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CPJames19

Dear all,

I would describe myself as an intermediate pc user. I love tweaking my laptop however I have a question for those more advanced: I have a laptop with wifi and my wife has a laptop with wifi, we both connect to our router wirelessly. Is it possible to connect to each other to file share and the router for internet access? If so, how? Thanks in advance.

Kind regards,

Chris

jaydeeuk1

Yes. First questions, what operating system are you both using?

enigma52

read this article, it tells you all you need to know http://www.pcstats.com/articleview.cfm?articleID=1427

CPJames19

computershack wrote: »

You already have 99.9% of the job done. You connect to each other via the router. All you need to do is share files on each of the computers. Right click on a folder and select Share then follow the wizard. Makes things easier if you have user accounts with passwords and have both accounts on each computer.

My laptop is Windows 7 and my wife has Windows XP - would it still be possible to network our laptops?

Lil306

CPJames19 wrote: »

My laptop is Windows 7 and my wife has Windows XP - would it still be possible to network our laptops?

They should still work, not sure what Windows 7 is like, but Vista would normally give a lot of annoying prompts saying ...do you want to do this.... are you really sure....seriously are you sure...really ?

Yeah I hate Vista

Depending on how secure you want to go there are a couple of options

1 - Easiest
Create a folder on your computer, right click it, sharing and security. Click on the underlined word which says "yes I understand...just enable file sharing"
Give it a name, (i.e Shared$) - the $ tells it is a hidden share, so people can't find it unless they know the name. Tick the box which says network users can change my files

When accessing the share (machine must be on obviously) they click start - run and type in the \\computername\share name

For example \\hubbycomputer\share$ and press enter. If there is a password for the account they must enter the username and password.

2 - Most secure
Same method as above, but you create a brand new user account on computer and use it only for sharing files. That way you can keep confidential stuff safe (to a point)

P.S - If you don't know the computer names, click start - run and type cmd. Press enter, then type hostname press enter and the computer name will be displayed.

[Deleted User]

You can use Windows 7 with Windows XP, but you can't use the homegroup feature of Windows 7 (this isn't imporant, but just makes things slightly easier if all computers run Windows 7). Just follow the instructions in the link that was given above.

enigma52

yes you can network those, make sure both in same network, not HOMEGROUP as that will not work on XP. Both machines should have same login and password and don't forget to make some files on both share able, its all in that article I posted for you in post #3

CPJames19

enigma52 wrote: »

yes you can network those, make sure both in same network, not HOMEGROUP as that will not work on XP. Both machines should have same login and password and don't forget to make some files on both share able, its all in that article I posted for you in post #3

What services are needed in Windows 7 to network? Btw i tried to see a full map of devices connected to the router but it says windows cannot create a network map. Thanks in advance ppl!

Lil306

Usually all versions of Windows already have the services running for networking but they need to have the File + Printer sharing protocol installed for it to work which should be as default ..... I think

I'll have to bash Windows 7 on VMWare so I can have a play around

enigma52

services? you are complicating things aren't you. what about pinging and network packets as well. I'll leave you in Lil306's hands from here,

Lil306

Give me a shout if you get stuck james or reply here. I'm only mooching these forums infrequently but the quickest method of file sharing in windows is shared folders. Windows does everything else for you then.