Preparing Your Computers for TCP/IP Networking


Computers access the Internet using a protocol called TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol). Each computer on your network must have TCP/IP installed and selected as its networking protocol. If a Network Interface Card (NIC) is already installed in your PC, then TCP/IP is probably already installed as well.
Most operating systems includes the software components you need for networking with TCP/IP. Windows 95 or later includes the software components for establishing a TCP/IP network.
In your TCP/IP network, each PC and the wireless access point must be assigned a unique IP addresses. Each PC must also have certain other TCP/IP configuration information such as a subnet mask (netmask), a domain name server (DNS) address, and a default gateway address. In most cases, you should install TCP/IP so that the PC obtains its specific network configuration information automatically from a DHCP server during startup.

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