Last week I was visiting family in Texas. My wife and I got to spend some time with the grandkids playing tourist and I even had some work to do as well. My son-in-law owns a business in Shreveport, LA, in which he installs home theater systems in custom built homes as well as existing structures. He also installs LCD monitors in shopping malls, which play advertisements ala Google.

Here’s the computer stuff. In his office he has four computers and one laptop. The office is hardwired for a network and the patch panel is located in a hall closet. The setup is fairly straightforward. Problem: He was unable to network two computers and share files. Yet the two other systems and laptop worked fine. Oh, yes, almost forgot: The router also included a wireless setup.

I broke out my laptop and went to check connectivity. For those who use Windows XP w/ SP2, you know how reliable the network search is and will automatically pop up information to any network within range. Up popped four networks within range. So my first question was ‘which is yours?’ since the network names had been changed to protect the innocent. No clue. So I tracked down the SSID and logged in to the router. I changed the WEP key just to test the system. No joy.

The one thing I always enjoy about computers is trying to figure out what the problem is and coming up with a satisfactory conclusion. Long story short, the modem/router/wireless unit [a combo all in one] wouldn’t play nicely. And the wireless, though I could make a connection, wouldn’t allow Net access. So the solution was easy. Get a new unit.

Oh. Just thought of something. When we arrived, the son-in-law had bought a Netgear wireless router for the house to connect to SBC/Att DSl service. I fussed with the unit for an hour or so. Nope. Wouldn’t work. He had ZoneAlarm installed, which I disabled. Nope. Still didn’t work. Uninstalled ZoneAlarm software, another miracle! Worked perfectly.

Later, Ron

Oh, almost forgot. If you live in the Shreveport, LA area and need expert installation on a home theater system, please call Electronic Interiors @ 888-865-8939. These guys are good!
[tags]router, wireless, zonealarm, network[/tags]