Networking question

[Old and In the Way]

We have 4 computers running in the house now. We have a wireless LAN hook-up on Ethernet. While this connects everyone to the internet, can I also hook everyone up to use the printer and back-up hard-drive? The OS systems-

* I'm running XP Pro (and the printer/hard drive is connected to my machine.
* 2 are running XP Home
* One is running Win98

I know that there's built-in networking, but I figure there are networking guru's that can tell me if I have the hardware necessary to do this.

[leftyandproud]

1. I'm a bit rusty..

but it sounds to me like you can definately do this...You just need to set the printer to the same location for all of your PC's. Try looking on some message boards for super techie advice...I think cisco.com has some good ones.

[kalian]

2. Share

You will need to share the printer and the backup HD as network
resources.
Click on Start | Settings | Printers. Right-click on the printer
that you want to share with the other networked computers and
select Properties.
Click on the Sharing tab.
The rest is pretty much self-explanatory.

Once the printer is shared, open up Explorer (Windows explorer) and
you should see the printer being shared on your LAN.
I presume that you are already able to share files and that the
computers can see each other on the LAN.

You can do the same thing with the HD although WinXP is a bit touchy
in that for other users to be able to access shared items, they need
to have an account locally on your box as well.
Hope this helps.

[Rabrrrrrr]

4. Yes, absolutely correct

Sharing the printer and harddrives is easy as pie. I love my home network! So geeky.

[LTR]

3. Haven't totally figured out the network part yet

But I figured out an easy way to swap files.

http://www.foldershare.com

Very simple to use and configure. And fast!

[Old and In the Way]

5. Thanks All!

[Nlighten1]

6. Before you configure all this sharing...

you are going to want to configure WEP on your wireless router. Otherwise anyone in the world can walk onto your network. If you have questions on how to set this up PM me and tell me what kind of wireless router you have.