(Please see a short mention of routers at the end of this article as well.)

Before getting to switches and hubs, an alternative to connect exactly two computers with one another is an Ethernet crossover cable.

First of all, hubs are obsolete and, for the most part, no longer made. Everybody uses switches instead. If you came to this article to find out whether you should buy a hub or a switch, stop reading and buy a switch.

Cables of category 5 (100Base-TX, 100 Mbit/s), 6, or 7 (1000Base-T, Gigabit Ethernet, 1000 Mbit/s) are the way to go. You need RJ-45 sockets on all device connectors and RJ-45 plugs on all cables.

For one socket/computer you need two twisted pairs, i.e. four wires, for 100Base-TX, or four twisted pairs, i.e. 8 wires, for 1000Base-T. The cables have 8 wires. So with 100Base-TX you can use double RJ-45 sockets, allowing two computers to be connected, while the faster, more modern Gigabit Ethernet can have only one per cable.

Error messages:

• Not enough server storage is available to process this command.
• Not enough memory to complete transaction. Close some applications and retry.

These error messages on a computer, which we will call computer A, can indicate the IRPStackSize bug on the other machine, the server that has the share, which we will call computer B. Go to that other computer, B, open the event log, and check for event ID 2011. If this is present, it is a strong indication for this particular bug. The two computers again:

Table of contents

Microsoft has redesigned its autoupdate pages into one central portal: http://update.microsoft.com/. You no longer need to go to Office Update separately, for example.

On that central page you also find help links. Use these and read them thoroughly if you have a problem. They list the most important problems and their solutions.

Please see also:

Updates are not installed successfully from Windows Update, from Microsoft Update, or by using Automatic Updates after you repair a Windows XP installation
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/943144/

Slow Network Browsing

Rename the following registry entry:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
 \Software
  \Microsoft
   \Windows
    \CurrentVersion
     \Explorer
      \RemoteComputer
       \Namespace
        \{D6277990-4C6A-11CF-8D87-00AA0060F5BF}

For example, you can rename it to:

DISABLED {D6277990-4C6A-11CF-8D87-00AA0060F5BF}

This change prevents the browsing computer from checking for scheduled tasks on the remote machine before connecting, which is apparently the reason for the slowness.

Cannot Enable Internet Connection Sharing

For Internet Connection Sharing (ICS) you need at least two network connections, one to the Internet and one to the LAN (Local Area Network). None of these should be disabled.

Apart from that, the ICS option is greyed out or otherwise not working if the Internet Connection Firewall (ICF) is enabled in the LAN connection or if a network bridge is present on the Internet connection.

Cannot browse some web sites

This is probably not an Internet Explorer problem. Please use the Network Problem Solver.

Slow starting

WebClient service not running

Check whether the WebClient service is running. If not, set its start mode to Automatic and start it or reboot.

When the network cable is disconnected, Windows shows a message like a "Network disconnected" icon on the TaskBar and the 'ipconfig' command shows a "Media State ...: Cable disconnected" message and disables the entire network protocol stack. This means that you cannot even reach network addresses on your own computer.

This is the normal behavior of Windows 2000 and XP. The cause is a new feature called Media Sense that disables the entire network stack if the cable is not powered.

Only one user can use the Internet connection

The symptom is that other users of the same computer can see the Internet connection, but cannot use it. To change this, use the following procedure.