camera related computer ?

[jann1033]

ok everyone here knows i am as computer savvy as a gnat so can someone take pity on me and tell me what i need to get to get a new computer to connect with my old computer... we never used the old one in a network...

do i need some kind of wireless connection or something? if possible i would like to use old one just for hubby's office stuff and programs we use occasionally ( was going to use it for photos but thankfully got my priorities straight ) but not have to buy another printer or run another wire for dsl( ours had tons of problems at first that messed up our landline as well and took many trips from repair men to get it working so i would rather not mess with it now that it works). so thinking that might be a network but don't know what i need to do that...hopefully i'll be able to order a new one soon but want to make sure it has what i need to do that
this is photography related since i'll be using it to work on my photos
thanks

 

[RitchG]

You probably would be best served by going to a local geek (or geek store) and asking for on-location help. There's a lot of stuff that varies from place to place.

But, having said that, you can either wire the computers together (easier if they're close) or add wireless networking to each computer. (Forgive the typewriter graphics below)

----------
DSL
----------
....| (the periods and vertical lines are supposed to be "wires")
....|
---------------
Network
Box
(a "router")
---------------
...|.............|
...|.............|
...|.............|
------ ----------
'puter 'puter
1 2
------ ----------If you want to do a wireless setup, you'd probably end up with something like this:

--------------
DSL
--------------
.....|
.....|
----------
'puter 1
----------
.....|
-----
wire-
less
box
-----
(insert magic wireless signal symbol here)

-----
wire-
less
box
-----
.....|
----------
'puter 2
----------
Either way, there's a bunch of setup stuff that has to be done. If the stars align correctly you can just follow the "wizard"; but then again...
HTH.
---Ritch

 

[minie_meese]

What I do when I have a lot of data to transfer between computers is to use an external hard drive. They are not that expensive these days and I find them a lot easier to use than other methods. My external drive has a firewire connection but you can use one that has a usb connection, it will just copy slower. I have also used an iPod to do this treating the iPod as a hard drive..

Connect the external drive to your old computer and it should show up on your computer as another drive. Depending on your computer and the operating system you are running, you may need to do something to make it show up. Create a folder on this drive and copy all of the stuff you want to move onto the external drive.

Eject the drive and disconnect the cable from your old computer.

Connect the external drive to your new computer. When it shows up on your computer, open the folder containing the data you moved to the external drive and you should see all of the files you copied. Copy them onto the hard drive of your new computer.

You might want to delete the files from the external drive or leave them there as a backup.

Eject the drive and disconnect the cable from your old computer.

Learn to use the external drive for backups and make backups on a regular basis.

You could do a similar process with cds or dvds if you have a cd or dvd burner. Depending on the amount of data this could be very long and cumbersome or things might fit on one cd. Photos and movies take a lot of space. Text documents generally do not.

If you really don't feel comfortable with doing things like this I would have your local computer store do this. It may cost you a few hundred dollars but
if it were me I would not want to risk losing my data. If you plan to use your new computer for your photos make sure you have a good backup plan an use the plan. You would be heartbroken if you had a drive crash and lost allof your photos.. I backup my photos onto two separate external hard drives.

In case you are considering getting a Mac (I love my Mac - and the built in programs for photos are very easy to use), it is easy to transfer data between a Windows and Mac machines. I used the method above to do this with 50 gb the last transfer I did.

Good luck

 

[Groucho]

I'm generally not a fan of wireless if you have a choice. However, it sounds like the PCs are in different areas of the house, and you're probably not interested in running cabling from one to the other.

If you already have what is usually called a "wireless cable router", then you're well on your way.

If you don't - then you really should have one, even if you're normally only using a single computer. Their presence adds a lot of security to your PC, and they're very cheap and easy to set up. The "big 3" reliable manufacturers are D-Link, Linksys, and Netgear. Others may work, but I'd lean toward sticking with one of those.

Once you go to set up your router - turn on encryption!!!!! The stronger, the better - WPA2-PSK if possible. The basic "G" routers should be plenty for your needs, I wouldn't pay extra for the faster "pre-N" ones.

Now, obviously the router goes near whichever PC has your DSL hooked into it. The PC that's farther away will need a wireless card added - if it's a desktop, your best choice is a PCI wireless adapter, which requires opening the case to install. It's pretty painless, but if you're really against that, you can get an external adapter that uses USB.

Once you get them both on the network and surfing the web, you can share files between them by right-clicking a folder that you want to share and going into "Sharing and Security". Once it's shared, you map a drive to it from the other PC. Don't worry, it's all pretty easy - get them networked then ask for more help and we can go through those steps.

 

[boBQuincy]

I go along with Groucho, preferring wire over wireless if you have that option. I can connect to at least three of my neighbor's networks from my laptop, and two are completely unprotected!

Either way, ***change the default admin password*** on your router! The default passwords for all major routers are in their manuals, on the web!

 

[dpuck1998]

Okay, let me toss in my 2 cents. For most home users wireless is more than enough. Unless your a gamer or need high speed data transfers you will be fine with wireless. Wired is preffered, but wireless has come a long ways and will suit you just fine. What you should do is contact your DSL company as most of them will provide a wireless router for you. If you have your account information they are USUALLY very easy to setup. Almost all of them come with encryption on by default and now force you to set a password. The encryption key will be on the router. Early wireless setups were a joke at best. Most had a default password and didn't have encryption on by default. Depending on where you live this can be a huge issue. Appartment living is bad for wireless, but if your on in the country and can see if someone is sitting in a car near your house then its much safer

I would hook one machine in via CAT5 and the other wireless. If you already have one hooked via wire then you can get a simple wireless access point to connect the other one.

After all that nonsense above, you would be better served to pay a little or find a geeky friend to set it up for you....

 

[tinksdad]

To add a different note; Make sure you have plenty of extra hard drive space since we know that pictures take up some room. I also like a descent video card, it helps!

 

[dpuck1998]

To add a different note; Make sure you have plenty of extra hard drive space since we know that pictures take up some room. I also like a descent video card, it helps!

Since we made that shift, get a backup external HD too....and a DVD burner.....

 

[Corey10112]

Just to add my two cents, if you do decide to go wireless it's also a good idea to turn off the SSID Broadcast. This will "hide" your wireless network from people who do not know the SSID. It requires some additional setup but it is a lot more secure since it's harder to find your network. They do have wi-fi finders out there that will be able to detect your network, but they won't know what the name of your network is.

 

[dpuck1998]

Just to add my two cents, if you do decide to go wireless it's also a good idea to turn off the SSID Broadcast. This will "hide" your wireless network from people who do not know the SSID. It requires some additional setup but it is a lot more secure since it's harder to find your network. They do have wi-fi finders out there that will be able to detect your network, but they won't know what the name of your network is.

Don't count too much on that, its very easy to get your SSID with free software. Even if you hide it....if someone wants to get into your network your best bet is encryption. If someone wants in bad enough they will get in....but usually they will try to find an unsecure Access Point first..

 

[jann1033]

this has got me to wondering if it's the network that causes the problem? basically is it like wireless phones where someone can "listen " in ? if so maybe i'll figure out( hahahahaha) how to just run the dsl wire since the 2 rooms are right above each other and buy a cheap printer for the other computer. i have the external drive and was planning on a dvd burner and have that in the old one already.
what would a "decent" video card be? i was looking at a computer with 2gb upgradable to 4 and i think the memory was 320(?). it was a dual core processor....i have the window xp disk so i would really rather use that if i could rather than vista but i think with vista they say at least 1 gb with photoshop elements5 (which i have) if i absolutely have to get it with vista.
i just feel like sometimes if you don't know exactly what you need you go into computer stores and they sell you stuff you don't really need.
but thanks for all the info.
unfortunately i'm sure i'll have more questions

 

[Corey10112]

Don't count too much on that, its very easy to get your SSID with free software. Even if you hide it....if someone wants to get into your network your best bet is encryption. If someone wants in bad enough they will get in....but usually they will try to find an unsecure Access Point first..

True, if you want to look at it that way it doesn't matter what you do someone can get in whenever they want. I was merely suggesting an added layer of protection to help deter thos who might be looking for an easy score.

 

[Corey10112]

this has got me to wondering if it's the network that causes the problem? basically is it like wireless phones where someone can "listen " in ? if so maybe i'll figure out( hahahahaha) how to just run the dsl wire since the 2 rooms are right above each other and buy a cheap printer for the other computer. i have the external drive and was planning on a dvd burner and have that in the old one already.
what would a "decent" video card be? i was looking at a computer with 2gb upgradable to 4 and i think the memory was 320(?). it was a dual core processor....i have the window xp disk so i would really rather use that if i could rather than vista but i think with vista they say at least 1 gb with photoshop elements5 (which i have) if i absolutely have to get it with vista.
i just feel like sometimes if you don't know exactly what you need you go into computer stores and they sell you stuff you don't really need.
but thanks for all the info.
unfortunately i'm sure i'll have more questions

Actually a router makes it a little bit harder to get to your network since it creates an additional device to get through (provided you change the admin password) to get to your computers regardless if wires are used or not. If you hook your computer up straight do a DSL modem your slightly more at risk. But as it was stated before, it doesn't matter what you do, if someone wants in bad enough they will.

 

[Groucho]

Re: hardware recommendations... don't worry about your video card unless you are going to be playing games more complicated than Solitaire on it. Even the cheapest or integrated video card nowadays is way more than enough for any 2D work like video editing. If you have a high-end version of Vista, you need a decent card to run the 3D interface, but it's really not worth it just for that. (You can just run it in 2D mode.)

Get at least a gig of memory... you probably don't need more than that, but it doesn't hurt. Avoid Celerons, either the Dual-Core Pentiums or the AMD Athlon X2s are fine. If you can, I would agree, stick with XP - but it might be difficult with a consumer-grade PC. (Business PCs still often come with XP since most businesses don't want Vista!)

For wiring... if the two PCs are right above each other, I'd lean towards just buying a regular ethernet cable and running that between the two rooms somehow. A 25' cable will probably be plenty long enough. Plug one end into the router and the other into the PC that's not near the router.

In terms of security... a network with either a wired router or a wireless router with wireless disabled is very near impossible to break into. They'll have to infect your PC (via a virus, spyware, etc) to get your PC "calling out" to them. They cannot come in out of nowhere and access your PC, everything that comes in is stopped dead at the router unless it's something that your PC asked for.

If you do run wireless, encryption is the main thing to worry about. WPA-PSK is pretty good and WPA2-PSK should be even better. If someone ones to break into your network, it'll usually take...
no encryption: instant
SSID hidden/MAC address filtering: a minute or two
WEP encryption: five minutes
WPA-PSK: a few hours
WPA2-PSK: not sure, probably a few more hours

Still, a hacker is probably not going to bother as long as you have SOME encryption, as there are so many other wide-open targets. I've seen as many as 11 or more wireless networks from my living room, and usually about half are wide-open, and often still running the default name (like "linksys" or "netgear").

 

[Groucho]

Actually a router makes it a little bit harder to get to your network since it creates an additional device to get through (provided you change the admin password) to get to your computers regardless if wires are used or not.

Most routers nowadays are set so that they can only be administered via the local network, not across the internet, so usually this isn't that big of a deal.

Yes, it's good practice to change it (especially if you have a wireless network), but encryption is far more important.

And I'd say that a router makes it a huge amount harder for someone to get to your network, not a little bit.

 

[Corey10112]

Most routers nowadays are set so that they can only be administered via the local network, not across the internet, so usually this isn't that big of a deal.

Yes, it's good practice to change it (especially if you have a wireless network), but encryption is far more important.

And I'd say that a router makes it a huge amount harder for someone to get to your network, not a little bit.

One more thing I forgot about wireless setup, sorry I'm not sure if we moved past it as an option or not, on most wireless routers you can set the wireless to allow only certain MAC addresses to connect to the router wirelessly, this is also another helpful layer of security because an outsider will have to figure out the MAC addresses that you have made available and try to spoof it using software. You can get the MAC address of any network card on any computer (running windows 2000 or later) by clicking on Start and then on Run, type in "cmd" without the quotes, and in the box that comes up type "ipconfig /all" (make sure you have a space between the g and the /). You will get a lot more information about your network connections using this command. A MAC address is an address that is set on every network card so I can guarantee that you have one. I'm not sure how hard this stuff is to crack because I'm not a hacker, but I know it's another little step to make your network more secure.

 

[Groucho]

MAC address filtering is extremely easy for a hacker to bypass... I wouldn't bother with it, it's kind of a headache to set up and it's a pain in case you have any friends/family visiting with a laptop who want to hop onto your network.