The Remote Wonder II operates from up to 60 feet away and works with many popular multimedia applications, including Winamp and PowerDVD.

Now Serving: MP3s & Streaming Video

One of the most sought-after additions to any home network is also one of the toughest to define. Ask anyone with a large MP3 or video collection if she'd like a central location on her network to store all her files and she will almost certainly answer a resounding, "Yes." A media server serves that purpose, but designing one can be somewhat confusing.

The first step is deciding what the media server's primary purpose will be. If the system will only store an MP3 collection, a modest rig with adequate storage will do. You may even be able to recycle an older system by just adding a larger hard drive and more RAM (256MB or more). If you plan to stream video across the network or incorporate it into a home theater, however, a more powerful SFF system with a fast hard drive and video card is a better fit. For our purposes, we'll outline plans for a semi-high-end home theater PC/media server that can stream TV, audio, and video while accommodating many media types.

A Shuttle XPC SFF system is an excellent starting point. XPCs are quiet and offer a slew of integrated components. We particularly like XPCs based on the relatively new G4 enclosure, which incorporates a 6-in-1 USB 2.0 card reader that makes it easy to copy photos or other files to the system from the most popular flash media types. Like Shuttle's XPCs, most SFF systems incorporate other necessary components, such as video, sound, and Ethernet controllers.

The next consideration is how much hard drive space you'll need and what type of removable drives or optical storage you'll need. We believe that the bigger the drive the better. Also, gravitate toward 7,200rpm or faster
drives with large caches. Such drives are more adept at streaming video and can better accommodate multiple connections to the server. Consider a CD-R/DVD combo drive or DVD recorder a prerequisite so you can play CDs and DVDs, plus burn audio CDs.

For connecting the media server to the network, wireless or wired connections will work, but a hard-wired connection will be much faster, more stable, and immune to RF interference. If you absolutely want to go wireless, use the fastest devices you can afford. 802.11a is currently relatively expensive but is the best choice, as it's faster than 802.11b and 802.11g and is less susceptible to interference from microwave ovens and cordless phones. 802.11g should provide acceptable performance in most circumstances, but steer clear of 802.11b.

If you're using your media server for audio only, a low-end CPU is fine, and even a Pentium III will do. For streaming video and DVD ripping/playback/recording, you'll want a faster CPU. Anything over 2GHz should be fine, but the faster the better. Consider 256MB of RAM the absolute minimum; 512MB or 1GB is preferable, especially if your media server is the hub of a home theater and you may use it for gaming. For a simple audio server, integrated video will do, but ATI's All-In-Wonder line of video cards has useful features that are a welcome addition to any media server. With newer versions of ATI's proprietary Multimedia Center software, ATI introduced EasyShare, which lets you access all the features of an All-In-Wonder card over a network. Newer All-In-Wonders also ship with an RF remote control that'll let you control the system from up to 60 feet away.

With a wireless broadband router such as D-Link's DI-624, machines wired to the network and connected wirelessly can all communicate with each other and share a single Internet connection.

Thanks to tools built into WinXP and the ever-decreasing cost of networking hardware, it has never been easier or cheaper to share a single Internet connection between multiple computers. With dual Ethernet controllers (which are necessary to share a broadband connection) or a NIC and a modem (necessary to share a dial-up connection) installed, enabling ICS (Internet Connection Sharing) with WinXP takes only a few mouse clicks. When sharing a dial-up connection, keep in mind that if two users are downloading data while using the shared connection simultaneously, each user will use half of the available bandwidth, making that already slow dial-up connection even slower.

To enable ICS, right-click My Network Places and choose Properties on the computer that has the Internet connection. Right-click the entry corresponding to your Internet connection and choose Properties from the menu. Click the Advanced tab, check Allow Other Network Users To Connect Through This Computer's Internet Connection, and click OK. You then have to set the TCP/IP properties on the other machines on your network to Obtain An IP Address Automatically and Obtain DNS Server Address Automatically. This is the default configuration when you install WinXP. You may need to restart the machines to correctly assign the IP addresses to each system, but this typically is all it takes to share a connection.

WinXP's ICS utility works well, but there is a much better option for broadband owners. Broadband routers, many available for less than $75, let you not only share a connection but also add a layer of protection. Most broadband routers use NAT (Network Address Translation), which allows for one set of unregistered IP addresses for internal network traffic and another set for external traffic. This means you can use one registered IP address (assigned to you by your ISP) with a router to offer Internet connectivity to workstations on your LAN so that each has its own private IP address that's not visible to public servers.

Installing a broadband router is extremely easy, provided your machines are all equipped with NICs. Routers generally have a single Ethernet connector, usually labeled WAN or Internet, where your broadband modem gets connected. Routers also have a few other Ethernet connectors for the other machines on the network. Plug your machines in using standard CAT 5 cabling, and that's all there is to it. To configure the router, usually all that's necessary is logging in to it using your Web browser. Once logged in, you can enter specific settings for your ISP, enter rules for Internet access, and alter other options. Each router is different, so consult the manual for more specific instructions.

It's not the most powerful firewall out there, but you can enable WinXP's Internet Connection Firewall on any system that's connected to the Web.

Ensuring that your OS is fully patched is the first step to protecting your system from internal and external threats. Make Microsoft's Windows Update site a weekly stop, or better yet, enable automatic updating and schedule updates to run automatically when you're away from the system. Many updates are released specifically to plug security holes in the Windows OS. Plug these holes before your system is attacked. Most of the steps outlined later in the "Fighting The Malware Menace" section also apply here. You should equip each network machine with up-to-date antivirus and anti-spyware software and, at the bare minimum, enable the simple firewall built in to WinXP.

There are other basic steps you can take. Even if you're the only person using the system, make sure the administrator account and user accounts all have login passwords. The passwords should consist of uppercase and lowercase letters and numbers. Complex passwords are more difficult to crack with brute force methods, and not having passwords for all user accounts virtually guarantees the system will be compromised should it be targeted. We also recommend disabling File And Printer Sharing, if possible. If you must have it enabled, turn on Advanced File Sharing for more control over who has access to what. To enable Advanced File Sharing, go to My Computer, click the Tools menu, and select Folder Options. In the Folder Options window, click the View tab and scroll to the bottom of the list of options. Remove the check mark next to Use Simple File Sharing.

With simple file sharing disabled, you can now choose which network users will have access to shared folders. You can also set the maximum number of connections. If you have only three systems on the network, set the maximum number of connections to three. No one else will be able to access a shared folder when all the systems are connected. Disabling simple file sharing also lets you assign permissions to each user account (or permissions to users on a domain). If you want user account A to be able to modify files in a shared folder but want to limit user account B to read-only access, you can do so.

If you have a wireless LAN set up, make sure that WEP is enabled at all times, using the highest level of encryption available with your router. Also change the default SSID (service set identifier) and the default administrator password. When the network isn't in use, shut off the wireless router. A hacker can't attack what isn't available.

With the DMZ disabled, the router protects all machines on the internal network.

Unless you've worked on a large, enterprise-class network, you may be unfamiliar with the term DMZ (demilitarized zone) as it relates to networking. A DMZ is a public portion of an internal network commonly used for servers that are accessed by external clients on the Internet, such as Web, FTP, and email servers. By placing these public servers on a separate, isolated part of the network, you provide an extra layer of security for your internal network. Overall network throughput can also be increased because external traffic will no longer saturate your internal network.

You can configure your home network in a similar manner, but setting up a DMZ usually means exposing one system to the Internet to serve a specific purpose, such as hosting an email server or testing Internet-connectivity problems that a closed port may cause. With most broadband routers, setting up a machine on a DMZ means all data coming in on all ports will be forwarded to that one machine. The computer (or computers) in the DMZ loses firewall protection and is exposed to exploits from the Internet. In general, this is bad, but setting up a machine in a DMZ may be necessary for some purposes, such as multiplayer games.

Depending on the router, setting up a DMZ is usually simple. On our Linksys WRT54G, we logged in and selected the Applications And Gaming menu and enabled the DMZ. We then entered the IP address of the machine we wanted in the DMZ, saved the changes, and were done. The machine in the DMZ can no longer connect to the other systems on the internal network, but it will be available to the public.

Computers using TCP/IP communicate with each other over a network via ports. Many ports are designated for commonly used network services, such as HTTP (port 80) and FTP (port 21). Sending/receiving data via open ports is necessary for a TCP/IP network to function. Unfortunately, any program or service monitoring an open port represents a potential risk.

If the program or service can't recognize when too many requests are coming in, and it can't reject unwanted requests, it may fully utilize a machine's resources trying to handle them all. This is how many DoS attacks cripple a server. If an app or service has a flaw that lets an attacker overwrite memory (a buffer overflow), the system can be taken over completely. Trojans and other malware often reveal themselves because they monitor and open specific ports.

With numerous types of malware aggressively searching for vulnerable machines, it's important to know how to check systems for open ports. One way is to use the Shields Up! tool (free) at Gibson Research (grc.com). Shields Up! scans a system, reporting the ports that are open and how to close or hide them.

Additionally, you can check which programs and services on your PC are listening for data on open ports. First, open Task Manager and click the Processes tab. Then click the View menu and click Select Columns. In the Select Columns dialog box, check PID (Process Identifier) and click OK. Next, open a command prompt (Start and Run), type cmd in the Open field, and press ENTER. Now type netstat –ano to list the ports your system is listening to, along with the PID of the program or service that's listening. Match the PID to the processes listed in Task Manager to see which programs are listening to which port. If something looks suspicious, a Web search should help easily identify the culprit.

Installing a personal firewall is a great way to protect yourself from attacks and hide your system from port scanners. Most personal firewalls will alert you to incoming/outgoing requests, and you can train them to learn which programs you commonly need to open and listen to on a specific port. If you have a broadband connection, we recommend installing a router that uses NAT to add another layer of protection.

You need to train personal firewalls, such as Zone Labs' Zone Alarm Pro, to learn which programs you commonly run. Clicking No in this alert will cause Trillian, a popular IM client, to stop working.

Consider firewalls necessary on any system that's connected to a network. While they are valuable security tools, firewalls can also be difficult to configure for the uninitiated and may require reading the support documentation and experimenting with different settings.

Just as firewalls are useful for protecting systems, they can also cause a few problems if access rules are too restrictive. A firewall that's blocking all traffic, for example, doesn't allow requests from a trusted computer through, meaning you can't share files or even a printer with another machine on your network. Personal firewalls can also block legitimate requests from applications that use java servlets or your Web browser to access data using the local host (127.0.0.1) address. In addition, instant-messaging programs, such as Trillian or AIM, won't work if your firewall won't open the necessary port.

Another problem commonly attributed to personal firewalls occurs when browsing the Web. Many personal firewalls block cookies and scripts that some Web sites won't work without. If you're having a problem with only parts of a certain Web page or some pages appear to be completely blank, your firewall may be the problem. An overly aggressive firewall will also stop you from being able to play multiplayer online games or prevent you from using P2P file-sharing programs because it blocks data from coming through on the necessary ports.

As a solution, try temporarily disabling the firewall to see if it's causing a problem. If your favorite game works when the firewall is disabled, you'll have to research which ports the game is trying to use and open them manually. You can configure most personal firewalls to open specific ports or allow traffic from a particular program through. Check the help file, users manual, and support information from the firewall's developer for specific instructions.

Fighting The Malware Menace

Malware describes all types of malicious software, including viruses, worms, Trojans, and most spyware. Generally speaking, attackers use malware to attack a system in some way, whether it's to monitor its activity, take control of the system, destroy valuable data, or gain access to sensitive files and other assorted information. With Malware coming in so many forms, protecting yourself from it can be daunting.

In WinXP, one of the first steps is regularly running Windows Update. New update releases make unscrupulous programmers who create malware aware of the vulnerability (if they weren't already), and they write code to specifically exploit it, knowing that unpatched machines are open to attack. Running Windows Update is as simple as launching Internet Explorer, clicking the Tools menu, and selecting Windows Update. You'll be sent to a page on Microsoft's Web site. Click the Scan For Updates link, and the patches available for your system will be made available. Install all the Critical Updates listed and restart your machine, if necessary. This will ensure that your OS is fully patched and protected until the next vulnerability is found, at which time new updates are released.

To automate the process, enable automatic updating by right-clicking My Computer and selecting Properties. Click the Automatic Updates tab and check Keep My Computer Up To Date . . . From here you can schedule when the feature will install patches and have the system automatically prompt you when new updates are available.

Having up-to-date antivirus and anti-spyware software installed adds another layer of protection from numerous types of attack. A reputable program such as Norton AntiVirus, McAfee VirusScan, or Panda Titanium Antivirus will identify, block, and quarantine most viruses, worms, and Trojans. Apps such as Lavasoft's Ad-Aware and Patrick M. Kolla's Spybot Search & Destroy can detect and remove numerous adware- and spyware-related files and modules. Using a good AV package with a trusted anti-spyware app makes for an effective one-two punch. Just be sure to keep the virus definitions and reference files up-to-date.

A firewall—software- or hardware-based—is also valuable for protecting against malware and other attacks. At the minimum, enable WinXP's built-in firewall. To do so, right-click My Network Places and select Properties. In the list of available Network Connections, right-click the LAN device you use to connect to the Web and select Properties. Click the Advanced tab at the top and check Protect My Computer And Network By Limiting Or Preventing Access To This Computer From The Internet.

Better yet, install a more powerful firewall, such as Zone Labs' Zone Alarm. Zone Alarm inspects incoming/outgoing packets. The WinXP firewall only inspects incoming data. If you have a broadband connection, also consider purchasing a router that uses NAT, even if you don't have multiple computers. Being connected to the Web behind a router that uses NAT helps hide your PC from many worms.

The most important weapon against malware is common sense. Don't open file attachments from unknown senders or click Yes when prompted to install software after browsing a Web site you don't trust. Increasing your browser's security level and installing a simple pop-up blocker can also help decrease the chances of your system being infected.

The D-Link DWL-R60AT is an indoor 6dBi Microstrip antenna that can greatly increase the range of your wireless LAN.

Creating a home network can be a huge convenience for many reasons, but not everyone wants to or can run long stretches of CAT 5 cable from one room to the next. In such cases, wireless connectivity is the obvious solution, but what do you do if your router or access point doesn't provide the necessary coverage to reach the far corners of your home or office? Fortunately, there are solutions to maximize the range of your current setup or increase the range using specialized hardware and antennas.

Virtually all wireless routers and access points today ship with omni-directional antennas that can send and receive signals in any direction. With an omni-directional antenna, the wireless signal is broadcast in what is essentially a giant sphere, emanating from the transceiver at the center. Should a system you're using fall outside this coverage area, it can't connect to the network. To provide the best coverage, move your router or access point as close as possible to the center of the area you would like wireless access for. Also try moving such devices as cordless phones and microwave ovens as far away as possible from your transceiver, as they are notorious for interfering with Wi-Fi devices.

If relocating your router or access point doesn't give you the coverage area you desire or if you can't move them from their current locations, you can also try replacing the device's antenna. Most antennas included with Wi-Fi devices are very small and are nowhere near as capable as some of the replacement antennas available from companies such as D-Link, Hawking, or Buffalo Technology.

An antenna's performance, or gain, is usually measured in dB (decibels) or dBi (decibels, isotropic). Gain is the measure of an antenna's performance relative to a theoretical device called an isotropic antenna. This isotropic antenna is a hypothetical lossless antenna that radiates and receives energy equally in all directions. The higher an antenna's dB/dBi rating, the more effective it will be at providing a larger coverage area or increasing the quality of the coverage in an existing coverage area. Installing a replacement antenna is simple. Usually all this entails is unscrewing the antenna on your router and connecting the new antenna. Just make sure the antenna included with your router or access point is removable before you buy a replacement.

An omni-directional antenna is generally the best choice for increasing your wireless coverage in all directions, but in some cases a directional antenna is a better fit. If your router or access point is located on an exterior wall and you can't move it, for example, using a directional antenna pointed at your home's interior would focus the signal where it's needed.

Another option for extending wireless range is adding additional access points or repeaters. You need to wire additional access points to the network, but this may be the only viable solution if a wireless signal simply can't penetrate to the areas where coverage is needed. Metal or thick concrete walls can completely block a signal, even if the transceiver is right on the opposite side. A repeater works much like an access point but doesn't need to be wired to the network. A repeater essentially receives a wireless signal, amplifies it, and rebroadcasts it at full strength. A few repeaters strategically placed throughout a building can provide complete coverage in a very large area with only a single router or access point providing the connectivity to a wired network. Repeaters aren't universally compatible though, so check your router or access point's manufacturer before making a purchase. If connectivity outdoors is a high priority, an antenna such as D-Link's omni-directional ANT24-0800 (8dBi gain) can enlarge your coverage area drastically compared to a stock antenna. D-Link's DWL-G800AP repeater/access point offers data transfer speeds up to 54Mbps and can increase the range of 802.11b/g wireless networks.

Changing the channel your Wi-Fi network uses may help decrease the chance of RF interference

Many wireless devices, including 802.11b and 802.11g networking hardware, operate within the ISM (Industrial Scientific Medical) band of frequencies designated as unlicensed by the FCC. Manufacturers produce wireless LAN devices to use this band because operators don't need a license to transmit at these frequencies. A myriad of other devices use the ISM band, which spans the 2.450GHz to 2.484GHz frequency range, as well. This means that there's a significant chance of RF interference if multiple devices using this band are operating within the same area.

The cordless phone is one of the most abundant devices to use the ISM band. In the past, cordless phones used lower frequencies in the 47MHz to 50MHz and 900MHz ranges. Now some new models from companies, such as Uniden, Panasonic, and Sony, are operating in the upper end of the UNII (Unlicensed National Information Infrastructure) bands at 5.15GHz to 5.35GHz and 5.47GHz to 5.825GHz. But for years, numerous manufacturers shipped phones that operated in the ISM, or 2.4GHz band, and it's these phones that can wreck havoc with most wireless networks.

The problem stems from the fact that both 2.4GHz cordless phones and 802.11b/g wireless LAN devices operate at similar frequencies. Thus, the signal from one device can easily interfere with the other. They are designed to continue operating when interference is present, but performance is degraded when conditions are not ideal. In some extreme cases, it's even possible for one device to completely stamp out the other.

Unfortunately, there isn't much you can do resolve the situation should you own a cordless phone and WLAN that don't play well together. You can try moving the phone's base away from your Wi-Fi equipment, but the handset can cause interference, as well.

Another option is changing the channel that your Wi-Fi equipment operates on. You can do this by logging into your router or access point software and accessing its wireless setup menu. From there, you should be able to select a different channel. Try each channel for an extended period, as one may be less susceptible to interference from your phone than another. As a last resort, you can replace either the phone or the Wi-Fi equipment you are using. 802.11a devices operate in the 5GHz frequency band, as do some new cordless phones. Downgrading to a 900MHz cordless phone may also do the trick.

Some new high-end motherboards, such as the Chaintech 9CJS pictured here, have dual Ethernet controllers integrated onto the board.

Often, features once reserved for the high-end server market creep down into the mainstream as the need arises and they are no longer cost-prohibitive. A few years ago, we'd be hard pressed to think of a valid reason to have dual NICs installed in a home computer, but times have changed. With U.S. broadband penetration reaching 42.85% according to one January 2004 study and multiple computers in single households now more common, you can find GbE controllers for as little as $15. Thus, having dual NICs installed in a single PC can be quite useful.

An obvious benefit of having dual NICs in place is redundancy or failover protection. Should one controller fail, you can configure the machine to have the second controller take over. This may not be a necessity in most homes, but anyone running his own Web/FTP server or anyone who commonly accesses his PC from the road will appreciate having redundant network connections. When configured to work in tandem, dual NICs can also increase the overall throughput, but with virtually all residential broadband ISPs, the actual connection (usually hovering around 1Mb or less) would become a bottleneck well before a single NIC was taxed.

When used with the right operating system and software, such as IP Metrics' NIC Express, you can also configure dual NICs to load balanced network traffic between multiple controllers. Software can even detect problems on a network and reroute traffic as it becomes necessary, which can help alleviate certain bottlenecks or connection problems. Many high-end Ethernet controllers ship with similar software. Microsoft's server operating systems have load-balancing features built-in, for example.

Probably the most realistic use for dual NICs is to share an Internet connection and eliminate the need to purchase a separate router. You can configure a system with dual Ethernet controllers to act as a gateway to the Internet. For example, you can bridge the NICs together, with one connected to the Web and the other connected to a hub or switch, which in turn is connected to the other computers on the network. With this type of setup, users can install more secure firewalls to protect the network or install monitoring software to see where users are browsing.

Gaming On: These images show the port forwarding menu after opening the proper ports and forwarding the packets to our server's IP address. Remember to save your changes and test your Internet connection whenever altering your router's settings.

Low-Ping Gaming Goodness

You have a fat pipe to the Internet, a killer gaming rig, a stack of the latest and greatest multiplayer games, and friends you're just itching to frag. What you don't have is a game server that can connect you all with adequately low-ping times. The fast servers are all full, and the ones that have some connections available are so laggy your broadband connection suddenly feels like dial-up. So, why not run your own dedicated game server? If you have the hardware, there are numerous benefits. Setting up your own dedicated server virtually guarantees a low-ping connection to a game server that's running only the maps and game styles you want, with exactly the number of bots you're looking for. Password-protect it and give your friends the right IP address or server name, and your clan (and only your clan) can get its game on at the drop of a hat.

There are some important things to consider before setting up a dedicated game server, however. First, don't even bother trying this with a dial-up connection. Without broadband, there isn't much point. Also, the machine you plan to use must meet the game's minimum requirements to work, and if the system is behind a firewall/router, you'll have to open some ports and forward them to the proper IP address on your network. This may sound a bit complicated, but the process is fairly straightforward and doesn't take much time. We had our router configured and server running in just a few minutes.

Step 1. The first thing to do is open up the game's help file or users guide and find which ports you need to open for the server to function correctly. Without opening the proper ports, the client machines can't send or receive game data. We used Unreal Tournament 2004 for this article, but the process should be very similar for about any current multiplayer game. After a little homework, we found that UT2004 requires the following ports to be opened and their packets forwarded to the game server:
Game port: 7777
Query port: 7778
GameSpy query port: 7787
Connection to the master server: 28902

Step 2. The LinkSys WRT54G broadband router we used assigned our server an internal IP address of 192.168.1.101. We logged into the router, accessed its Applications & Gaming menu, and selected the Port Range Forwarding section.

On this menu that we had to assign the ports that UT2004 needed to be forwarded to the server. The image labeled Gaming Off shows what the menu looked like before we made the changes. The Gaming On image is what the menu looked like after the port forwarding assignments were complete.

Step 3. Most broadband routers use NAT to hide your PC from the outside world. NAT simply assigns machines that are behind the router an internal unregistered IP address, usually in the 192.169.X.X range. Thus, you can use the single registered IP address your ISP assigns you to support multiple computers. When setting up a dedicated server, you may need to tweak some games (including UT2004) to make them run behind a router using NAT. We had to edit an entry in the server's UT2004.ini file for it to work properly. We opened the UT2004.ini file in Notepad and found the following entry:

ServerBehindNAT=False
We changed this to:
ServerBehindNAT=True
We then saved our changes and were ready to fire up the server.

Step 4. You can launch the actual game server application several ways with UT2004, including by running the game and choosing Host Game from the main menu and setting the desired parameters from there. You can also run the server from the command line. Check your game's documentation for the correct method. With your server running, launch the game and check if your server is listed in the master list. If it is, you should be set. For more information on setting up a dedicated game server, check the support pages and message boards on the developer's Web site.

Step 1. Go to Control Panel, double-click User Accounts, and create a user account to use with Remote Desktop. All local administrator accounts will work, as well, provided the account is password-protected.

Remote Control Your PC

You're away from home and need to access a file on your desktop. Out of luck? No. Several tools will let you log into and control a computer remotely. Programs such as Symantec's pcAnywhere or Remotely Anywhere by 3am Labs let users securely connect to and control a remote PC. There are also some popular Web-based utilities, such as those at GoToMyPC.com.

WinXP Pro users can access the built in Remote Desktop, known as Terminal Services on Microsoft's server OSes. Before setting it up, there are some factors to consider. Remote Desktop has to redraw the screen on the client machine when changes are made on the remote PC, so consider broadband a must. You'll also need to know your IP address, which can be a bit hard to find if your system is behind a router. If your broadband modem is connected directly to your PC, however, you should be able to go to a command prompt (Start, Run, and type cmd) and run IPCONFIG to get your IP address. When using a router, however, you'll have to log into it and find your WAN address or external IP address.

A problem with many broadband providers is that your external IP address may be dynamic, meaning your IP address may be different each time you connect or may change at random intervals. If this is the case, you can be religious about checking your IP address daily or sign up for a service (try DynDNS.org or TZO.com) that will alias a dynamic IP address to a static hostname.

There are also firewall and NAT issues to contend with. When using WinXP's firewall, you need to select Remote Desktop under the Services tab in the Advanced Settings menu, otherwise a link can't be established. With a router using NAT or with more advanced firewall software, you need to open port 3389 for Remote Desktop to function.

You also need to properly configure the client machine to connect to the remote PC. With WinXP Pro, the Remote Desktop client software is installed by default. Open it by clicking Start, Accessories, Communications, and running Remote Desktop. If the client machine isn't running WinXP Pro, you can install it using a WinXP Pro CD or by downloading the Remote Desktop client from Microsoft's site. The client software will work on any 32-bit version of Windows.

For more, see the FAQ at: www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/remotedesktop/faq.asp.

With endless configuration possibilities, we couldn't possibly cover all of the uses for a home or small-office network in this article; volumes have been written on the subject. These tips and information, however, should give you a good start with your own projects. Having a shared network location to store files or having the ability to connect wirelessly to the Web is incredibly valuable and convenient.

by Marco Chiappetta