Wireless network query

[Patrick]

Hi,

I have 2 pc's.
1 runs XP Home and is hard wired into a belkin wireless router
2 is a Dell laptop running XP Pro. and a wireless card.

Can I get the 2 to file share with each other or do I have to fit a
wireless card to the hard wired pc to make things work?

Many thanks,
P.

 

[Malke]

Hi,

I have 2 pc's.
1 runs XP Home and is hard wired into a belkin wireless router
2 is a Dell laptop running XP Pro. and a wireless card.

Can I get the 2 to file share with each other or do I have to fit a
wireless card to the hard wired pc to make things work?

The fact that one computer connects wired and the other connects wirelessly
is irrelevant. Both are members of your Local Area Network. You simply need
to set up file/printer sharing now. Do not be daunted; it is very easy to
do this.

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 overlooked firewall (including a stateful
firewall in a VPN); 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.

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/security program with its own
firewall component, 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. Refer to any third party security program's Help or user forums for
how to properly configure its firewall. Do not run more than one firewall.
DO NOT TURN OFF FIREWALLS; CONFIGURE THEM CORRECTLY.

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. DO NOT NEGLECT TO CREATE
PASSWORDS, EVEN IF ONLY SIMPLE ONES. 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, turn off
Simple File Sharing (Folder Options>View tab).

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

Malke

 

[Kenny]

To Malke, why can I never get the Wizard to work and I always have to do it
manually?
I run the Wizard with a pen drive connected to one PC. When finished it
tells me to take it to the other then when finished there it tells me to
take it back to the original PC and the cycle starts again!

 

[Malke]

To Malke, why can I never get the Wizard to work and I always have to do
it manually?
I run the Wizard with a pen drive connected to one PC. When finished it
tells me to take it to the other then when finished there it tells me to
take it back to the original PC and the cycle starts again!

I have no idea since I can't see your computer. However, it is completely
unnecessary to run the Wizard. I just include that information because for
most people it works and then they don't need to fiddle with the firewall
if they are running the Windows Firewall.

So just skip the Wizard. Go to the Windows Firewall (assuming you're using
it) and put a checkmark in "File and Printer Sharing" on all computers.
Follow the rest of the information.

Malke

 

[Kenny]

Thanks for the reply.
I have 1 PC hard wired and 2 PC's wireless connected to 3Com wireless
modem/router. Laptop using XP MCE and others using XP Pro/SP3.
The wizard always leaves me confused when taking the pen drive from one PC
to another and I find it more logical to set them up manually.