did* have some faulty units in their early shipments -- maybe that's what I've been receiving here. Anyway the 2 good PC Plug-ins and 2 Printer Plug-ins work so nicely that I'm convinced the Intelogis system design must be sound. Their price point is excellent, and they should do well with this product if they can get the bugs out of their hardware!" - D. Leeper 12/26/98
And an update from D. Leeper 12/31/98: The two replacement units arrived today -- I've only tried one so far, but it worked right away! I'm up & running with 3 PCs and two printers. Once the faulty hardware disappears from the distribution channels, Passport should do pretty well. It's fast enough for most purposes, the cost is reasonable, and it's hard to beat for convenience. I'll get more experience with the whole setup as time goes on, but at the moment it's working reliably. Let me know if other questions come up that you think I could help with. After all the time I put in, I feel like an expert! :) More on the Intelogis Passport:"The one good part to the Intelogis story is their tech support did offer to replace my units because the ones I bought they said were bad. That was a week ago yesterday and they arrived today. But I was just too impatient. I went out and bought the Linksys hardware last night and I was up and running in a couple of hours... including the print server. "I thought the idea was a great one. I built my computer from scratch and am always tinkering... I might spend more time in it than out of it. I think the company [Intelogis] has a good idea going. The thought of being able to add functionality like that without a screwdriver is a good one. "My biggest reason for getting the product was not having to run the cables. But... let me tell you... It is quite a mess of cables once you get the Passport stuff setup. First of all you now have to have an extra AC outlet for everything. This was a little annoying to me because I am already maxed out on power strips. Second of all... their tech support told me I HAD to use their power strips for everything but the Passport units. From what I understand their power strips filter out the frequency that the Passport units use from all of your other equipment. So I had to daisy chain power strips to get everything plugged in. My printer that was plugged directly in the wall now had to use the power strip... and only one outlet on it. I also bought one of their standalone PC units (I had to hookup 3 PCs and one printer). That standalone unit did not come eith one of their special power strips. More juggling of cables. "The summary is: Intelogis: Eww. ACk! Bad experience for me. Would not recommend. $199 kit + >$79 extra box for third PC. Already back at CompUSA. - L. Allmond 12/1/98
Still more on the Passport: I would like to add another real life experience to your PassPort file. I bought the 3-piece system (2 PC, 1 Printer) on 12/5 and installed it the same day. Initially I had both PCs in the same room for convenience in testing, and I was quite impressed. Clear, concise instructions; everything worked as described. The shared Canon bubblejet printer worked perfectly. File transfers were reasonably quick. Even pcAnywhere worked over this network. Wow. That was it, however, for the good news. When I moved one of the PCs to another room (downstairs about 20 feet away as the gamma ray flies but I don't know how many feed of house wiring may be involved), the fun ended. At first it worked, sort of, and I could use the printer which was still upstairs. And the upstairs PC and printer have continued to work flawlessly with one another--of course the two units are on the same outlet! First, file transfers became erratic. Even a 3MB file would likely stop with a communication failure. The PassPort log files would fill with SPURIOUS this and INVALID that--as many as 5 error messages per second! The remote devices would appear then disappear in PassPort Administrator from one F5 to the next. Then total failure. Upstairs cannot see downstairs and vice versa. And only the upstairs PC can see the printer (on the same electrical outlet). Suspecting the downstairs device, I swapped the two PC PassPorts. The former downstairs unit worked just fine upstairs with the printer. I uninstalled completely, even cleaning the registry of any vestige of the PassPort installation. Performed the Reset to Factory Settings. Reinstalled...not as convenient as when both PCs were in the same room. No improvement. Other points: Either PC PassPort works with the upstairs PC and printer. Neither the original nor the updated software makes a difference. Secure vs Unsecure...no difference. Tried two different outlets both upstairs and downstairs...no difference. Unlike homePCnetwork's experience, I have not had a response from Intelogis at all. Maybe my first email exhausted their favorite suggestions. However, I asked a number of questions which they have also not answered, for example: *Do GFIs make any difference? *Does the fluorescent light caution apply to a handful of screw in light bulb replacements? I tried turning them all off. *Does the heavy motor warning apply to light timers? I tried unplugging the timers. *Can a longer parallel cable be used? What specs? *Can the PassPort be plugged into an extension cord? In my last email to Intelogis, I requested authorization to return to CompUSA for full refund without original packaging. That was on December 29, and I haven't heard back. At this point, I would recommend that you would be better off with a second phone line and pcAnywhere connecting at 28800, than to waste time with PassPort. - W Burychka 12/31/98
All content © 1998-2007 by homePCnetwork, inc.
|