Windows XP comes through with easy networking.

Setting up a home network used to require a wealth of knowledge and hours of free time. Microsoft's Windows XP operating system will change all that, offering an easy-to-use network setup wizard and a myriad of information along the way. TechTV Labs recently looked at the process of setting up a network on Windows XP RC2, and found the experience simple.

When it comes to providing help along the way, the XP Networking Wizard does it well. The wizard explains terms like TCP/IP and even has visual reference guides that show you what the various options should look like.

You'll find the wizard in your Control Panel, under Network and Internet Connections. From there, you need only select either "setup" or "change your small or home office network" option. You'll then be greeted by the wizard and up and running in minutes.

The wizard asks some simple questions and from your answers sets up your network. We found the wizard didn't use computer terminology when readying you to set up your network. Instead it asked questions like "this is the computer that will connect directly to the Internet, others will connect to it," far simpler to understand than, say, "this will be your gateway machine, which will provide connectivity to clients on your network."

Not sure what the wizard is asking? Most of the networking terminology the wizard does use is underlined and simply clicking on it will pop up a window that explains what the word means.

To set up an Ethernet network with a broadband connection, you'll need Ethernet cards for each machine, as well as cables to connect them all to a hub or router. As for the broadband connection, you'll need one of those as well, either cable or DSL.

The entire process takes less than five minutes. When it's done, the wizard will then ask if you would like to create a network configuration floppy, which can be used to configure all the other computers on your network (regardless of what version of Windows they're running). After the setup, your Windows machine will require a restart for the new settings take effect. (This may not be required in the final release of XP.)

The floppy disk we created to configure the other machines didn't work as we expected. Instead of automatically configuring the other machine, it ran the same wizard, asking the same questions. This could be confusing to users setting up a network for the first time.

Summary: Overall, the new XP networking wizard is easy and provides a quick way to set up more than one computer to share an Internet connection, printers, or files.