NWN machines, I hope

So here's what I ended up with

Compaq V2602XT
AMD Sempron Mobile 3000+
256 MB DDR PC2700 RAM (1 DIMM)
40 GB Hard Drive
CD-RW/DVD ROM combo drive
56K modem |10/100 NIC | 802.11G
ATI RADEON XPRESS 200
AC 97 Audio
14.1 WXGA High-Definition BrightView
Windows XP Home

Actually, it appears the Radeon card is 200M, not 200 (I was warned to
avoid the 200P, but had no information about the M

The memory is a single card, and there are two slots for cards, so I
plan to buy two 512M cards, so that two machines have those while the
other two machines get two 256M cards each.

There's also an empty PC card slot, no idea what I might be able to pop
in there, is there a card based HD equivalent?

I currently have a Linksys wireless G router running in the house, with
my DSL plugged into it so our machines can share the internet
connection; is this workable for the built in 801.11G wi fi connection
on the machines?

I'd like to not only be able to use these machines to connect to the
internet, but also with each other, hopefully to be able to run NWN
multiplayer games with all four machines. Should I get more memory for
the machine working as server?

Or I still have the desktops the laptops are replacing, should I keep
one of those and set it up as the server, with all four laptops just
running for players? Can the router handle 5 machines in a network? It
only has 4 slots in the back, but I'm already running two cable and two
wireless.... is some combination that gets to 5 workable?

For that matter, is the router even necessary, can the machines just
communicate directly with each other?

Tons of questions, I thought picking one to buy was hard!

Lance

Lance Berg wrote:
> So here's what I ended up with
>
> Compaq V2602XT
> AMD Sempron Mobile 3000+
> ATI RADEON XPRESS 200
> 14.1 WXGA High-Definition BrightView
> Windows XP Home
>
> Actually, it appears the Radeon card is 200M, not 200 (I was warned to
> avoid the 200P, but had no information about the M

Not 100% sure, but I think the 200M is an integrated video chipset
sharing system RAM. After you get your 1GB RAM, check to make sure
that you've allocated the max (128mb, iirc) system ram to the video.

> The memory is a single card, and there are two slots for cards, so I
> plan to buy two 512M cards, so that two machines have those while the
> other two machines get two 256M cards each.

A few suggestions to optimize your machines:
Turn off the XP fluff graphics stuff - even when the desktop is hidden
by your applications, it is using up resources (right-click My Computer
-> Properties -> Advanced tab -> Performance/Settings button -> Visual
Effects tab, select Adjust for best performance button; if you like the
XP colors, select the bottom box (iirc) for visual styles on windows
and buttons

Check the free space on your hard drive. My 40GB drive (about 37GB by
Windows account) had roughly 7 GB in a hidden restore partition and
roughly 11GB of fluff... trial-ware, free offers, HP trial games, MS
Office 2003 trial, etc.... enough to fill nearly half the hard drive!
I went through the process of uninstalling stuff I didn't want,
manually deleting folders I found after uninstalling, etc., but still
had about 5 or 6GB used + the 7GB restore partition - not good enough.

So, first I created the standard restore discs just to have a set -
which turns out to be a good thing - the HP support site did not have
the correct drivers for the Sempron, modem, ATI chipset, and possibly a
few other things - and HP support in India had no interest in noting
that fact or changing it (oops, that just reminded me... the HP/Compaq
"make restoration disks program is unable to make DVDs using a USB DVD
recorder* and creating restore disks on CDs requires 11 CDs - not a
typo, eleven).

Then I created my own clean install XP CD using the instructions here:
http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?t=3827

Be sure to get Magic JellyBean, run it and record the XP CD key that
was originally used for your existing install - when you reinstall XP,
use that original key and you won't have to re-activate XP! If you use
the license key on the bottom of the laptop, you'll have to activate.

and did a clean reinstall of XP. After applying the Hot Fixes and
patches (check out HFSlip
http://www.vorck.com/hfslip.html and nLite
http://www.nliteos.com/nlite.html)
If you want to get fancy, there are instructions for creating an
unattended install there somewhere (use your existing XP key) so you
don't have to babysit the process. When done, the fully patched XP Pro
install was just over 1 GB (I also wiped out the hidden partition and
repartitioned the drive to suit) so I had 36GB to play with

Probably best to run NWN1 as administrator (power user might be OK,
haven't tried it). I think I've done it when logged in as a regular
limited user, but I had to right-click on the icon and choose "run as:
administrator" and de-select the "protect my operating system (or
whatever) files" for NWN to recognize the correct patch level.

> There's also an empty PC card slot, no idea what I might be able to pop
> in there, is there a card based HD equivalent?

Yes, though I think they might need two PC card slots stacked on each
other (been a while since I looked, though). You may also be able to
find PC card adaptors that take flash memory cards, such as Compact
Flash. The price of either is such that you'd be better off either
buying a larger/faster HD, or using an external USB hard drive - or at
least that's how it was when I last checked.

> I currently have a Linksys wireless G router running in the house, with
> my DSL plugged into it so our machines can share the internet
> connection; is this workable for the built in 801.11G wi fi connection on the machines?

Don't see why not, a lot depends on the machine location/distance from
the router.

> server questions snipped, I have almost no experience running multiplayer)

> For that matter, is the router even necessary, can the machines just
> communicate directly with each other?

Google "Ad hoc wireless network" - under XP, it is possible to
wirelessly network machines. Again, no experience, just know it's
possible but I don't know if that is faster/slower than using your
router.