Re: off-topic: scheduled backup to external hard drive

["Patricia M. Godfrey" PriscaMG@xxxxxxxx]

Norman Bauman wrote:
> After reading the manuals, I thought you had to set up Briefcase for
> Network Neighborhood to work.
Absolutely, positively, categorically NOT. I think Briefcase gets put on
the system, willy-nilly, when Windows is installed, but you don't have
to do anything with it for networking to work. In fact, I just checked
quickly, and assuming the executable is named Brief*.*, I don't even
have it on my system. (I ALWAYS do a custom install of Windows.)
> I was trying to connect 2 Win98 computers with Network Direct Cable
> Connection. According to the manual, you could use a serial connection too.
> The Network Direct Cable Connection Wizard told me that I had successfully
> set up the host computer and the guest computer. I rebooted everything. It
> tried to connect through the serial connection, and said, "I am unable to
> find other computers on the Network Neighborhood List." I went through the
> Windows Troubleshooter, checked the Stinson and O'Reilly manuals, searched
> the Internet, couldn't get it to work, and put it off for another day.
The direct cable connection is somewhat of a kludge. I used it once, and
recall having a heck of a time getting it going, but I think that was
under 95 on one of the machines. A few things that come to mind:
Had you set up a workgroup? With the same name on both PCs? Had you
enabled sharing? Was it the right kind of cable? I.e., one specially
designed for direct connections? IIRC, you don't want the usual serial
or parallel cable, but one that has the wiring reversed. See if you can
find Windows 98 Secrets, by Brian Livingston & Davis Staub; that has a
chapter on setting up a network that I have used almost every time I've
had to do it.
> Network card? The official Win98 instructions definitely said that you can
> connect 2 Windows computers together. They didn't say anything about a
> network card.
No, if you're using a direct cable connection, you don't need a Network
Interface Card (hereafter, NIC). But that only works for 2 PCs; once you
have more, you'll need NICs in all of them. N.B. that all PCs for the
last 2 or 3 years have had NICs built into the mobo.

Patricia M. Godfrey
priscamg@xxxxxxxx