newbie to wireless-please help. (1 Viewer)

[Scott_Sch]

Oh duh...sorry about that. I have Comcast cable internet...not DSL. My bad =). As far as the software thing, the technician ran a setup program with some software he brought and it popped some icons and things like that on the desktop, but I wasn't sure if he could have also installed a driver or something that would make it difficult to run other computers (that he did not mess with) off of the one connection with the router?

In all of the stuff I have researched so far, nothing has mentioned this, so I would assume I'm ok, but I just wanted to check with you folks for your experience.

Oh...and I do have a separate cable modem that they provided with the ethernet connection on the back so I'm good there. And when it comes to computers absolutely no one can ever be "insultingly" clear with me as far as I'm concerned, so your pictures are very much appreciated. So as you mentioned, since I have the ethernet connection, the software thing should be a non-issue.

Andrew, thanks for the D-link mention. I'm heading to CompUSA after work so I'll see what sort of selection they have. Its good to know that there are a bunch of options out there that should get the job done.

Thanks guys.

 

[Rommel_L]

Scott,

As soon you can get a wireless router, we can help you set it up without the software...

 

[Scott_Sch]

Hey folks...thanks for all the advice last week. I did pick up a router and got the network up and running. All three computers are running off the internet service without a hitch, so I'm good there.

The only thing I'm still a little confused about is how to get all the file sharing to work. I went to the C drive (main hard drive) on each computer and switched it over to share their contents and what not and then rebooted. Unfortunately each machines hard drive is showing up in the My Network folder (i.e. Computer A's hard drive is showing up in Computer A's My Network folder but not in Computer B or C's). I was thinking it was a windows firewall issue but I'm pretty sure I disabled those. Is there some other stupid little thing that I've just overlooked or do I just need to mess around with it some more? Thanks again for your help last week.

 

[Andrew Pratt]

You need to enable file shareing on the network connection. The easiest way to do that is toright click on "My Network Places" on your desktop and choose Properties at the bottom. Next right click on the network connection and choose properties again. This will bring up a dialog showing the various network protcols in use...check of "File and Printer shareing" and click ok. You might have to reboot but once you check that off you should be able to view the files on the other PC's. Also note your XP firewall might pop up asking if its ok or some such thing so just ok that prompt.

 

[Scott_Sch]

Oh duhh (I find myself saying that a lot when it comes to computers)...that sounds like something I definitely didn't do. Makes sense since the shared drives were coming up under each of their respective network folders and not other computers. Sweet...I'll try this out tonight...thanks!

 

[Kimmo Jaskari]

Also, do not share the entire C: drive, that's just begging for trouble in case someone manages to get in on your wireless network or something.

Make a folder like C:Shared or something and share those instead.

You should also not disable the firewalls on your machines inside the network, for the same reason. Instead, make exceptions in the firewall settings for stuff you want to do and leave the firewalls on. Doing it in a more secure way is always a good idea, there is no reason to give up what extra protection the windows firewalls give.