Home Network

[Royboy Yobyor]

I am having a difficult time setting up a home network. I have 2 computers.
One with XP Home, the other with 2000Pro. For some reason XP's network setup
is not so easy with 2000Pro. Can anyone provide me with a step by step
instruction on how to make it work? I am connected to a wired router so
there's no problem using the internet. Now I would like to file share and use
the printer which is connected directly to my computer with XP Home.

 

[Malke]

I am having a difficult time setting up a home network. I have 2
computers. One with XP Home, the other with 2000Pro. For some reason XP's
network setup is not so easy with 2000Pro. Can anyone provide me with a
step by step instruction on how to make it work? I am connected to a wired
router so there's no problem using the internet. Now I would like to file
share and use the printer which is connected directly to my computer with
XP Home.

For XP, start by running the Network Setup Wizard on all machines (see
caveat in Item A below). For Win2k, allow File & Printer Sharing. You won't
run a Wizard on Win2k. The main thing is to have the matching user
accounts/passwords (see below) and configure your firewalls properly.

Problems sharing files between computers on a network are generally caused
by 1) a misconfigured firewall; or 2) inadvertently running two firewalls
such as the built-in Windows Firewall and a third-party firewall; and/or 3)
not having identical user accounts and passwords on all Workgroup machines;
4) trying to create shares where the operating system does not permit it.

For XP and Windows 2003 Server, MVP Hans-Georg Michna has an excellent small
network troubleshooter. It may also be useful with Vista.

http://winhlp.com/wxnet.htm

Here are some general networking tips for home/small networks:

A. Configure firewalls on all machines to allow the Local Area Network (LAN)
traffic as trusted. With Windows Firewall, this means allowing File/Printer
Sharing on the Exceptions tab. Normally running the Network Setup Wizard on
XP will take care of this for those machines.The only "gotcha" is that this
will turn on the XPSP2 Windows Firewall. If you aren't running a
third-party firewall or have an antivirus with "Internet Worm
Protection" (like Norton 2006/07) which acts as a firewall, then you're
fine. With third-party firewalls, I usually configure the LAN allowance
with an IP range. Ex. would be 192.168.1.0-192.168.1.254. Obviously you
would substitute your correct subnet. Do not run more than one firewall.

B. For ease of organization, put all computers in the same Workgroup. This
is done from the System applet in Control Panel, Computer Name tab.

C. Create matching user accounts and passwords on all machines. You do not
need to be logged into the same account on all machines and the passwords
assigned to each user account can be different; the accounts/passwords just
need to exist and match on all machines. If you wish a machine to boot
directly to the Desktop (into one particular user's account) for
convenience, you can do this. The instructions at this link work for both
XP and Vista:

Configure Windows to Automatically Login (MVP Ramesh) -
http://windowsxp.mvps.org/Autologon.htm

D. Create shares as desired. XP Home does not permit sharing of users' home
directories (My Documents) or Program Files, but you can share folders
inside those directories. A better choice is to simply use the Shared
Documents folder.

Malke

 

[Bruce Chambers]

I am having a difficult time setting up a home network. I have 2 computers.
One with XP Home, the other with 2000Pro. For some reason XP's network setup
is not so easy with 2000Pro. Can anyone provide me with a step by step
instruction on how to make it work? I am connected to a wired router so
there's no problem using the internet. Now I would like to file share and use
the printer which is connected directly to my computer with XP Home.

On the WinXP PC, create local user account(s), with non-blank
password(s), that have the desired access privileges to the desired
shares. Log on to the other PCs using those account(s), and you will be
able to access the designated shares, provided your network is
configured properly. Also, make sure that WinXP's built-in firewall is
disabled on the internal LAN connection.

On the Win2K PC, create local user account(s), with non-blank
password(s), that have the desired access privileges to the desired
shares. Log on to the other PCs using those account(s), and you will be
able to access the designated shares, provided your network is
configured properly.

Usually, WinXP's Networking Wizard makes it simple and painless --
almost entirely automatic, in fact. There's a lot of useful,
easy-to-follow information in WinXP's Help & Support files, and here:

Home Networking
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/home/using/howto/homenet/default.asp

Networking Information
http://www.onecomputerguy.com/networking.htm

PracticallyNetworked Home
http://www.practicallynetworked.com/index.htm

Steve Winograd's Networking FAQ
http://www.bcmaven.com/networking/faq.htm

Configuring Windows 2000 Professional to Work in a Peer-to-Peer
Network
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=KB;EN-US;q258717


--

Bruce Chambers

Help us help you:


http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx/kb/555375

They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary
safety deserve neither liberty nor safety. ~Benjamin Franklin

Many people would rather die than think; in fact, most do. ~Bertrand Russell

The philosopher has never killed any priests, whereas the priest has
killed a great many philosophers.
~ Denis Diderot