For Windows XP computers, open the start
menu, then open 'my computer' and right click the 'my network places' option on
the left of the screen under 'other places', and select 'properties.'
You will see a window entitled 'network
connections' which will contain an icon for each network adaptor present in your
machine. By default, these will be named 'Local Area Connection 1', 'local area
connection 2', etc.
Right click 'local area connection 1' and
select 'properties', then highlight 'internet protocol (TCP/IP)' and select
properties again.Ensure that the option 'Obtain an IP address automatically' is
selected, then click ok, and ok again.Repeat for each 'local area connection #'
on your computer.
Now right click the 'my computer' icon on
the start menu and select 'properties', then the ''computer name' tab.
Make a note of the computer name and
workgroup name for each computer. These are used to identify the computer over
the network. If you wish to rename any of the computers, this is a good time to
do it, using the 'change' button. Having all the computers in the same workgroup
is not essential, but it does reduce confusion. All Microsoft computers are
members of the workgroup 'workgroup' by default.
Now select 'run' from the start menu and
type '\\{computername}' where computername is the name of one of the other
computers in your network. If all is as it should be, a window will open up
showing all shared resources on that computer, by default 'printers and faxes'
and 'scheduled tasks'.
Test this for all computers on the network
as we have previously mentioned. You have now either networked your computers
together successfully, or are staring at the screen in frustration. Please
proceed to either the Sharing Files section or the Troubleshooting section
respectively.
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