Installation

The AnyPoint adapters are available as PCI cards or parallel port models. The PCI models are normal PCI cards with two RJ11 (normal phone) jacks in the back. One jack is for the incoming phone line, and the other outgoing jack connects to the phone or modem.

The parallel port model is shaped like an obelisk. Seriously, it looks a little Intel shrine. I even caught Kenn trying to offer it a muffin. The parallel port model has two RJ11 jacks, a parallel port, and a printer passthrough port. The passthrough port only works for printers. You can't use other peripherals such as scanners or zip drives with the AnyPoint passthrough. Also note that the parallel port model has an external power supply.

The parallel port model is very convenient. You don't have to go through the trouble of opening up a case, and installing an expansion card. You just attach the AnyPoint adapter to the parallel port. You don't have to worry about IRQ conflicts because the parallel port has its own IRQ.

Installation was pretty easy. We installed a PCI card in one test system, and the parallel port model in the other test system. The PCI installation went just fine. We placed it into the case, and plugged it into the wall jack. We didn't encounter IRQ conflicts or any other nasty errors during the Windows installation process. The Intel card was able to coexist peacefully with another NIC. The software installation was also pretty simple. Intel also provides an easy to use sharing and mapping utility for those who don't know how to share and map drives in Windows.

The installation for the parallel port model was even easier. We just connected the obelisk to the parallel port of the computer, hooked up the phone line, and plugged in the AC adapter. The installation software took care of all the network settings. We set the computer with the PCI card as the internet sharing server with the other test machine as the client. The installation software also allows you to setup the network without ISS.