Home Networking
"We just purchased a second computer and now we'd like to share the printer and Internet connection between them. How do I set up a simple home network?" |
Setting up Your Home Network
As society and technology change, it's becoming common for homes to have more than one computer. When an existing computer is a few years old, parents will often take advantage of today's lower prices, purchase a new computer, and pass the old one down to the kids.
Suddenly, there's a need for a home network, so all computers in the house can share an files, printers and an Internet connection.
Fortunately, setting up a basic home network is not rocket science. To start, you'll need a router which becomes the central point of your network. Most office and electronics stores offer home networking kits with a router, ethernet (network) adapters and CAT-5 networking cable.
If your computer was assembled in the past five years, it probably already has an ethernet adapter. Check the back of the system unit for a port that looks like a telephone jack, but slightly bigger.
If you don't have an ethernet adapter, you can purchase one (about $20) and install it yourself. You can also use a special ethernet adapter that plugs into a USB port, if you can't stand the thought of opening your system unit to install an ethernet adapter.
Wired or Wireless Networking?
You'll need to connect each of your computers to the router with a cable, or go wireless. If you want to use wireless connections, you'll need a wireless router and a wireless adapter for each computer. Most laptops have a wireless adapter built in, most desktop models do not. If you need a wireless adapter, you can purchase one that installs inside the system unit, or get a USB-style adapter.
Having a wireless network eliminates the need to string unsightly cables all around the house, but it can also create a security risk. Wireless networks are often configured by default to allow access to any computer that attempts to connect. So an Evil Hacker driving by with a laptop (or even your neighbor) might be able to tap into your Internet connection or poke around your hard disk.
Fortunately, wireless security encryption is easy to set up. See my article Wireless Security for step-by-step instructions.
Network Configuration
Whether the network signals travel through wires or through the air, network resources must still be shared so that other computers can access them. If you are running Windows XP or MacOS X, all you have to do is connect your computers and high-speed modem to the router, and Internet connection sharing should just work like magic. If not, restart the cable modem, router, and the computers (in that order) and see if that does the trick. If you can't access the Internet from one or more computers on the network, consult the manual that came with your router.
One nice side benefit of having a router is that they have firewalls built in to the hardware. Firewalls protect you by hiding your computers from network attacks, but still allow you to surf the web and handle email. So after installing a router, you can turn OFF the Windows firewall and any other software-based firewalls you may have running.
Sharing Files and Printers
Sharing files and printers on a Windows network is also pretty painless. To share a printer, go into the Printers section of the Control Panel, right-click the icon for the printer that needs to be shared, and choose Sharing from the resulting menu. By assigning a name to the shared printer, the owner allows other
computers on the network to access the printer by browsing using their Network Neighborhood (or My Network Places) icons. Access can be restricted to only some computers or users through the use of the Security or Permissions options on the Sharing screen.
The same concept applies for shared file and folders on a network. For example, if you want to share a collection of MP3 files on a home network, just browse to the folder using the My Computer icon, right-click the folder name and choose Sharing. After assigning a name to the shared resource and setting Permissions other computers on the network can access that resource via Network Neighborhood or My Network Places.
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Posted by Bob Rankin on January 12, 2006 03:56 PM
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Article information: AskBobRankin -- Home Networking (Posted: January 12, 2006 03:56 PM)
Source: http://askbobrankin.com/home_networking.html
Copyright © 2005 - Bob Rankin - All Rights Reserved
Most recent comments on "Home Networking"
(See all 15 comments for this article.)Posted by:
Mark Nightingale
10 Oct 2007
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.
Posted by:
graham
03 Nov 2007
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.
Posted by:
Marshall
02 Dec 2007
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?
Posted by:
Michael Redmond
15 Feb 2008
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?
Posted by:
Bob DiAsio
19 Oct 2008
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.
Posted by:
Zdzislaw
02 Nov 2008
We have two desktops Win XP pro in home network. Everything work fine except email.Since we have only one email address, very often appear IP conflict between machines which cause problems. How we can fix this but still keeping one address?
EDITOR'S NOTE: What happens when you get this "IP conflict"?
Posted by:
Ron
15 Feb 2009
I have 3 computers. 2 are PC's & one is a Mac. I have 1 router with 4 ports. When the 2 PC's are plugged into the router no problem, but, as soon as I plug in the Mac to the router, the PC's start losing connections, for example, "connection timeout", slow or no page loading. Can you advise?
P.S. I use a D-Link EBR-2310 router.
EDITOR'S NOTE: My advice would be to unplug the Mac! ;-) It's either something on the Mac burning up a lot of bandwidth (network traffic) or the router is defective.
Posted by:
Jen
30 Aug 2009
I have all of the above on my computer, but there is no network that I know of. Is theres something more specific that I need to set up? I have a wireless laptop and a desktop with a printer attached, but I want the laptop to print to the desktop. I tried sharing the printer, but it won't show up on the laptop as a possible printer. Suggestions?
EDITOR'S NOTE: If your laptop can connect to the Internet, then you have a network. Did you make sure both computers are using the same network name on both computers? Also see http://askbobrankin.com/sharing_a_printer.html
Posted by:
Leigh Ann Woody
03 Sep 2009
Hi!
I have hooked up routers for friends for their laptops but I'm having trouble with connecting my 2 desktops. My main computer is Windows VISTA and it's connected to a cable modem and has the lynsky router. The second Desktop runs XP and I have an ethernet cable running from the router to it. I renamed the workgroups to the same name. I can view the VISTA computer and access the public file, and access the printer, but cannot access the internet. The main computer cannot see the XP one at all. What am I doing wrong? I have tried everything I can think of.
Thanks for your help.
Posted by:
Dave
06 Dec 2009
I have an older laptop,a friend setup a Linkskeys
router,I can get on the internet fine on the laptop
but cannot print from it.I made it so my desk top
will not be greedy and it will share the printer
but nothing still,It's a Hp all in one C 4180 Printer and a Dell desktop,older also gx 240 Octiplex, One gig Ram Xp pro I'm a newbie at all this-if it was wood I could build a new one but circuts and all that are greek to me