What the book covers: Windows XP Home Networking 2E approaches complex networking technologies through Paul Thurrott's well-known and appreciated conversational, personal style. The book focuses on home networking, specifically in an environment where one or more computers run Windows XP. Windows XP is by far the dominant personal computing platform today, and the skills users learn through this book transfer to corporate and portable computing environments. Windows XP Home Networking makes home networking easy. With more and more families keeping an older computer in service when a new PC is purchased, there is now an opportunity for hundreds of millions of people worldwide to take advantage of the benefits of home networking. This book teaches the reader how to share Internet connections, share local resources like files and printers, and also ensure that their network is safe from attackers, and it prepares users for a future of connected devices in the home. It is a task-based guide to setting up XP-based home networks and focuses heavily on security, wired and wireless networking topics, broadband connections, XP SP2-specific changes, new XP versions such as Tablet PC Edition 2005 and Media Center Edition 2005, non-Microsoft networking application alternatives where applicable, and leading edge technologies such as home media servers, PDAs, smartphones, and Bluetooth.

Part I: Getting Connected.
Chapter 1: Windows XP and Home Networking.
Chapter 2: Introduction to Networking.
Chapter 3: Life in the Slow Lane: Connecting with a Modem.
Chapter 4: Information Superhighway: Making the Broadband
Connection.

Part II: Home Networking.
Chapter 5: Creating Your Home Network.
Chapter 6: Sharing an Internet Connection.
Chapter 7: Working with Users and Passwords.
Chapter 8: Securely Sharing Network Resources.
Chapter 9: Wireless Networking.
Chapter 10: Advanced Home Networking.

Part III: Windows XP and the Internet.
Chapter 11: Windows XP/.NET Integration.
Chapter 12: Browsing and Searching the Web.
Chapter 13: Using E-Mail and Newsgroups.
Chapter 14: Communicating with MSN Messenger.
Chapter 15: Windows XP Web Publishing.

Part IV: Remote Access.
Chapter 16: Getting Help with Remote Assistance.
Chapter 17: Using Remote Desktop.

Part V: Device Connections.
Chapter 18: Notebooks and Tablet PCs: Using Windows XP
with Portable Computers.
Chapter 19: Using Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs) with
Windows XP.

Index.

Paul Thurrott is News Editor for Windows & .NET Magazine and Connected Home Media. A Windows aficionado, he contributes to numerous Windows-oriented print publications, online newsletters, and Web sites. He is the author or coauthor of more than fifteen books, including PC Magazine Windows XP Digital Media Solutions, also from Wiley.