Another Freebox question

[Gyn_Paul]

OK, So the Freebox works fine either wired to the PC or using the plugin wifi card.

And after using my brain a bit and searching for replies on this part of the forum I find I can connect both the PC and a laptop to the box with WiFi cards. What I can't find - either here or on the www.free.fr site - is how to get the 2 computers to talk to each other (share files, share the printer etc) via the Freebox.

Is this even possible ?

paul

[Ecossais]

Hi Paul,

I’ve been using Belkin wi-fi equipment for the last couple of years.  When I set it up I found the instructions explained how to get individual PCs and laptops to connect to the internet wirelessly – but there was no information on what to do to in order to get my PCs working as a “wireless network” so that I could, for example, open a file on PC2 from PC1 and move files from one PC to another and print to a printer connected to PC2 from PC1 and so on.

Assuming a Freebox works the same as a ADSL wireless router.....

Basically you have to set up a “home network” and then “enable file and printer sharing” [between the PCs].

You don’t have to connect all of your PCs wirelessly – if one sits beside your Freebox (router) then you could connect it by cable, so long as you have a network cable socket on the PC.

Have a look here on the Microsoft website:  http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=87C0A6DB-AEF8-4BEF-925E-7AC9BE791028&displaylang=en#Instructions

First, have a look at “Home and Small Office Networking with Windows XP” (I assume that’s what you’re using?) in the “Related Resources” section at the bottom of the page.

To start setting up your network go to Start | Control Panel | Network Set Up Wizard – and follow the prompts.

If at first you don’t succeed – try again, as I had to do a couple of times before I got it working.  It’s good once you get it working!

One other thing which was poorly explained in the instructions was “network security”.  Unless you make your network secure your next door neighbour could, if they were close enough and had a wireless laptop, surf the internet through your connection and browse your PC’s hard drives.  There should be reference to making your network secure in your router’s instructions.