These notes are for Windows-95 and/or Windows-98 as the set up procedures for WIN-NT, WIN-2000 and WIN-XP are somewhat different (although similar).

• Installing the Network Software Drivers
• Sharing your Computer's hard Drive(s)
• Accessing the other computer's hard Drives (Mapping Drives)
• Sharing Printers
• Accessing Shared Printers (Mapping Printers)
• Changing User Name or Machine Name on an existing computer
• Computer Turn On Procedure
• C:\Config.Sys Settings
• C:\AutoExec Settings
• Install Our Software
• UTP Network Cable wiring scheme
• USB Cable wiring scheme
• No Login Screen for Win-98
• What to do if computers won't connect
• Picture of network connectors and cables

Installing the Network Software Drivers

On each computer in the network click on

• START then
• SETTINGS then
• CONTROL PANEL then
  
  
• NETWORK (if you are running WIN-95 or Win-98)
• Click on the IDENTIFICATION tab at the top of the form.
  
  
• SYSTEM (if you are running WIN-NT, WIN-2000 or WIN-XP)
• COMPUTER NAME button
• CHANGE button

The Work group entry should be the SAME on ALL computers in a small network. We suggest using part of your company name.

Click on the CONFIGURATION tab at the top of the form.

Make sure that you can see the NIC adaptor listed in the network settings - if you can't then you need to correct this before continuing.

You should see at least

• Client for Microsoft Networks
• Dial Up Adaptor (if you have internet access on this machine)
• Your NIC should be listed (eg Realtek RTL8029(AS) PCI Ethernet NIC)
• TCP/IP -> Dial-Up Adaptor
• TCP/IP -> Your NIC (eg TCP/IP -> Realtek RTL8029(AS) PCI Ethernet NIC)
• File and Print Sharing for Microsoft Networks

We normally also add in NETBEUI as well. If anything is missing then you should click on the ADD button and choose the item that you want to add from the displayed lists.

Once you have made all of the changes (if you do make changes you may need your Windows Installation CD) then you need to turn off your computer and turn it back on again.

Sharing your Computer's hard Drive(s)

On each computer in the network click on

• START then
• PROGRAMS then
• WINDOWS EXPLORER

Then locate your hard Drive (C:) in the left hand panel.

Click on the (C:) Drive with your RIGHT hand mouse button and choose PROPERTIES from the POP-UP menu.

Click on the GENERAL tab at the top of the form and enter a label for the hard disk. We normally label a computer's hard disk with the same name as the machine and also with the total size of the hard disk. This is so it is easy to spot when browsing the network. Then click on the SHARING tab at the top.

Make sure that SHARED AS is selected and enter the letter C for the share name of the hard disk. Don't enter the machine or person's name in here as well as the hard drive is accessed by the name C on machine Geoff and so Geoff-C on machine Geoff seems a bit of an overkill. Also make sure that the access type is FULL.

Save these changes. You can repeat this process for the A drive and the CDROM drive if you want to as well as any other hard disk drives that may have been installed into that computer. (We normally share the CDROM drive using the name CDROM (rather than D) simply to indicate that it is a CDROM and not a hard drive).

Accessing the other computer's hard Drives (Mapping Drives)

To do this you allocate drive letters (other than A, C and D) to be connected to the remote hard drives. We recommend that you start from the letter G: to avoid conflicts if you add an extra hard disk, CDROM, ZIP drive or LS120 drive into any of the computers at a later stage.

To "map the drives" you need to be in Windows Explorer again so On each computer in the network click on

• START then
• PROGRAMS then
• WINDOWS EXPLORER

Select the MAP NETWORK DRIVE option from the TOOLS menu.

Select an available drive letter in the top box and enter two back slashes (\\) then the computer name (Geoff) that you want to connect to, then another back slash (\) and then the drive name on that computer (c). Make sure that you tick the box RECONNECT AT LOGON as well and then click on OK. It's a good idea to make the same drive letters on every machine map to the same locations on the other computers so make a list as below ...

• G: ==> \\server\c
• H: ==> \\Mary\c
• I: ==> \\office\c
• J: ==> \\office\cdrom
• K: ==> \\Mary\zip

and then map all of the computers using this list. Note that because the office machine had the only CDROM then we mapped to this on the other computers so that they can share the CDROM drive and Mary has a Zip-Drive installed as well on her drive D: and we had shared this using the name ZIP.

Once you have done this then if you look in the left hand "pane" in Windows Explorer you will see the hard disks belonging to the other computers listed as if they were actually installed in this computer. This means that you can now treat anyone Else's hard disk as if it was actually your hard disk and (almost) anything that can be done on a locally installed hard disk can be done in virtually the same way for a remotely connected hard disk.

Sharing Printers

On each machine that has one (or more) printers physically attached you need to allow others to share the printer(s) and so click on

• START then
• SETTINGS then
• PRINTERS

Click on the SHARING tab at the top, make sure that SHARED AS is selected, enter a name for the printer. We normally enter an abbreviation for the brand and the model of the printer (eg HP-LJ1200, EPS-LX300 etc). You can enter further information into the comment section if you like. Then save these changes. Now you can get access to these printers from the other computers. Don't use names longer than 8 characters and don't use any spaces just enter a name using A-Z, 0-9 and possibly a hyphen (-).

Accessing Shared Printers (Mapping Printers)

On each machine you need to add a printer driver for each network printer that you want to be able to print to. So click on

• START then
• SETTINGS then
• PRINTERS then
• ADD PRINTER then
• NEXT then select
• NETWORK PRINTER then
• NEXT then
• BROWSE

Locate the printer that you want to add from the list for each machine and double click on it.

It should then appear in the Network path or Queue name box. Make sure that PRINT FROM MS-DOS PROGRAMS is ticked.

Click NEXT and for most modern printers Windows will locate the printer driver for that printer automatically from the computer to which it's connected. If it doesn't then you may have to select the brand and model number of the printer from the displayed screen. If you can't find the printer brand or model in the list then you will need to click on HAVE DISK and insert the driver CD or floppy disk that came with the printer.

Once you have located the printer driver then click NEXT and enter a descriptive name for the printer such as HP LJ on Mark or Epson LX300 on Julie. If you want to use this printer as the main printer for this computer then make sure that USE AS DEFAULT PRINTER is ticked.

Click on NEXT and then FINISH and the printer should appear in the list on your screen.

Setting up Cheque/Receipt/Payslip Printing using Dot Matrix Printers

Changing User Name or Machine Name on an existing computer

• Click on START button
• Click on SETTINGS option
• Click on CONTROL PANEL
• Click on USER ACCOUNTS
• Click on CHANGE ACCOUNT
• Click on the account that you want to change
• Click on CHANGE NAME and/or CHANGE PASSWORD.
• Make your changes and click on the APPLY button
• Shut down and restart your computer

• Click on START button
• Click on SETTINGS option
• Click on CONTROL PANEL
• Click on SYSTEM and then COMPUTER NAME (in WIN-NT, WIN-2000 or WIN-XP)
• Click on NETWORK SETTINGS and then COMPUTER NAME (in WIN-95 or WIN-98)
• Change the machine name and/or the work group name
• Make your changes and click on the APPLY button
• Shut down and restart your computer

• Click on EDIT menu from the main screen in the program
• Click on OTHER MASTER FILES option
• Click on USER ID
• Change the name and other details for all of the users on the computer
• Make your changes and click on the SAVE button
• Shut down the program and restart it again

Computer Turn On Procedure

DON'T CLICK ON THE CANCEL BUTTON OR PRESS THE ESCAPE KEY (ESC) INSTEAD AS THIS WILL STOP THE NETWORK FROM WORKING.

At the end of the day turn off all of the computers - don't turn them off during the day (other than for a short time if you need to restart windows due to a problem).

If the network stops working you may need to repeat and check each of these steps to get it working again. If a network cable is unplugged or broken then the network will not work so check the cables as well if you are having problems. If your network cables plug into a hub or switch unit then make sure that it has the power connected and that there is at least one light glowing on the front panel for each network cable plugged into the hub unit.

C:\Config.Sys Settings

• Device=C:\WINDOWS\HiMem.Sys /TestMem:Off
• DOS=High,UMB
• Files=255
• Buffers=40,0
• Country=61,,C:\WINDOWS\Command\Country.Sys

C:\AutoExec Settings

• @echo Off
• SET ID=GLYN
• SET PROMPT=$P Date: $d Time: $t$_$n$g
• SET VERIFY=ON
• SET PATH=C:\WINDOWS;C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND;C:\DOS;C:\BAT

Install Our Software

(You can choose CUSTOM installation and not install the sample database onto the computers which are not going to be the SERVER computer.)

Normally we set up our networks so that drive G: is the Server's C Drive on ALL computers (including the server if the server is going to be used as a workstation as well). So decide on which machine the main database is going to be located. This will be the SERVER computer. On this machine you need to add a line to the AUTOEXEC.BAT file which says something like ...

SUBST   G:   C:\

Once you have re-booted this computer you will then have a drive G: that actually points to the C: drive on that same computer. (You can access exactly the same files on G: drive as you can on C: drive because they both point to the same location). You also need to make sure that the drive C: on the SERVER machine is shared with FULL access.
See Sharing your Computer's hard Drive(s) above.

Assuming that you are going to map your network as below...

• G: ==> \\server\c
• H: ==> \\Mary\c
• I: ==> \\office\c
• J: ==> \\office\cdrom
• K: ==> \\Mary\zip

If you do all of this then EVERY machine will have a G: drive which is actually the server's C drive, EVERY machine will have a H: drive which is actually Mary's C drive and EVERY machine will have a I: drive which is actually the office computer's C drive. So whenever you look in drive G: on ANY machine you will see the same information. (Note - don't map the drives to C:\RentMstr or C:\Broker or C:\Payroll - use the root folder on each machine.

Now you can go into each machine, open our program and choose SELECT NEW DATABASE from the FILE menu, change to drive G: (C Drive on the Server) and then look in the install folder (G:\RentMstr, G:\Broker, G:\Acctng, C:\Payroll etc) and open the database with the same name that you should find there.

You can find out what your Program and/or Database Folder and names are by using this method.

UTP Network Cable wiring scheme

RJ45 Straight Thru Cable Pin Colour Pin 1 Orange/White 1 2 Orange 2 3 Green/White 3 4 Blue 4 5 Blue/White 5 6 Green 6 7 Brown/White 7 8 Brown 8	RJ45 Crossover Cable Pin Colour Pin 1 Green/White 6 2 Green 3 3 Orange/White 2 4 Blue 4 5 Blue/White 5 6 Orange 1 7 Brown/White 7 8 Brown 8	RJ45 KRONE Connector Socket Wiring Pin Colour Pin Colour 8 Brown 4 Blue 7 Brown/White 5 Blue/White 1 Green/White 6 Orange 2 Green 3 Orange/White For Power Over Ethernet (POE) connect V+ to pins 4 & 7 V- to pins 5 & 8
David Prest uses the 2nd one above except that orange and orange/white are swapped for some reason. Another variation seems to be

Telephone Socket Wiring Old Pin Old Colour New Colour RJ11 1 Red Black 5 2 White Red 3 3 - Orange 1 4 - Brown 6 5 Black Yellow 2 6 Blue Green 4	Telephone Socket Wiring RJ11 New Colour Old Colour Old Pin 1 Orange - 3 2 Yellow Black 5 3 Red White 2 4 Green Blue 6 5 Black Red 1 6 Brown - 4

USB Cable wiring scheme

USB Cable Pin Colour Use 1 Red +5 Volts 2 White Data - 3 Green Data + 4 Black Ground

No Login Screen for Win-98

What to do if computers won't connect

• If you have an icon that GO Software set up on your desktop to Reconnect Network then double click on that icon and click on RECONNECT and you now MAY be ok. If so then that's all you need to do otherwise...
• For Windows-NT or Windows-2000 or Windows-XP click on START then RUN then enter CMD and click on OK button
• For Windows-95 or Windows-98 click on START then RUN then enter COMMAND and click on OK button
• Enter IPCONFIG and click on ENTER
• Note down the IP address and sub-net mask shown (eg 192.168.1.123 and 255.255.255.0)
• Normally the sub-net mask of all of the computers in a small network should be 255.255.255.0 and the IP Addresses will ALL look like 192.168.0.xxx or 192.168.1.xxx where the xxx bit should be different on EVERY computer and the first three numbers should be the same on all then computers.
• On one of the computers you can then enter PING 192.168.x.xxx (where the actual number that you enter is the IP address of one of the other computers) and then press ENTER. If you get time-out errors then that computer can't "see" the other computer but if you get a message that says "Reply from 192.168.x.xxx....." then that normally indicates that the two computers can "see" each other ok.
• If you get time-out errors then check the network cables to see that they are plugged into the back of all of the computers properly and that the other ends are plugged correctly into a network switch or network hub unit. A network switch or hub is a box with multiple computer network cables plugged into it and there should be a light on the front of the unit for each cable that is plugged into it. If there are no lights then check the power connection for the switch/hub unit.
• If the pings are ok then go into Windows Explorer (click on START then PROGRAMS then Windows EXplorer or possibly START then PROGRAMS then ACCESSORIES then Windows Explorer) and look for the Network Neighbourhood or My Network Places in the left hand pane.
• Double click Network Neighbourhood or My Network Places, then ENTIRE NETWORK, then Microsoft Windows Network, then whatever the work group name is under that. You should now see a list of all of the computers in your network.
• If you can see the list then double click on one of the computers that you can't connect to and you should see at least drive C listed for that computer. You can then right click on drive C and choose MAP NETWORK DRIVE and then choose the normal drive letter (a letter from D thru Z) that is mapped to this drive and click on OK. You should now be connected to that computer. If it doesn't work then you will need to get a computer expert to come and have a look at the system for you.
• If you can't see a list of the other computers then you will need to get a computer expert to come and have a look at the system for you.
• If you have had some success with doing the things in this list and if you have an icon that GO Software set up on your desktop to Reconnect Network then double click on that icon and click on RECONNECT and you should now be ok.