What type of network to setup?

[k0103707]

Hi,

I'm not sure what type of network to setup...

Got 2 pc's with xp pro, connection is wired, to router, sharing an internet
connection through the router.

I'd like to use it to backup too and to view/use files from such as
videos/music.

I would need a very stable & reliable network that would handle this.

What are my options?

 

[Ron Badour]

Go to the Control Panel, Network Setup Wizard

 

[Big_Al]

Hi,

I'm not sure what type of network to setup...

Got 2 pc's with xp pro, connection is wired, to router, sharing an internet
connection through the router.

I'd like to use it to backup too and to view/use files from such as
videos/music.

I would need a very stable & reliable network that would handle this.

What are my options?

Share a few folders (not my docs) on each PC and you can view them in
Network Neighborhood. Its a simple peer-to-peer share.
To share other folders like windows or mydocs etc you have to jump
hoops. But if you do something like create C:\share on both machines,
share it with full priv. then you can exchange between PC's. I have 3
pc's in the house and find it works quite easy.
You do have to make sure if you have a firewall, that your internal
network is open.

 

[k0103707]

How would i go about setting this peer-to-peer network?

 

[Big_Al]

How would i go about setting this peer-to-peer network?

Sorry, I just told you. But I'll repeat it with more detail maybe.
Make a folder C:\share on both PC's. Right click each and find the
'sharing and security'. You may have okay that you know what you are
doing but just say yes I know, and then get to the window that asks for
the share name. You can share folder ABC as XYZ but that's confusing.
Just take the default 'share'. Make sure you check the 'allow
updates' or whatever MS words it so others can write to your drive.

Now you just find it in the network neighborhood. I usually just open
network places on the start menu and in the side bar there is a view
workgroup computers task. Open that. You'll see all PC's on the
network. Pick the other pc and open it. You'll see everything shared.
You can rightclick drag the "share" folder to the desktop and make a
shortcut.
Now any time you want just click the shortcut and you have access to the
other PC. Copy files there like you do other places and they drop
across the network to the other PC.

You can expand on this logic but its a simple share. Nothing fancy. I
have a huge drive on my desktop and I've made several folders and shared
them, photos, software, MP3, updates, documentation, etc. Everyone
dumps stuff there and those folders are backed up to an external.

If you have issues, turn off your firewalls for a minute. See if that's
the issue. I have Zonealarm and had to add a entry to allow
192.168.1.1 thru 192.168.1.255 traffic. ZA lets traffic in and out of
the gateway, but blocks peer to peer by default. So it needed a tweak.

 

[Lem]

Hi,

I'm not sure what type of network to setup...

Got 2 pc's with xp pro, connection is wired, to router, sharing an internet
connection through the router.

I'd like to use it to backup too and to view/use files from such as
videos/music.

I would need a very stable & reliable network that would handle this.

What are my options?

You already have done the hardware part by purchasing a router and
having the computers share an Internet connect. The following advice
from MVP Malke may help with the rest:

Here are general network troubleshooting steps. Not everything may be
applicable to your situation, so just take the bits that are. It may
look daunting, but if you follow the steps at the links and suggestions
below systematically and calmly, you will have no difficulty in setting
up your sharing.

For XP, start by running the Network Setup Wizard on all machines (see
caveat in Item A below).

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. If one or more of the computers is XP Pro or Media Center:

1. If you need Pro's ability to set fine-grained permissions, turn off
Simple File Sharing (Folder Options>View tab) and create identical user
accounts/passwords on all computers.

2. If you don't care about using Pro's advanced features, leave the
Simple File Sharing enabled. Simple File Sharing means that Guest
(network) is enabled. This means that anyone without a user account on
the target system can use its resources. This is a security hole but
only you can decide if it matters in your situation.

E. 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.


--
Lem -- MS-MVP

To the moon and back with 2K words of RAM and 36K words of ROM.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo_Guidance_Computer
http://history.nasa.gov/afj/compessay.htm

 

[k0103707]

Thank you for your help guys! Now lets see if i can get this thing working
well...