How to do simple networking?

gamerxx13

Senior member
Nov 9, 2004
226
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I was wondering how to set up a house network. The reason for the network is to have video files on one computer, shared with another computer in the house. So in theory I have a desktop with video files and would like to play them off my laptop while roaming the house. Both computers are on a 2wire wireless connection. Thank you
 

Jeff7181

Lifer
Aug 21, 2002
18,368
11
81
You need to set up simple file sharing. You can do that by right clicking a folder you want to share and going to sharing and security. From there, select the option to share the folder, you can give it a share name different from the folder name if you'd like, and then you need to select who has access to the share. If you're not concerned about security, you can give the Everyone group full control and that will let you read and write to it from any computer. If you are concerned about security, you can just set up read access to the Everyone group for that folder. If you're really concerned about security, you'll need to create a new user (or group) on the host computer where the share exists and give that user (or group) the permissions you wish them to have. Then when you access the folder over the network you'll be prompted for a username and password and you can enter the credentials you set up for the new user.
 

gamerxx13

Senior member
Nov 9, 2004
226
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0
ok that sounds good. I went ahead and did that, but its not showing up on my other computer? Do you know what I can do to see the harddrive on my other computer. I have vista, and the other computer has vista. What i did was put the harddrive on sharing, and i gave people access to read it. Second i tried to go to network file on the other computer but nothing was showing up. Do you know what else i can do?
 

Jeff7181

Lifer
Aug 21, 2002
18,368
11
81
You should be able to explore the network and find the computer by name pretty easily. If you're unable to, you should make sure they're on the same workgroup.