Home Networking - Comments Page 1

Perfect timing Bob! Just bought a laptop as well as our desktop and as my husband and I are both completing a Masters degree this year we will be fighting over the broadband connection!! Off to the shops to get the bits...thanks for making networking so non threatening!
Lyndal

I've got the networking part down, but the printer sharing is being a real pain. The old computer is hosting the internet, while the second computer is a laptop conected via wireless. File sharing works fine, but the two USB HP Printers hosted on Windows ME does not allow sharing which I think is due to the new computer being XP Home, and requiring different drivers than the host computer of ME. I've tried installing the drivers directly on the laptop, and changing the port to the host ME computer, but the laptop still can't print.
My next step, unless someone has a better idea, is to test this with a different host computer that has the XP operating system, and then seeing if the remote laptop can actually print to the shared printers. Of course, this is a lot to do simply for a test, but if the test works, then simply replacing the old ME computer with one of those 299.00 Dell computers seems to be the best answer over upgrading the OS on the ME machine for a computer that is many years old.
Unless a printer has an RJ45, I really hate working with them. I've not seen an option in ME to install additional drivers to support the XP operating system, but ME to myself, is like a printer without an RJ45. :-(

I have a router and wired/wireless ethernet adapters with all of my PC's working. But... sharing my HP printer required the printer software be installed on every machine that uses it. Tourbus riders might run into that roadbump.

I have tried to share "My Documents" and subfolders between XP machines with limited success. With multiple users on each XP machine, I can sometimes see the shared folders but none of the contents. And I cannot put anything into those folders without a write permission error. I end up copying files via a USB memory stick and saving myself the bother. WinXP firewalls are off and it shouldn't be so difficult to share files on my own home network.

EDITOR'S NOTE: I've also noticed some flaky behavior in Windows XP networking. Works most of the time, which is sort of annoying!

I used to have a home network with 2 WinME pcs and everything worked OK, no problem sharing files. But since I got a new Pc with WinXP I couldn't get through to the WinME. I was getting crazy trying to find out why, until I found out it was due to the Norton Internet Security on WinXP, so I turned it OFF and then it worked fine again. So that is what I do now: when I want to access the shares on the other pc I turn it OFF and when I'm done I turn it ON again.

I just wanted to let Bus Riders know about this in case someone has the same problem and can't find a solution. Thank you for all Bob and
best wishes from the Canary Islands.

EDITOR'S NOTE: Yet another example of a software firewall causing problems...

Any problem networking a desktop WIN XP home wireless with a win98 laptop?

EDITOR'S NOTE: In theory, no. But it seems that Windows networking is implemented with twine, bubblegum and magic spells. Your mileage may vary...

I followed your directions precisely to set up a wireless network printer.... but everytime I run Network Connections Wizard.... I go thru it all, but at the end, it says it could not create the network connection. What could it be from? Mcaffee?

EDITOR'S NOTE: Possibly... you'll never know until you try without it.

does a computer need a built in modem if i have a wireless router

EDITOR'S NOTE: You won't need a modem, but you WILL need a wireless adapter, either built-in, or USB pluggable.

I have two desktops and one laptop. The two desktops are wired, and the laptop is wireless. The wired computers share files, printers, etc. fine. The wired computers can not see the wireless, and vice versa the wireless can not see the wired. The wireless accesses the router and the internet fine, but will not see the home network even when searching for it with the network wizard. Any ideas are appreciated.

EDITOR'S NOTE: Are the workgroup names all the same?

I have a Linksys wireless system that works fine for internet access. I have a desktop attached to the router and a an Epson printer. The desktop router is connected to a Cox cable modem. I have tried all of the recommended procedures to reach the printer from my laptop and no success. Windows wireless network setup, printer sharing, nothing. I got so far as having a name assigned to the printer (Printer3) by the laptop that also shows up on the desktop but I can't reach it. It doesn't show up on the laptops "Printers and Faxes" sheet.
Suggestions?

We currently have a desktop with Windows XP Home and an HP psc 2410xi photosmart all-in-one printer. We recently bought a laptop with Windows Vista and connected to a Linksys router and the Cox cable modem. We installed the printer software on the laptop and tried printing which didn't work so we contacted HP who told us that Vista doesn't recognize the printer we have. We want to share the printer with the laptop and followed your instructions but ran into a problem. A window appeared that said MS blocked the sharing of the printer for security and we would have to run NETWORK WIZARD in order to share the printer. Network Wizard says we can share the internet, set up a firewall, share files & folders, and share the printer. We only want to share the printer and were unsure about running Network Wizard so we did nothing. Does Network Wizard allow us to select share the printer only and not anything else? If we cannot print using network sharing do you now of any other way we can print from the laptop without purchasing a new printer?

EDITOR'S NOTE: Yes, the network wizard will let you share printers and nothing else. But if the printer software is not Vista compatible, you may still run into troubles.