When you’re sure that the wired or
wireless physical connection between your computers is set up
correctly, you’re ready to configure Windows 8. With today’s Plug and
Play network cards and with all the needed software built in to
Windows, this configuration is a snap.
1. Configuring the TCP/IP Protocol
After your network adapters are all
installed—and, if you’re using a wired network, cabled together—you
need to ensure that each computer is assigned an IP address.
This is a number that uniquely identifies each computer on the network.
These numbers are assigned in one of the following ways:
• If you have an Internet-sharing
router, or if one of your computers shares its Internet connection
using Windows Internet Connection Sharing, or if you are on a corporate
LAN running Windows Server, each computer will be assigned an IP
address automatically—they’re doled out by the Dynamic Host
Configuration Protocol (DHCP) service that runs on the router or in the
sharing computer. This is why I recommend using a router even if you
aren’t setting up a shared Internet connection.
By default, Windows sets up new
network adapters to receive an address this way. If your network fits
into this category, you don’t have to change any settings.
• Each computer can be given an address manually, which is called a static address
as opposed to a dynamic (automatic) one. If you are not going to use a
router or a shared Internet connection, you should set up static
addressing. We tell you how shortly.
• If no static
settings are made but no DHCP server exists on the network, Windows
automatically assigns IP addresses anyway. Although the network will
work, this is not an ideal situation and can slow Windows down. The
setup steps shown in the following two sections let you avoid having IP
addresses be assigned this way.
If you’re setting up a new computer on an
existing network, use whatever scheme the existing computers use; check
their settings and follow suit with your new one. Otherwise, use either
of the schemes described in the following two sections.
If You Have No Shared Internet Connection
If you’re setting up a new network from
scratch, and you do not have a connection-sharing computer, router, or
wireless access point, you should use static addressing.
For most home and small office networks, the following static address scheme should work fine:
IP Address
192.168.1.11 for your first computer, 192.168.1.12 for your second computer, 192.168.1.13 for your third, and so on.
We strongly suggest that you keep a list of your computers and the addresses you assign to them.
Subnet Mask
255.255.255.0
Default Gateway
(Leave blank)
Preferred DNS Server
(Leave blank)
Alternate DNS Server
(Leave blank)
Follow these steps on each computer to ensure that the network is set up correctly:
1. Go to the Desktop
and right-click the Network icon that appears at the right end of the
taskbar. Select Open Network and Sharing Center. (You can also get here
from the Control Panel.) At the left side, select Change Adapter
Settings. Right-click the Ethernet or Wireless Connection icon that
corresponds to your LAN connection and select Properties.
2. Scroll to the bottom of the list box and select Internet Protocol Version 4 (TCP/IPv4). Click Properties.
3. Change the settings in the Properties dialog box. Figure 1 shows an example, but you must use the address values appropriate for your computer and your network.
Figure 1. Make IP address settings within the Internet Protocol Version 4 (TCP/IPv4) Properties dialog box.
Tip
If your computer will move back and forth
between a network that uses automatic configuration and a network that
uses static settings—say, between work and home—select Obtain an IP
Address Automatically. A tab named Alternate Configuration will appear.
Select the Alternate Configuration tab and configure the static
settings. Windows will use these static settings only when a DHCP
server is not present.
If You Have a Shared Internet Connection
As mentioned previously, if you plan to share an Internet connection with all the computers on your network. Keep the following tips in mind:
• If you will use Windows Internet
Connection Sharing, first set up the one computer that will be sharing
its connection, and then set up networking in your other computers.
• All the computers, including the one
sharing its Internet connection, should have their Ethernet connections
set to Obtain an IP Address Automatically and Obtain DNS Server Address
Automatically (see Figure 1).
• If you will be using a hardware
router, configure the router first, following the manufacturer’s
instructions. Enable its DHCP feature. If you can, set the starting
DHCP IP address to 100 so that numbers from 2 to 99 can be used for
computers with static settings. Also, if your ISP has provided you with
a static IP address for your router, be sure to enter your ISP’s DNS
server addresses in the router’s setup screens so it can pass them to
your computers.
Note
If you add a shared Internet connection
later, go to every one of your computers, bring up the TCP/IPv4
Properties dialog box shown in Figure 1
again, and select Obtain an IP Address Automatically and Obtain DNS
Server Address Automatically. Otherwise, the shared connection will not
work.
Now that your new network connection
is set up, be sure to set the correct file-sharing option, as described
in the next section. This is a critical part of Windows networking
security.
