davidireland
New Member
Home Networking Setup
A lot of people ask how to set up home networks for file sharing and printer sharing. I end up making a lot of posts explaining the same kinda thing over and over, so i made this thread. If the mods don't sticky it (and they probably won't, it's probably not that great of a guide) then at least I can direct people to the thread...
So, heres a quick and easy way to get all the basics out of your home network with Windows XP Home, Pro and MCE
Make sure all of your hardware is setup as shown in the picture below.
(Give or take some computers, laptops and printers...)
Before we start, let's put ALL PC's in the same Workgroup
1) Right Click on "My Computer" and go to Properties. Go to the "Computer Name" tab.
2) Click the "Change" button and fill in the information as you wish.
Now for the software configuration for File Sharing....
1) Go to the folder you wish to share. (Or A Printer...)
Right Click on the folder, go to "Sharing And Security"
2) Click on, "If You Understand The Risk...Blahhh Blahhhh"
3) Then click on "If You Understand...But Want To Share Files Without Running The Wizard, Click Here."
4) Then choose "Just Enable File Sharing"....This is a very important
step. A lot of the time when the wizard is run, file sharing will not work
the way this guide shows how to set everything up.
5) Now, you can set the file share name. Below are images of the XP Pro and
Home edition screens....
Here's How To Set Up A Networked Printer....
Follow these steps on the computer that the printer is hooked up to.
1) Go to the Printers and Faxes Screen in Control Panel.
2) Right Click on the printer you'd like to share. Go to properties, then to
sharing.
3) Fill out the information and click the proper boxes. If the computer using
the printer is using an older version of windows, click the box in green
(see picture below)
Here's How To USE A Networked Printer....
Follow these instructions on the PC's USING the printer....
1) Navigate to "My Network Places" in Windows XP, or "Network
Neighborhood" in older versions of Windows.
2) Find the computer with the printer within the workgroup. Double click on it.
3) Then, double click on the shared printer icon and it will automatically set
up the printer on the computer you are on.
Sometimes after all this is done, you might get an error message when trying to connect. Sometimes the problem for this is incorrect file permissions.
How To Set Up XP File Permssions For File Sharing Purposes...
This is easier if you have XP Pro, but if you have this problem, you probably have XP Pro anyways...
In XP Pro....Turn OFF simple file sharing....
Go to any folder, My Documents for example. Go to tools--->Folder Options--->View and scroll to the bottom. Uncheck "Use Simple File Sharing"
Now to set the permissions...
1) Right click on the folder you are sharing. Go to properties, and go to the sharing tab. Then, go to permissions. You will see the screen below...
Click add and make an entry called EVERYONE if it doesnt exist. Then, give "everyone" full permissions.
Then go to the permissions tab instead of the sharing tab and do the same thing.
For XP home, do the same, but in safe mode.
Okay well that about covers the basics. Happy Networking.
Dave.