Setting Up the Hardware

Before you get too comfortable in your chair, you must physically check some items. This may require you to do some low-level maneuvers (such as crawling under your desk):

Cable modem, DSL modem, or any other fancy contraption: If you have one of these babies, you need to make sure that:
  • An Ethernet cable (like a phone cable but the connector is wider) is plugged into your computer’s Ethernet card and into the special cable, DSL, satellite, or ISDN modem your ISP installed.

  • The fancy modem thing is powered on. (These contraptions often have their own power supplies.)

External modem: If you have an external modem (one that’s independent of your computer case), you need to verify that
  • A cable is securely connected from the modem to the proper port on the computer.

  • The modem is powered on. (External modems have their own power supply.)

  • One end of a telephone cable is plugged into the wall jack, and the opposite end is plugged into the modem.

Internal modem: If you have an internal modem, you need to verify that:
  • The modem is not a software modem. See the sidebar “Beware of devices posing as modems” if you’re not sure what a software modem is or whether you have one.

  • One end of a telephone cable is plugged into the wall jack, and the opposite end is plugged into the phone plug on the back of your computer.

Wireless cards: If you have a wireless card, you also have to have a wireless router to collect and direct your wireless traffic between computers and/or ...

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