Home network

[Kiwi Nate]

Hi all, I have a D Link DIR 635 draft n wireless router with 4 available ethernet ports, and 2 laptops which are connected to it via a wireless connection. The router is connected to a cable modem. I want to be able to share folders between my two laptops. 1 is a XP Pro machine (work) and the other is Vista Basic (girlfriends laptop) I wish to add a printer connected via ethernet to the back of the router and access wirelessly from my two laptops. I also have a third door stop laptop (XP Home) which I would like also to connect to the router (ethernet not wireless) and use this machine as a central storage device for my music, periodical back ups and synchronising etc etc. I know these wishes may be elementary for alot of you but I am just starting out in the PLC and industrial communications world. I am hoping someone may be able to point out a good link or whitepaper where I can learn about this and put it into practice. A bit like networking for dummies i guess. I thank you all in advance for any input Cheers, Nathan

[ssommers]

I did my home network using Network Magic a couple of years ago. I have it configured for 3 PCs - the central server (wired to router), my daughter's PC (wireless) & my laptop (wireless). Both the wireless connections can use the server's printer as long as the server is turned on. It's got a nice little intrusion detection system, but I keep the router's ID hidden so the neighbors don't know it's there. Best of all, it was cheap & I didn't have to do a lot of configuration. HTH! Susan

[Kiwi Nate]

Thanks, i'll download it later, I see theres a free trial version for 7 days. I might wait till i've got the printer before I install it ha ha. In the mean time I worked out how to manually assign my IP address both on my router and PC (TCP/IP), so thats a start, matched the DNS and Default gateway to my routers IP, and now I am online with my own static settings! I suppose these steps aren't nessecary but I think its important to have a play around with these things. Next stage, manually assigning my other laptop to my network, then set up folder sharing.

[Kiwi Nate]

Massive all talking and sharing. The vista way is slightly different to XP, but so long as the workgroups are the same, and a few other basic settings are configured in Network and sharing centre its a fairly straight forward process. Now to hook up the 1 TB hard drive to my door stop and start my media centre. Roll on the printer

[Nathan]

Nice work. All your requests are pretty straightforward. LMK if you have any questions.

[Kiwi Nate]

Chur chur. Bought my printer, a brother multifunction, amazed at the value you get $120 Network ready, colour photo copier, scanner, and printer. Only thing it doesnt support is duplexing but I can live with that. Any way connected that to my router, all configured and it prints from all my wireless computers. Very happy with myself! Its been a good effort and learning curve this weekend. Actually it was relatively easy, that I kinda wish I didn't make my first original post requesting informaton! Anyway, firewalls and virus protection are back on so time to turn on the modem.

[Nathan]

Awesome! Glad to hear that you were successful.