Of course. You've already got your Local Area Network (LAN), now you
just need to set up file/printer sharing.
Here are general network troubleshooting steps. Not everything may
be applicable to your situation, so just take the bits that are. It
may look daunting, but if you follow the steps at the links and
suggestions below systematically and calmly, you will have no
difficulty in setting up your sharing.
For XP, start by running the Network Setup Wizard on all machines
(see caveat in Item A below).
Problems sharing files between computers on a network are generally
caused by 1) a misconfigured firewall; or 2) inadvertently running
two firewalls such as the built-in Windows Firewall and a
third-party firewall; and/or 3) not having identical user accounts
and passwords on all Workgroup machines; 4) trying to create shares
where the operating system does not permit it.
For XP and Windows 2003 Server, MVP Hans-Georg Michna has an
excellent small network troubleshooter. It may also be useful with
Vista.
http://winhlp.com/wxnet.htm
Here are some general networking tips for home/small networks:
A. Configure firewalls on all machines to allow the Local Area
Network (LAN) traffic as trusted. With Windows Firewall, this means
allowing File/Printer Sharing on the Exceptions tab. Normally
running the Network Setup Wizard on XP will take care of this for
those machines.The only "gotcha" is that this will turn on the
XPSP2 Windows Firewall. If you aren't running a third-party
firewall or have an antivirus with "Internet Worm Protection" (like
Norton 2006/07) which acts as a firewall, then you're fine. With
third-party firewalls, I usually configure the LAN allowance with
an IP range. Ex. would be 192.168.1.0-192.168.1.254. Obviously you
would substitute your correct subnet. Do not run more than one
firewall.
B. For ease of organization, put all computers in the same
Workgroup. This is done from the System applet in Control Panel,
Computer Name tab.
C. Create matching user accounts and passwords on all machines. You
do not need to be logged into the same account on all machines and
the passwords assigned to each user account can be different; the
accounts/passwords just need to exist and match on all machines. If
you wish a machine to boot directly to the Desktop (into one
particular user's account) for convenience, you can do this. The
instructions at this link work for both XP and Vista:
Configure Windows to Automatically Login (MVP Ramesh) -
http://windowsxp.mvps.org/Autologon.htm
D. If one or more of the computers is XP Pro or Media Center:
1. If you need Pro's ability to set fine-grained permissions, turn
off Simple File Sharing (Folder Options>View tab) and create
identical user accounts/passwords on all computers.
2. If you don't care about using Pro's advanced features, leave the
Simple File Sharing enabled. Simple File Sharing means that Guest
(network) is enabled. This means that anyone without a user account
on the target system can use its resources. This is a security hole
but only you can decide if it matters in your situation.
E. Create shares as desired. XP Home does not permit sharing of
users' home directories (My Documents) or Program Files, but you
can share folders inside those directories. A better choice is to
simply use the Shared Documents folder.
F. After you have file sharing working (and have tested this by
exchanging a file between all machines), if you want to share a
printer connected locally to one of your computers, share it out
from that machine. Then go to the printer mftr.'s website and
download the latest drivers for the correct operating system(s).
Install them on the target machine(s). Or, since you have XP, if
you have the CD that came with the printer you can use that. The
printer should be seen during the installation routine. If it is
not, install the drivers and then use the Add Printer Wizard.
