Sharing Files and Printers
Posted on August 31, 2005
Filed Under Business Computing, Networking |
A few weeks ago we looked at sharing an Internet connection. A single broadband (high speed) internet connection can easily accommodate more than one computer and by using a relatively inexpensive router and switch, the connection can be easily shared.
An added bonus to sharing an internet connection in this way is the ability to share files and printers between connected computers. By creating a shared Internet environment, we have also created a computer network and we can benefit from the services networks offer.
In a typical home or small office environment a network will be of the “peer-to-peer” variety. Peer-to-peer networks have no dedicated server and each computer on the network can act as a server and at the same time, use the resources of the other computers on the network.
In a Windows peer-to-peer network, each computer must belong to the same “workgroup”. To make all of your computers belong to the same workgroup, on each computer click on ‘Start’ then ‘Control Panel’ then double click ‘System’ then click the ‘Computer Name’ tab then finally click the ‘Change’ button.
In the ‘Workgroup’ section of ‘Member of”, you can type in a workgroup name like “home” or “office” etc. Next change the computer name in the same window to something that will help identify that computer. Then keep clicking ‘OK’ until you are prompted to restart the computer.
Do this on every computer on the network being careful to give each computer a unique name while using the same workgroup name for all of them.
Because there is no central server in a peer-to peer network, normally a user must have a user name and password on every computer they might connect to. Windows XP however introduced the concept of “Simple File Sharing”. Using Simple File Sharing, it isn’t necessary to worry about user names and passwords.
With that said, while Simple File Sharing can work just fine on a home network, in a business environment you’ll want to use traditional security measures.
Practically Networked offers an excellent guide to setting up Simple File Sharing. Rather than reinvent the wheel here, readers should read the guide at http://www.practicallynetworked.com/sharing/xp/filesharing.htm.
Once everything is set up and all of your networked computers are powered up, you can open ‘My Network Places’ click on ‘Entire Network’ and then double click ‘Microsoft Windows Network’. If all has gone well you will see all of your computers names when you double click your workgroup name.
Double clicking one of those computers shows all of the resources (folders and printers) shared on that computer. To connect to a printer, right click on the printer and select ‘Connect…’ The printer will now appear in your printers list.
To connect to a shared folder, right click the folder and select ‘Map a network drive’. Select a new drive letter and the shared folder will appear as a new drive in ‘My Computer’.
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