Select the product you need help with

Scenario-based Illustrated Solutions for the PC Novice : File Sharing on Home Network - Step 1

Article ID: 2485632 - View products that this article applies to.

Check if the Internet environment already exists

Before you can start sharing files, you need to create a network to connect your personal computers first. If you think abou it, the Internet is actually a type of network that most family homes are equipped with. It follows from this that if you have the Internet access from home, your computer already is connected to a kind of network.

If this describes your network environment, you will be able to have a home network up and running easily and quickly. All you will need to do is to et up a mechanism for file-sharing by taking advantage of the environment you have now. You don’t have to worry about adding or setting up any new devices.

The diagram on the left shows the Internet environment that is typically found in an ordinary home.

You can see a line connecting home to the Internet. And each computer has access the Internet through a router (a device serves as a contact point linking the home computers to the Internet). Typically, users often connect desktop computers to the router through a LAN cable, and notebook computers through wireless LAN.

File sharing can be made possible simply by creating a shared folder on each computer on the home network. In the diagram on the right, the home network exists inside the home. The shared folder becomes the location where the other computers within the home network can access. File sharing is a mechanism made possible by mutual accessibilty of shared folders.

Note : If a router is not used in home network, you may not be able to share files using the information described in this article.

File sharing when different versions of Windows co-exist

There are several ways to create a home network. In this example, we will be explaining the file sharing steps for a home network when the family has three computers, each with a different version of Windows: one uses Windows 7, one has Windows Vista and the other uses Windows XP. Even if the number of computer is different from the number shown here, the file sharing steps are the same.

To set up file sharing, you must first decide on omputer names and a workgroup name. The computer name is the name you have given to each computer. It is likely that you named your computer when you started the computer for the first time. Because computer names are used to identify each computer on the network, the names must be unique within the network. If a computer name duplicates with other names, modify the name. The workgroup name is the name you give home network. In this case, select a workgroup name for your home network.

Now we will describe steps to share files using the workgroup name "HOME" where three computers with different versions of Windows are used together.