Please recommend some reading

I am a pretty experienced computer user; have built systems, I go all the
way back to the Apple IIc and then the IBM PC and DOS, all forms of Windows,
etc. I have put together an existing 802.11b network, with four machines on
it, running off a Netgear router attached to a cable modem, hard wired to
one machine, connecting wirelessly to three others (various brands of
wireless cards, and I just added an Airport Express yesterday). It works
fine for surfing the net. However, I don't think the different machines
know the others are there, for sharing a printer, files, etc. XP's
networking wizard does not seem to work for me. Also, wireless security is
obviously an issue: But, whenever I try to change the settings on the
router, to add WEP, for example, it seems like the whole house of cards
comes down--suddenly different machines can't find the network, get on the
Net etc. I would really appreciate some suggestions for a book or two, or
maybe a good website that will explain and perhaps walk me through the
process for working with the details of XP networking. Any suggestions?
Thanks in advance!

As far as your problems with the machines not seeing each other.

First are they all using the same workgroup name? If the workgroup
name is not the same it will be difficult.

Second on your wireless router if all clients can see the internet it
should be setup correctly. Make sure there is no setting to block
inter-client communications on the router.

Third when you implement WEP you have to do this for each client and
the router. The easiest way to accomplish this is to have the router
generate a WEP key based upon a passphrase. Save this to disk or
thumbdrive etc and transfer it to each of the clients. Enable the WEP
on the router and then make the changes to each client PC to enable
WEP. Both ends have to be set to WEP for communications to be
established (unless of course you are using Cisco access points with
optional encryption)


"pjl" <harvard75atnospammcomcast.net> wrote in message news:<r96dnas0KaOgTZPcRVn-(E-Mail Removed)>...
> I am a pretty experienced computer user; have built systems, I go all the
> way back to the Apple IIc and then the IBM PC and DOS, all forms of Windows,
> etc. I have put together an existing 802.11b network, with four machines on
> it, running off a Netgear router attached to a cable modem, hard wired to
> one machine, connecting wirelessly to three others (various brands of
> wireless cards, and I just added an Airport Express yesterday). It works
> fine for surfing the net. However, I don't think the different machines
> know the others are there, for sharing a printer, files, etc. XP's
> networking wizard does not seem to work for me. Also, wireless security is
> obviously an issue: But, whenever I try to change the settings on the
> router, to add WEP, for example, it seems like the whole house of cards
> comes down--suddenly different machines can't find the network, get on the
> Net etc. I would really appreciate some suggestions for a book or two, or
> maybe a good website that will explain and perhaps walk me through the
> process for working with the details of XP networking. Any suggestions?
> Thanks in advance!