Hi all,

I have a D Link DIR 635 draft n wireless router with 4 available ethernet ports, and 2 laptops which are connected to it via a wireless connection. The router is connected to a cable modem.

I want to be able to share folders between my two laptops. 1 is a XP Pro machine (work) and the other is Vista Basic (girlfriends laptop)

I wish to add a printer connected via ethernet to the back of the router and access wirelessly from my two laptops.

I also have a third door stop laptop (XP Home) which I would like also to connect to the router (ethernet not wireless) and use this machine as a central storage device for my music, periodical back ups and synchronising etc etc.

I know these wishes may be elementary for alot of you but I am just starting out in the PLC and industrial communications world. I am hoping someone may be able to point out a good link or whitepaper where I can learn about this and put it into practice. A bit like networking for dummies i guess.

I thank you all in advance for any input

Cheers, Nathan

I did my home network using Network Magic a couple of years ago. I have it configured for 3 PCs - the central server (wired to router), my daughter's PC (wireless) & my laptop (wireless). Both the wireless connections can use the server's printer as long as the server is turned on. It's got a nice little intrusion detection system, but I keep the router's ID hidden so the neighbors don't know it's there. Best of all, it was cheap & I didn't have to do a lot of configuration.

HTH!
Susan

Thanks, i'll download it later, I see theres a free trial version for 7 days. I might wait till i've got the printer before I install it ha ha.

In the mean time I worked out how to manually assign my IP address both on my router and PC (TCP/IP), so thats a start, matched the DNS and Default gateway to my routers IP, and now I am online with my own static settings!

I suppose these steps aren't nessecary but I think its important to have a play around with these things.

Next stage, manually assigning my other laptop to my network, then set up folder sharing.

Massive all talking and sharing. The vista way is slightly different to XP, but so long as the workgroups are the same, and a few other basic settings are configured in Network and sharing centre its a fairly straight forward process. Now to hook up the 1 TB hard drive to my door stop and start my media centre.
Roll on the printer

Nice work. All your requests are pretty straightforward. LMK if you have any questions.

Chur chur. Bought my printer, a brother multifunction, amazed at the value you get $120 Network ready, colour photo copier, scanner, and printer. Only thing it doesnt support is duplexing but I can live with that. Any way connected that to my router, all configured and it prints from all my wireless computers.

Very happy with myself! Its been a good effort and learning curve this weekend. Actually it was relatively easy, that I kinda wish I didn't make my first original post requesting informaton!

Anyway, firewalls and virus protection are back on so time to turn on the modem.

Awesome! Glad to hear that you were successful.