How to verify your Network is working correctly

You should have checked first your Network adapter, then you should verify / configure the
network setup ( Windows XP Professional is different than Windows XP Home Edition ) :

	In the Control-Panel, select the System icon: (or right-click “My Computer” on the desktop and select Properties) Select the tab : Computer Name The “Full computer Name” must be UNIQUE on the network : all other systems MUST have a different name. Unless you have an NT,Win2000 or soon an XP-server, you are using the Workgroup method of networking, and all systems on the network should use the SAME workgroup name.
	If required, use the button “Change…” and adjust the values: – type (if required) a new name for the “computer name” – enter (if required) a new name for the “workgroup”
	In the Control-Panel, select the Network Connection icon: (or right-click “My Network Places” on the desktop and select Properties) Select your Local Area Connection, then right-click and “Properties” or from the “Network Tasks” (left side) “Change settings of this connection” :
	All required components for a LAN are installed by default: – Network Client – File and Printer Sharing – TCP/IP network protocol If your network requires a different protocol, you can install IPX/SPX or even NetBEUI (although not “supported” anymore by Microsoft) It is a good choice to use TCP/IP protocol , but I suggest to configure it (via “Properties”)
	For TCP/IP-protocol to work, each system needs to have a UNIQUE IP-address. By default, TCP/IP is configured to “Obtain an IP address automatically”: XP will first try to locate a DHCP server on the network and if no DHCP-server is found, it will use Auto-IP-Generation (like in Windows 98/ME and Windows 2000) to generate an IP-address. If you select to use such automatically assigned IP-addresses, you can open a “Command Prompt” windows and type : IPCONFIG to find out, which IP-address has assigned to your system.

example : IP-address assigned via Auto-IP-Configuration :
Windows IP Configuration
Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection:

	Or in the “Network Connections” view for the network connection the “Status” : – right-click your connection and select from the Context / Popup menu : Status select the tab : “Support“
	Since the Automatic IP-address generation will cause a delay before the network becomes available (while searching for the DHCP-server) , I prefer to define the IP-address myself , especially since I have on my network also a Windows95 and NT4 system, which are not able to generate automatically an IP-address and need to be configured manually. Also, with more and more people getting Broadband Internet connections via ADSL or cable-modems, I prefer to configure the LAN myself to avoid conflicts with the network settings for the connection to the ADSL or cable-modem. I suggest to use an IP-address from the range 192.168.1.x and Subnet-mask 255.255.255.0. A quick look under “Advanced…”
	with Windows 2000 Server, Microsoft has introduced “Active Directory“, which allows to use a network without NetBIOS (reducing network overhead, important especially for WAN configurations). But unless you have a Windows2000 server (or later a Windows XP server) on your network, you still need to have NetBIOS enabled to be able to communicate with other Windows systems : make sure, that “NetBIOS over TCP/IP“ is NOT disabled.

You are now ready to access the network via “My Network Places” and to allow other system
to access data on your system by Sharing.