I'm forwarding this message along to the roundtable list, in case any of you would be interested in responding/participating. (Please contact Marsee, and not me, if you want to send in your favourite annoyance...) -- Gilbert E. Detillieux E-mail: <gedetil@cs.umanitoba.ca> Dept. of Computer Science Web: http://www.cs.umanitoba.ca/~gedetil/ University of Manitoba Phone: (204)474-8161 Winnipeg, MB, CANADA R3T 2N2 Fax: (204)474-7609 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Marsee Henon <marsee@oreilly.com> To: gedetil@muug.mb.ca Subject: Home Networking Annoyances Needed for New Book Date: Fri, 07 May 2004 15:39:59 -0700 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit List-Unsubscribe: <mailto:leave-usergroup-4264374V@newsletter.oreilly.com> Message-Id: <LYRIS-4264374-17503-2004.05.07-15.40.00--gedetil#muug.mb.ca@newsletter.oreilly.com> Dear User Group Leader: Once again, I must say thanks for the great response to our previous calls for annoyances, gripes, and complaints about Excel, and the Internet, and other topics. The email we received was useful and gave our Annoyances books a great head start. As you might guess, we have yet another book in the wings--this one focusing on home networking annoyances. Everything from cabling hassles to setting up a router to wireless access points to fussing with TCP/IP settings to installing a shared printer. Whether you've set up a wired (Ethernet, phoneline, or powerline) or wireless (802.11a, b, or g) network, merely shared a DSL line, or networked a bunch of PCs and Macs, feel free to share the annoyances you've encountered along the way. If you or any members of your group have home networking annoyances you'd like to see solved, email marsee@oreilly.com with "Home Networking Annoyances" in the subject line. Please note what hardware, software, and/or service is giving you grief (e.g.: a LinkSys Cable/DSL Router with 4-Port Switch, SMC's EtherPower II network cards, SBC DSL, Windows XP, etc.). As thanks for sharing, we'll make sure to get copies of "Home Networking Annoyances" sent to your group shortly after publication. --Marsee *** An example: The Annoyance: I added a new computer to my network, but it doesn't appear in My Network Places or Network Neighborhood on any of the other computers. The Windows help files tell you to reboot all the other computers on the network in order to see the new computer, but there's got to be a better way! The Fix: There is. Assuming your hardware connections are working, and you've created at least one shared resource on the new computer, you don't have to reboot the rest of the network to see the new computer. Wait twelve minutes. Honest. Could I make that up? Get a cup of coffee, empty the dishwasher, or change all the burned out light bulbs in the house. Then open the network folder again, or press F5 to refresh the display if you didn't close the folder. You should now see the new computer. Why does this happen? The icons in the network folders (My Network Places and Network Neighborhood) are controlled by a service called the Computer Browser Service, which browses the network, peers down the pipes (including the virtual pipes of wireless connections), and checks to see who's on board. In a peer-to-peer network, the computers elect one of their own as a browser master using a complicated scheme that involves a private conversation among the computers (held secretly so you aren't aware of it and can't control or interfere with it). The browser master runs the browser service every twelve minutes, and populates the network folders of all computers on the network with icons representing the computers it finds. ***