I'm trying to set up a Home Network.

[rhyguy]

My main computer is linked up to my router with an Ethernet cable and running xp, and my laptop is wirelessly connected and running vista. I want to plug in a USB hard drive and a USB printer to my XP computer, and be able to acsess it on my laptop. Is this possible, and could some one link me to a guide, or a forum that can help me?

 

[jpxdude]

It is possible, all you need to do it set both up as 'shares' on your network. Right-click the icon for either the drive or printer, and go into Properties. There you should see a 'Sharing and Security' tab, under here you should be able to enable the printer/drive to be shared across your network.

 

[rhyguy]

how would i set up the network initially though? i tried the windows wireless connection thing, but it says to plug in the usb drive with settings into my router, but my router has no usb ports

 

[Dylaan]

You should be able to just plug the usb drive into your computer and 'share' it. It'll only be available to other computers as long as the one it's connected to is turned on though...

 

[jpxdude]

You just plug the drive into your main PC, and set the share on the drive. When you navigate on the network through your laptop to your PC shares, the USB drive should show up as a folder. Also if your printer is shared on your PC, this will show up as well amonst the folders on your network.

You shouldn't need to mess with the router at all, but to make life easier, make sure your Laptop and PC are on the same workgroup, usually WORKGROUP or MSHOME. This way when navigating your network on either the PC or Laptop, your networked machines should show up automatically.

 

[rhyguy]

ok, its sort of working.

i can ping my laptop(vista) with my pc(xp), and my pc with my laptop, but i cant see my pc in my laptop and i dont know how to see my workgroup in my pc

Edit: Now i can see my laptop with my pc, but i still cant see the pc with my laptop
Edit2: I can only acsess my laptops public folder with my pc, not its harddrives or stuff
Edit:3 And the Public folder only has sample stuff, but that mnight be cause i dont use it on my laptop
edit4: I installed the multi layer thing on to my pc