How should I set up my home network?

Read the article that everyone's commenting on.
Subscribe to the RSS Feed for comments on this article.

I am having trouble with my newtork which is between 2 computers, i have brought the ethernet cards and installed them no problem and the cable. It says that there is a local area connection active. I have setup the network but cannot access the files from the other computer (i have only got the files from that computer in My Network PLaces). When i go to workgroup computers on the server/main computer i cannont access the computers but i can on the other one but for the main computer it says that it is inaccesible. Please help me!!

It's a little hard to understand your description, so I'm not really clear on exactly what's happening.

You didn't indicate whether you have a hub, router or something between your computers. If not, you need a crossover network cable. For that, and for just a plain old hub, you probably want to make sure you have netbui protocol installed as well.

And of course make sure sharing is enabled on both computers. You didn't indicate what OS, so it's hard to pinpoint just where those problems might be.

Leo

I am interested in wirelessly networking (DSL) a PC and an iMac. The PC is running on Windows XP Home Edition and the iMac is running OS X. Is this even possible? No one I ask seems to know.

Sure. Quite possible. Basically anything that could be connected by standard TCP/IP over ethernet should be able to work ok via WiFi. I've been in conferences where we've had multiple PCs & Macs sharing a wireless access point.

Sir,
I have installed two operating systems(O.S) in my computer, i.e in dual mode. Initially my computer was having only Win98se O.S. Now I have installed Window XP, recently. Win98se O.S is in C: drive and Window XP O.S is in D: drive. My computer is in small home network containing 5 computer in LAN. All of them are directly connected to the router.
The problem is that I cannot login to LAN using XP. I cannot browse internet and cannot transfer data to & from other computers in the LAN. Whereas in Win98 I can perform all these tasks. I have done same TCP/IP configuration in both O.S's, and also given same Workgroup name. Though I have given same I.P address to both O.S's, but it didn't worked out even when I gave different I.P addresses in WIN98 and WIN XP.
Please help me to fix this problem.

What kind of device are you connected to? A router?

I'd be tempted in WinXP to start a command shell and enter these three commands:
"ipconfig /release"
"ipconfig /renew"
"ipconfig /all"

Errors at the second step would be informative, as would the data that it reports on the last one. On the surface what you've described should just work.

Yeah. Well I just reinstalled Windows XP Professional on a good computer. It had previously had Xp Professional but then it just collapsed because of all the spyware and viruses that had been on it. My problem is that i dont know how to connect to the internet threw my first computer(connects to my service provider[Verizon Adsl]). I try to make a Home Network but it sais that i dont have the right hardware.....well thats odd...I had it working fine about 5 hours ago....i do not know how to set up a local area network and could you please help me.

~Ben Ashby~

In a nutshell you want to turn on Internet COnnection Sharing on the computer that's connected to the DSL, and then network the other computer to it using either a hub, or a reversing cable. Can you be more specific about what you were doing when it toldyou you didn't have the right hardware?

I HAVE 2 PUTERS WITH XP, I HAVE DSL.....I GOT THE LINKSYS ROUTER ON THE MAIN PUTER AND THE WIRELESS ADAPTER ON THE OTHER...THE ADAPTER SIGNAL IS GREAT AT 11 MBPS, THE PROBLEM IS THE DSL IS ONLY AT WITH BOTH PUTERS ON.... WHAT CAN I DO? THANKS

UHH MISTAKE , THE DSL IS AT 2MBPS

To post a comment on "How should I set up my home network?", please return to that article's main page.