upgrading and repairing PCs technicians ... - 400 Bad Request
upgrading and repairing PCs technicians ... - 400 Bad Request
upgrading and repairing PCs technicians ... - 400 Bad Request
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Direct Cable Connections 295<br />
DCC is the perfect way to install CD-ROM–based software to older<br />
machines lacking such drives. You can install the DCC Host software<br />
on a notebook computer with a CD-ROM drive, install the<br />
DCC Guest software on a desktop computer, cable them together,<br />
<strong>and</strong> install the software. DCC is also the cheapest network around.<br />
I’ve also used DCC to run tape backups remotely. I set up the system<br />
I wanted to back up as the host <strong>and</strong> logged in to it as guest<br />
with the computer containing the tape backup program. After mapping<br />
the remote drive to a drive letter, I was able to back up the<br />
files via a parallel LapLink-style cable.<br />
Some users have set up DCC on machines using the TCP/IP protocol<br />
<strong>and</strong> used it for game playing. For other advanced tricks you can<br />
perform with DCC, see the following Web site:<br />
www.tecno.demon.co.uk/dcc/dcc.html.<br />
Troubleshooting Direct Cable Connections<br />
As Table 11.21 <strong>and</strong> the following checklist indicate, several places<br />
exist where a Direct Cable Connection setup can go wrong. Use<br />
this checklist, <strong>and</strong> Table 11.21, to make this virtually free “network”<br />
work best for you:<br />
• Make sure the same networking protocols are installed on<br />
both the host <strong>and</strong> guest machines with Windows 9x, Me, NT,<br />
or 2000. The simplest protocol to install is NetBEUI, <strong>and</strong><br />
that’s what Parallel Technologies (creator of DCC) recommends<br />
for a basic DCC mini-network. To configure NetBEUI,<br />
all you need to supply is the workgroup name (same for both<br />
guest <strong>and</strong> host) <strong>and</strong> a unique computer name for guest <strong>and</strong><br />
for host.<br />
• Use the parallel (LPT) ports for DCC when possible; although<br />
serial (COM) or IR port transfers will work, they are unbearably<br />
slow. Note that Windows Me refers to IR ports by their<br />
COM port alias in DCC, not specifically as IR ports.<br />
• Ensure that both host <strong>and</strong> guest LPT ports are working correctly,<br />
with no shared IRQ problems. Use the Windows<br />
9x/Me/2000 Device Manager to check for IRQ conflicts with<br />
the parallel port you’re using.<br />
• Make sure the person using the guest computer knows the<br />
network name of the host computer (set through the<br />
Networks icon in Control Panel, Identification tab). With a<br />
simple protocol such as NetBEUI, it might be necessary to<br />
enter the name to log in to the host machine.