3 unrelated questions

Hello ( once again) guys...........where i am at present, they have 3 pcs, and the head of the house has asked me to try and sort out some problems( why ME, i dunno LOL)......anyway, here goes
1) Dell 8250.........it has an internal modem, but device manager says it is NOT present............can anyone tell me why, or how, to "find" the modem please?
2)i have been asked to network 2 of the pcs...the Dell and the HP i am on at present.............can anyone explain, in layman's terms ( and hopefully in words of less than 3 syllables ) how to achieve this please?
3)i was asked to download some file recovery programs( for the other pc), and to try them out on the one that has had some major loss of files.......i did download some programs, and have them on a cd.......can anyone tell me how to run the programs from the cd ( i have learnt that one must NOT install them onto the pc one is trying to recover files from) please?
To me, all of these questions are curly ones.....but i am hoping that the wealth of "smarts" on here will be able to show me that they are actually simple , and easily solved, and that it is merely my novice status that is the real problem LOL
Thanks in advance guys

1) Did the modem come installed with the computer? Did it work before? If so, what made it stop? Try to find and install drivers for the modem, off a disk that came with the modem, if there is one.

2) Look at this thread http://forums.devshed.com/t57004/s2...7129987261.html
What is the goal of the networking? File sharing? Gaming?

3) Start --> Run -->Browse --> D:/ (or whatever the cd drive is) --> Click the program you want to run.
OR
Go to windows explorer, open the cd drive, click what you want to run.
OR
Get a command prompt (start-run-cmd), change to cd drive, and type what you want to run.

HTH
Dave

WOW!! You guys really are on the ball!! Thank you so much for all the offered solutions.................the modem DID come already installed, I don't know why it stopped working ( tho, broadband was being used for internet connection before, not dial up.....could this have some bearing?)
I shall try the other 2 solutions, and let you know my success rate ( judging by my previous thread, it will likely be 100%! )
Further to the networking......if i use a crossover cable, can both pc's access the internet? If so, can they do it at the same time?
Once again I am flabbergasted! LOL..........you guys are definitely quicker off the mark than Dell, and, much more helpful! To use an old aussie accolade......Bonza Mate!

If you want to allow a shared internet connection and file sharing and such, you really should just get a router and set things up like that. www.linksys.com and www.d-link.com sell routers for about $70, so its cheap and easy to do.

It sounds like at least one of the computers already has a network card, so setting up the network this way really would be a piece of cake. The crossover cable is just good if you wanted to share files between 2 computers only. Its not a good solution to do more.


Could be. If the broadband had software installed, or the network card was installed later, there could have been something that messed with the drivers. Try installing new drivers.