DPA1of8

It is a 16-port Linksys router. I have installed smaller routers, wireless routers, but nothing this big. It has an installation wizard and I have read through the instructions in the users manual

It seems pretty straightforward. It is a new router being installed on a newly created network. All computers to be connected run Windows XP Professional.

Anyone have any issues or advice, things to watch out for?

And about how long should I plan to have to spend with it initially?

Network (Novelle Netware) with a shared drive (F: for all users) to which everyone has read and write access to files there. (Don't ask; not my construction and it works here.)

A batch program on one computer (on and executed from its C: drive) successfully copies a file from a folder on the F: drive to two other folders on the F: drive. Syntax is:

copy F:\folder1\folderx\filename F: \folder2\filename

copy F:\folder1\folderx\filename F: \folder3\filename

I edited the working batch file and saved it as another named batch file. Folder and filenames changed; all legal names and all existing on the F: drive in the named places. (Verified here by two pairs of eyes through Windows Explorer and run cmd.exe DOS navigation.)

The second batch file errors out--"Cannot find the specified file." Same result, whether run on and from the original C: drive, the F: drive, or another computer's c: drive.

Any suggestions?

My friend's computer--clean (Norton, Spybot and Ad Aware scans) 10 days ago. Norton is autoprotect enabled. Spybot and Ad Aware are the free versions; no real-time protection, but both were updated and Spybot immunized.

Friday, six days later, when computer booted, they noticed strange things...in fact, Smitfraud (and other, similar) spyware. When I checked logs and quarantines, I found that my friend had run Ad Aware on Friday, fixing 130+ problems (not all tracking cookies). Yesterday--yes, they waited five days, hoping it would fix itself--they called me in.

I've cleaned it up (what a chore), but when I ran a full system anti-virus scan, Norton found and quarantined a handful of nasties. When I looked them up, it seems that none is a recently discovered problem--WinFixer, ISearch and Trojan.Anser being the worst of the bunch. And Norton's definitions updates from many months ago should have prevented them. So how do they slip past Norton?

A client has slow computer. I've done all the obvious and some not so obvious things to speed it up, without success. It has only 128MB RAM, so I'd like to add some to try that route. (Seems odd: Celeron processor, 2.2 GHz but only 128MG RAM.)

The case says that it is a Gateway EV 730 and I would like to be able to determine what kind of RAM to get without opening the case. But I cannot find (Gateway site or RAM vendor sites) a Gateway model EV of any kind; E-series but no three-digit 700s and Essential-series with 700 and 733 models, but no 730.

I suppose I will just have to open the box to check out the RAM and what is possible there, but I wonder--is this a Gateway knockoff? Anyone else worked on a Gateway EV 730? Can you tell me what kind of RAM it uses?

Small network (five computers), Windows 2000 server. As of one day last week, (at least) two of the computers--which had mapped z: drives to the server's common data storage drive--were no longer connected to the server. Little red x over the z: drive on my computer. Just a few days before, both had access to and were using their z: drives.

At least one other computer on the network has access to the z: drive.

I've been through Windows help (networking, etc.) to no avail. Cables all are plugged in an tight. I tried mapping a new connection to the server, but each of these two computers cannot find the server.

Any suggestions for reconnecting these computers to the server?

The operation finished OK and the computer still works. But I know the palpable vibration isn't good. The computer has been in use for at least three years without trouble and I haven't worked on it before, so I don't know if this is a new symptom. Judging from the user's non-reaction, I gather it is typical.

Is there anything to do or try other than making sure we have full backup and restore capability before it finally crashes?