Re: Giving up on giving it up ...

["Patricia M. Godfrey" priscamg@xxxxxxxx]

Harry Binswanger wrote:
> They can be a little finicky to set up initially. Do you have a geeky
> friend who can do that for you? But once set up, their use is pretty
> "transparent" and you never have to mess with it again. Also, I'd go
> wireless just to avoid the clutter. You just need to buy a plain or
> wireless router--maybe $60, set it up or have it set up for you and
> you're into the Space Age. Highly recommended.
There are books on the subject too. I did my first assay at networking
 (for my professional assn.) out of a book.

If you go the wireless route, be mindful of two things:
1. Thick masonry walls, or walls with metal in them, can block the
signals.
2. Change all defaults, esp. passwords, on the router. A shocking
number of people leave their router passwords set at Password, or
whatever that brand's default is, and are WIDE OPEN for anyone within
the requisite area to use. A public hot-spot, will-they, nill-they.
Now some generous souls want to do that. But even if you're willing to
let other people piggyback on your radio waves, you DON'T want them
getting into your network and reading files or changing settings on
your PCs.
> So why not get a copy of Xy4 (I don't think you even have to buy
> it--since TTG is out of business--but check with others here on how to
> get it)?
A while back I was able to do a clean install of Xy 4, from the
original floppies, from a DOS boot in W98. I now have that clean
setup, along with various add-ons (U2, icons, the Xy 4 keyboard
template) on a directory to itself on my hard disk. Send me a snail
mail address off list, and I'll burn and send you a CD.
> Another plus: as with Xy3, there's
> no "installation" required for Xy4: you just copy files to a directory.

Right.
> One more thing: there's no separate .PRN file for Xy4, and no printer
> tables to mess with. The .PRN file is now part of a larger file called
> SETTINGS.DFL (which, technically, is a .PRN file, but it's both simpler
> and serves as a more comprehensive settings file).
What!?! Harry, you're thinking of something else. Of course there are
.prn files in Xy4. What about PostGhst.prn? What about all the
discussion of which HP .prn file works best with later-model HP
printers? What I think you meant is that you don't (or shouldn't) use
loadprn but rather have a pick printer table in settings.dfl, and
choose your printer from that.

--
Patricia M. Godfrey
PriscaMG@xxxxxxxx