Lots of home networking/firewalls/parental controls/everything else about setting up a new PC type questions.

[DoNotAsfinishedXmasshopping]

Hi,

I have just got my "old" PCR back out of the loft to set up as a second networked PC.

It is running XP and I am on O2 with a thompson (I think) router.

I haven't actualy powered it up yet...so these questions are all about planning rather than solving actual problems IYSWIM.

How do I know what my router password is so that I can connect?

Do I just stick my (new) USB nework adapter in and hope that everything sees everything else?

Where can I get free firewall/virus software so I don't have to pay for a 2nd license?
Someone said I don't actually need firewall software as I have a hardware firewall in my router?

Can I download the latest IE to the old PC?
Can I print from my old PC to teh printer which is plugged into my main PC?

How do I go about protecting my PC against files that DTDs may try and download (in addition to supervision)? Is it just about administrator rights in XP?

How do I protect my DTDs from nasty internet things (in addition to supervision)..parental controll thingies...

Thanks in advance...I am sure I will be back with more problems later....

Bump..

OK have booted up old computer stuck a network cable in and nothing is happening...

Thats disappointing - XP should recognise an ethernet connection and go straight into update mode.

Oh hang on, what exactly do you mean by a USB network adapter? This probably needs drivers to be installed, look at the instructions that came with it. If you can go with a wired connection you would be better off IMHO with a £10 PCI ethernet card. You will have to open the box to install this, but it could probably do with a hoover in there anyway (WARNING hoovers generate static which can toast your computer: this has never happened to me, but do it at your own risk).

I think you have just seen my other thread...basically I would prefer a ethernet connection initially whilst I get all the XP updates downloaded. It will need to be wireless once I have done that though as there isn't really a suitable cable path to it's intended location.

It used to run a dial-up modem through an existing ethernet port...so I don't understand why when I stuck the cable in it didn't see my connection (I tried this before I even tried to install the USB network adapter). My O2 software doesn't seem to think it has a network card...so O2 won't run my set-up procedure. If it did I think I would be sorted.

Would my XP machine (bought in 2002) have a network card? It has an ethernet port coming out of one of the PCI slots.

Oops the penny has just dropped and I see you are not two people with similar problems, just one person with two threads!

A network card and an ethernet card is the same thing, and they have been pretty cheap and standard on business PCs for about 10 years now, although it is only perhaps the last 5 years since broadband became ubiquitous that they have been fitted as standard on PCs aimed at the home market.

One thing worries me though - you say you plugged a dial up modem into that port? Dial-up modems that connect via ethernet do exist, but I've never actually seen one (they were mainly used by corporate IT departments to set up secure connections from home to corporate networks before they understood SSL security on the internet), so if you plugged a modem in there I would not be too sure it is ethernet.

8 springy pins and 2 square LEDs (one yellow, one green) and it is ethernet, anything else (sometimes the LEDs aren't there) and it isn't.

You thought another poster had the same stunning name as me..how dare you

I got ignored on this thread as I think I tried to ask to many diverse questions.

I know...I got hte wrong cable and realised today when I tried to double check with a second cable I had . I was using a RJ11/RJ45 yesterday (little plug one end and big plug the other)

Today I realised my big plug diddn't fit and then I remember that my last modem was a USB connection and before that my phone line went straight in teh back to teh internal modem which I guess I was trying to use .

Anyway it seems I am sorted now. I have internet access. I have shared the printer. I don't seem to be able to share files but TBH that isn't actually important to me. Just need to get through installing these poxy updates, virus/firewall and deleting all the obsolete software...