My Networking setup experience.

Thought some newbie's might like a bit of down to earth, non eggspurt,
suggestions.

System:
BT Voyager 2000 Wireless Router.
Desktop (AMD 1200), Windows XP Home, BT 1010 USB Wireless TX.
Dell Notebook (M60), Windows XP Pro, Intel 2100 MiniPCI TX Card.
Novatech Notebook, XP Home, Intel 2100 MiniPCI TX Card.
Norton Internet Security 2003 on all.

Three very good Networking webs to visit are,

http://www.practicallynetworked.com/qa/qa20040722.shtml

http://compnetworking.about.com/cs/w...daddrwinxp.htm

http://www.michna.com/kb/WxNetwork.htm

The doings.........

Disable ALL Firewall applications, including XPs

Disable Antivirus software.

Set NetBIOS to enable over TCP.

Run Network Setup Wizard for all computers. This I found to be an automatic
procedure and the software selected the correct options for each system.

Check that Simple File Sharing is enabled (XP Pro only) Start>My Network
Places>Tools>Folder Options>View Tab. Scroll down to the bottom where you
will see "use simple file sharing (Recommended)". Tick the box for file
sharing. Windows Home Edition is pre set and does not require any user
interface.

Locate and note each computers IP address which should typically be
192.168.*.*, each computers name and the Network name. See web 2.

At this stage, try pinging each computer to check that they are sensing each
other. To do this, Start>All Programs>Accessories>Command Prompt. At the
flashing curser, type in the IP address of the other computer then hit the
Enter key. Pinging will try 4 attempts to recognise the other computer. You
will see immediately if contact has been made by the data given. Failure to
contact will result in Failure to respond statements. Another method of
attempting contact is to type the other Computers name at the command prompt
then hit Enter. Again contact is evident by the data reported or not so by a
failure report.

OK, I am going to assume you have made contact with the other computer and
visa versa. For each computer, set up the files that you want to share. Open
Windows Explorer, select the drive that contains the file/folder you want to
share, right click on the file/folder and select Sharing and Security.
Under the Sharing tab, in the lower section, tick the box that says Share
this file. Close Explorer.

Now an Intermediate trial, Start>My Network Places. Within the My Network
Places window you should see all files/folders that are available on the
Network that you have just established. In the left plane select View
workgroup computers and you should see all the computers that are on the
Network.

If you can see ALL computers and files your ALMOST home and dry. Close down
the My Network Places window. Go back and enable ONE of the Firewalls that
you disabled in the beginning. Perhaps start with XPs own. It's better to do
this one at a time then you can determine which is giving most grief, if
any. Run step 11 again. If you can still see the files/folders and computers
then this Firewall is not preventing access. If you cannot see
files/folders/drives then you need to go into that Firewalls settings and
look for a Network section that will allow adding IP addresses or names to
Permit Network Access. If you have located this setup and entered the data,
try Step 11 again. Norton Internet Security has Network and Firewall
settings that enable you to add either single, group or a range of
acceptable IP addresses. For some unknown reason entering individual
computer IP addresses gave me problems. After much time wasting I used the
range setting ie 192.168.1.1 to 192.168.1.10. This allowed all computers
with those addresses access to my Network. Lets say Step 12 was a success.
enable another Firewall and repeat Step 12.

Lets again assume with ALL Firewalls enabled the Network is 100% and you can
see ALL files/folders/drives on ALL computers. Shut down ALL computers and
make a cup of tea or coffee in preparation for the BIG trial. Now, Start up
ALL computers and try Step 11 again. Lets hope you still see ALL
file/folders/drives.

If you do not see ALL or some parts don't work correctly, you need to double
check the Firewall settings to make sure they have not reset back to a
default setting after the restart.

When I first went about setting up my wireless Network, I failed to carry
out Steps 1 to 3 until the very end. This gave me numerous problems and many
wasted hours of chasing about......so make sure you follow the above
sequence.

For further information please refer to the, very useful, web pages. They
have everything that is required to provide a Network setup. It also helps
if you read them carefully, slowly and more than once to understand and take
in the information.

dj