Share and share alike

Sharing a broadband connection is the principal benefit behind most home networks, but installing a wireless network is a great way to share files and printers, too.

In Windows XP, go to Control Panel > Network Connections and click "Set up a home or small office network." When asked for a connection method, choose "This computer connects to the Internet through another computer on my network or through a residential gateway."

Unless you're networking only Windows XP systems, choose "Create a network setup disk" when given the chance. This creates a floppy you can use to run the wizard on non-XP systems.

Now run the wizard on each additional system on your network. On non-XP systems, browse the floppy and run the file netsetup.exe. When configuring each system, assign each PC a different name but use the same workgroup name.

The Network Setup wizard automatically enables sharing on any printer connected to a PC during setup, but before you can use the printer from a networked PC, you'll need to install the printer driver on that system.

Each system configured with the Network Setup wizard should also have at least one shared folder given the name SharedDocs. To access these shared subdirectories within Windows XP, choose Start > My Network Places. You can easily set up additional subdirectories for sharing, but the more directories you share, the more you expose your drive in the event of a security breach.