Confused. Simple home wireless setup.

I would like to set up a home wireless network. What confuses me are
the sheer multitude of tutorials that address exotic issues I am not
at all confronted with and the time required to scan through the
contents. So I would be grateful if someone could point me to some
simple, concise tutorials to get started (or maybe provide some
installation hints). :=)

I would like to replace my Ethernet network with a wireless
configuration. The situation is very simple:

2 machines (PC1, PC2, both XP Home Ed) and a wireless router (ETech).
The wireless network SSID, named "WLNK", is encrypted with a WEP key.
Network configuration: peer to peer. Currently, each machine is able
to access the web independently via the router.

The router's LAN configuration is configured to support the following
dynamic addresses :

192.168.1.2 PC1 #Laptop
192.168.1.3 PC2 #Desktop

These addresses are also included in each machine local "hosts" file
as well (req'd ??). Both machines can be pinged w/o problems via their
IP address or host names.

Questions:

1. How do I set up the network so that each machine recognizes each
other? For instance, PC1 has a local web server (Abyss). I would like
PC2 to access a web site on PC1 for ex. via http://PC1//Site1 .

2. Do I have to run the Network manager to configure the set-up or is
the network manager smart enough to figure out how to network both
machines once they are running (both have the same SSID)? (Does not
seem to work, though.)

I did this years ago for cable networking, but forgot how I went about
this.

TIA for providing me with some simple references.

> Questions:
>
> 1. How do I set up the network so that each machine recognizes each
> other? For instance, PC1 has a local web server (Abyss). I would like
> PC2 to access a web site on PC1 for ex. via http://PC1//Site1 .
>
> 2. Do I have to run the Network manager to configure the set-up or is
> the network manager smart enough to figure out how to network both
> machines once they are running (both have the same SSID)? (Does not
> seem to work, though.)
>
> I did this years ago for cable networking, but forgot how I went about
> this.
>
> TIA for providing me with some simple references.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_network
http://www.kelsoconsultinggroup.com/network_xp.asp

m>
> Questions:
>
> 1. How do I set up the network so that each machine recognizes each
> other? For instance, PC1 has a local web server (Abyss). I would like
> PC2 to access a web site on PC1 for ex. via http://PC1//Site1 .
>
> 2. Do I have to run the Network manager to configure the set-up or is
> the network manager smart enough to figure out how to network both
> machines once they are running (both have the same SSID)? (Does not
> seem to work, though.)
>
> I did this years ago for cable networking, but forgot how I went about
> this.
>
> TIA for providing me with some simple references.

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/u...p/default.mspx