Category: Windows
by Dennis Faas, infopackets editor
http://www.infopackets.com
Dear Dennis,
I have an ethernet card (network card) and external Cisco modem installed on my old computer.
I recently purchased a new computer, and would like to transfer my network card and modem to the new computer.
Could you give instructions on how to do this?
I would like to do this myself (this time) because the last time cost me almost $200 dollars!
- J Lerch.
My Response:
Anything to do with networking a computer can be highly involved. I will
outline the steps taken, but will not go into too much detail:
- Open your old computer
- Take out your network card (herein, referred to as a "NIC")
- Open your new computer
- Put the NIC into your new computer
- Turn the new computer on, boot into Windows
- Windows SHOULD find the new device
- Windows MAY ask you for a driver disk; have it ready
- Install the driver from the disk
- After windows has finished adding the new hardware, it may tell you to
reboot. if windows does not reboot, wait a minute until there is no hard
drive activity and reboot the machine
- Go to DEVICE MANAGER (Start -> Control Panel -> System) and verify
that the NIC is installed with no conflicts [a yellow (!) beside
the NIC]. The NIC should be listed under Network Adapters; if so,
everything should be set up properly.
At this point, you should know whether or not you need special software
to access your Internet Service Provider (ISP). For example: Bell Sympatico
High Speed Internet Access requires their own Internet Protocol to be
installed; the same goes for AOL and Juno. Some ISP's only require a TCP/IP
connection via Ethernet card; this will automatically be installed to the
NIC when the driver is installed (unless you own Windows 95A, in which case,
you will have to install TCP IP manually).
If you don't think you need special software, just load Internet Explorer
(IE). It should connect to the Internet automatically.
If nothing happens after a few minutes after clicking on IE, either:
- Your NIC isn't working properly
- You need special connection software
If (B) -- you need to obtain the said software or call your ISP to ask
them exactly what you need to do to gain access.
