Dima took his first GCSE exam of the summer yesterday: he had to deliver a couple of speeches in German to the examiner! He's good at languages so it went well enough. He was "working" with his mother for the last few hours before the exam and they had some interesting exchanges of opinion! I found out the other day that network hardware has fallen in price by a factor of 12 or even 20 since I last looked and for the princely sum of GBP9 I bought an Ethernet network card for the desktop and hooked it up to the laptop: we now have an all singing and dancing home network that has already begun to show its worth. The reason for the fall in price is that they are now promoting wireless networks and they cost up to and over GBP100 a set. Now we can share the printer, files and even internet access so that whatever we do, there is no switching cables around, waiting for someone else to finish what they're doing to log on ... There was a pantomime attached to all of this however! I bought the box for GBP9 and installed the card ... went through the Windows routine of setting up the network protocols and so on. Wouldn't work. Spent an hour with Dima and still we couldn't get it to work. After a break went back to it and I found that since I was just connecting two computers without a hub, don't need it, I did need a Crossover Cable. I thought, I bet the cable I got with the £9 kit isn't Crossover. The following day I tried to call PCWorld where I bought the kit: first time their automated answering service was no help to me as I ended up in a department that had nothing to offer me. Then called again and was told to call their premium help line at GBP1 a minute. They told me that I needed someone else as they themselves know nothing about networking. I got through to someone who ASSURED me that I did indeed have a Crossover cable. Called the company that sold me my laptop and despite being barely able to understand what he was saying as he seemed completely preoccupied with something else, he did convince me that my cable was not Crossover. Went back to PCWorld and bought a Crossover cable having checked in person with them that the cable they previously supplied was NOT Crossover. Another GBP9 I should add. Connected the two computers with the new cable and IMMEDIATELY the network kicked in. What a palaver! DW