(from Windows 98): You can install Netbeui (or any network protocol) by going to "Start, Settings, Control Panel." Then open the "Network" icon to see if it's already there. If not, click "Add, Protocol" (click Add again), select "Microsoft," then "Netbeui" in the right column, & click "OK."

Netbeui is a broadcast protocol, meaning that its message goes to every computer on the network. If you're looking to access a file on a particular remote PC (let's say from your laptop), all the communication between the two machines is heard as noise by the other machines. They have to listen even if they have nothing to do with what's going on.  

In a bigger network with multiple conversations going on at the same time this can be a problem.  Why?  Because on an ethernet network, computers have to take turns sending data.  They're continually interrupting each other, which can degrade network performance.

To sum it up, Netbeui is fine if you have two or three machines to network in your home - but if you have an Internet connection to share between them you'll need to use TCP/IP.


IPX/SPX
Not going to spend much time on this. If you need to know about it, you probably already do. It's generally used in Novell environments, & is just about as simple to install & use as Netbeui. It relies on hardware addresses burnt-in to the network cards to identify individual PC's.


TCP/IP
Whoa! Easy to write an entire book about this - or several, depending on how deep you want to go. This is the communications protocol of the internet, & actually of most Local Area Networks (LANs) today. If you're taking your network at all seriously, use it.

Again, it's installed the same way as the above Netbeui example, & whether you actually assign an address to your network card will depend on what you're doing & who you're doing it with. Usually, if you have a DSL/CABLE modem your IP address will be automatically assigned to you. If you have a "static" (unchanging) IP, you'll have to enter it manually.

(from Windows 98): From Control Panel, select "Network." "Add" if you need to. If it's already there, highlight "TCP/IP-> (your network card)" & click "properties." Choose to either obtain an address automatically or else enter your own.

You can click here for a more in-depth discussion on IP addressing. If you're creating your own network scheme, you'll need to know about this.

My assumption, though, is that you'll only need to know a few things ...

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