Second computer hell circumvented

Boy, that was lucky. Another thing that went kaput was the computer-to-computer network. File transfer went at a snail’s pace and I could not understand why. Then, today, I could no longer transfer big files back from the new hard drive on to the PC I normally use. The error ‘The specified network name is no longer available’ emerged.
   One of the first things to come up in Google was a CNet page. And I found the solution here, written by a guy called Jack Yan.
   Because the network card settings were lost on reinstallation, things were put back to the defaults, which, of course, never work for a guy who always makes things difficult. It turns out that I went through the same thing in April 2005, when I installed a router in this office. That time, too, it took days to figure out.
   I thought it all was very familiar when the error emerged today. (Goodness knows if it was what caused the problem between AVG and Firefox, but it’s too late now, I’ve switched to McAfee. I doubt it was the cause, anyway.) God bless CNet for keeping its old pages up. The solution was very typical as I re-read what I wrote three-and-a-half years ago. I had been listening to experts’ advice and all of it was dead wrong. Even the manufacturer advised me to take the unit back and exchange it, a fat lot of good that would have done. The solution was to do the exact opposite of what I was told, and this incident in 2005 was the one that really cemented this anti-geek feeling in my mind. Here is what I wrote that time as the solution, pasted here in case I ever need it again:

D-Link tech support was great but their solution was to exchange the unit. I eventually plugged in my laptop and it worked, so I concluded it had to be a set-up thing between Desktop Computer A and Desktop Computer B, both running XP Home.
   I began investigating all the settings again, and strangely, the laptop and computer A (which could talk to one another) had different things installed under ‘This connection uses the following items’—contrary to the advice I had read. So I knew that the differences would not be a major problem.
   Anyway, I went to Configure the network card on B and a message came up saying that if I went in, some of my new settings would disappear. This didn’t happen with either A or the laptop, so I knew something was up.
   The laptop and the B have the same family of network card, yet under the ‘Advanced’ tab, the laptop had ‘Link Speed/Duplex Mode’ on ‘Automatic’ (which is what B was set to).
   However, after I set B to ‘10 Full Mode’ (‘10 Half Mode’ also worked), I could do everything!
   Just for clarity, A has a different type of network card and only has ‘Line Speed’ as the sole property under ‘Advanced’. It’s set on ‘TP Half Duplex’.
   So there you have it: I went against all the rules, have totally different settings between the machines, and it all works!

   Rule of computing: do the opposite of what you are told! (The same applies to playing the stock market and explains why the Toyota Corolla sells so well.)