Windows XP Home Network Troubleshooting

[BipolarBill]

The trouble with the XP wizards is they're actually easier for a novice to work with. I can't figure out what the darned things mean sometimes because they don't use industry-standard terms. Thay ought to have two modes - beginner and advanced.

[adl6009]

With all due respect I have to disagree with Mr. Bill. Maybe my experience with the wizards or networking is atypical, but in all honesty I can't understand what they mean either. And believe me, I am no expert network guru. I had a much easier time setting up a network pre-xp. With no wizard. What needs to be done for the novice networker is a step by step instruction. What to do first, next and third. Why and what for is nice to know when you do this stuff. The thing that struck me most during my network setups is the complexity of the set up. All the windows that need be filled in with values are nested several layers deep in disparate parts of the computer and/or network. What would be nice is a wizard that located all hardware in the network, then presented one page where all the required information could be entered (tcp address, subnet mask, protocols, you know what I mean) and from there the set up wizard would transmit the required data to the repective hardware devices. Or is that a little too automated for computers?
Thats just my opinion, I'm probably wrong.

[BipolarBill]

I think that we can both agree that Windows XP's network configuration might as well be written in Babylonian Cuniform. Windows 2000 was much easier to set up and it was "professional". Granted, MS has to try and account for laptops, wireless and other new technologies. I just think that they should have had separate wizards for those functions rather than lumping them all together and leaving the user to sort them out.