For Windows 2000 computers, right click the
'my network places' icon, found on the desktop and select 'properties'
You will see a window entitled 'network and
dial-up 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 desktop and
select 'properties', then the 'network identification' 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 'properties' 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
'scheduled tasks'.
Test this for all computers on the network.
You have now either networked your computers together successfully, or are
staring at the screen in frustration. Please proceed to either the Sharing Files
and sharing Internet access sections or the Troubleshooting section
respectively.
Now that the computers are speaking with
one another, let's get them sharing files.