EXPERT VISTA WORKSHOP ▲

Vista workshop: Home networking

If you’ve got two or more PCs in your house they don’t need to be strangers. Simon Clark explains how to get them talking by creating a home network

Having two or more PCs in one

household is slowly

becoming the norm.

Everybody wants to get online

but sharing a single Net

connected computer between

all the members of your

household just isn’t practical.

With multiple PCs you’ll want to

share a single Internet

connection, a printer and your

files as well. The answer is to

create your own home network.

Now, grand as it may sound,

the whole process is

incredibly straightforward,

especially due to the way

networking has been

simplified in Windows Vista.

It’s easy to create a simple

peer-to-peer network, which

means there’s no need for

your PCs to be built around a

server. Each PC simply

Using a wireless modem/router is the simplest way of sharing your Internet connection

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Attaching a USB Wi-Fi adaptor is a lot easier than fitting a new network card ▲

communicates with all other machines

on the network.

Each PC you want to incorporate in

your network needs its own network

adaptor or network interface card

(NIC). If you want a cable-free

environment it’s a good idea to

go wireless. Most new laptops

have a wireless network

adaptor built in, making

wireless networking a

convenient option. If you’re

using a desktop PC you

may need to install a

wireless network card if you

want to go down the Wi-Fi

route. This can be inserted

into a free PCI slot on the

motherboard. Alternatively, it’s

possible to purchase an NIC that

attaches to a USB port instead.

With all your PCs connected to the

network you can start sharing

resources. For example, you can share

the contents of specific folders on one

PC with all connected systems. This

helps to make it easier to share data

with other users on the network. You’ll

also be able to share a single printer

between all PCs on the LAN. The printer

can be wireless or simply attached via

USB to one of the PCs on the network.

The single biggest reason for getting

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Configure Windows Vista to automatically connect to your wireless network when your PC starts

NETWORKING AND SHARING TIPS

▲If you decide to share a file or folder over your network there’s no need to relinquish total control of it. Right-click on the item you want to share and choose the Security tab. From this dialog you will be able to tailor access for individual users. 1 ▲ Under Group Or User Names select the userwhose access you’d like to change then click on Edit. Under Permissions For Authenticated Users place a tick in the box alongside the permission you’d like to grant or deny. 2 ▲ With other users having access to your PC itmakes sense to keep control of how much disk space can be used. Click Start/ Computer then right-click on c:/ and choose Properties. Select the Quota tab and click on Show Quota Settings. 3

www.pc-utilities.co.uk issue 90 68

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