wireless beginner

I am a complete beginner to networking, let alon wireless networking so please please , anyone who replies to this, could you reply in laymans terms? Where do i start? I have already installed a D-link DSL-604+ wireless router and DWL-520+ wireless network cards to 3 pc's in our office. All pc's are dell and run win xp home. Our network runs fine (i.e. we all can access the internet) although at the moment I can't for the life of me link the computers together. The instructions are beyond me. If anyone has the time and patience the instructions are here http://www.dlink.com.au/products/broadband/dsl604+/
What I possibly need is for someone to translate unless there is someone who has good experience with wireless.
Since I am new to networking completely I think I have done quite well so far on my own but this has really stumped me at the moment.
If anyone has any experience installing one of these I would really appreciate their help.

Taa very muchly

Do I need a wireless access point do do the sharing between eachothers computers?

 

woz - if you have all the PCs reaching the internet via your DSL-604+ router, you are almost there. You'd need to do the same things to network the PCs on your local area network (LAN) regardless of wireless or wired. Here's what you need to do (or check):

Needed on all PCs
- in the same workgroup.
- with a different name and best to stay under 15 characters with no spaces and no characters other than alpha-numerics or a dash - or underscore _
- on the same subnet/network which means that using the normal settings the SOHO routers prefer, with a subnet mask of 255.255.255.0 the IP addresses will need to be identical except for the last numbers and those will need to be 1) different 2) between 1 and 254. Ex: 192.168.1.5 192.168.1.14 192.168.1.248 (or any other similar numbers).
- loaded with Clients for Microsoft Networking and with File & Printer Sharing enabled.
- requiring a logon with both a username and a NON-BLANK password.


In addition, each PC will need some way to "know" who else is on your LAN. Otherwise they won't allow a connection but will give you a permissions error. Several ways to do this and they will all work so pick the option that best suits your situation. You get to the proper area to make these settings by a right-click on My Computer, left click on Manage, then to the Local Users & Groups and finally the Users section.
- different username/password for each and all username/password accounts entered in the 'local groups' section on each PC. This is probably the most secure and most functional way to do the deed.
- same username/password used to sign on to all PCs.
- Guest account enabled (as it is by default on XP-home but not on XP-pro). Least secure option and places some limits on the amount of access a user has.

With all the above done, the PCs should be able to connect to each other and make use of shared files and printers. Note that only a PC with some resource shared will show up in My Network Places.

To test things after you have all the settings done, do the following and if any of these do not work, something isn't set right and you won't be able to connect without correcting the problem. Lets assume you have PCs named TWO THREE FOUR with IP addresses of 192.168.0.2 192.168.0.3 192.168.0.4

From TWO do start~run~cmd and then ping -a 192.168.0.3. It should give you 4 replies and in addition should tell you that you are pinging THREE. It that works then go to the next step. If not, post back.

On TWO, share a folder named Share. From THREE, do start~run~\\two\share and a windows explorer window should open up with the contents of the Share folder on TWO displayed.

 

I have manually changed the settings in the wireless connection settings box from obtain IP address automatically to
192.168.0.(number different on each computer).
255.255.255.0 subnet mask

Is this right?

What about the default gateway which is blank at the moment and the prefered/alternative DNS server which is now highlighted as soon as I fill in an IP address manually?

Plus you can see the frowns at the side of the quotes You lost me a little with them. Well actually quite a lot to be honest


I will try again in the morning but I have to go home now.

Cheers.

 

Client for Microsoft Networking - when you open your network settings (I right-click on My Network Places~click on properties~right-click on the LAN connection~click on properties) you will see a list of things your connection is set to use in a large block in the center of the connection properties window. TCP/IP will be there for sure and maybe QoS. If you do not see Clients for Microsoft Networking and File & Printer Sharing in the list, install them.

Each PC must be set to require the user to log on. Either the 'Friendly' screen with an icon for each user or the classic logon screen where a username & password must be entered. Some systems and especially those with a single user and a non-passworded account may not stop at any sort of logon screen but just open the operating system when you boot up. If yours are that way, you'll have to make some changes. You have to set things so when a PC is booted, the user has to enter a user account he/she wants to use and a password for that account. Use This article and add a new user account to each PC. Make sure it includes a password. At next reboot you will see the welcome screen. Then use the same procedure to add all the new user accounts to each PC unless you opt to either have everyone use the same account or to let the Guest account stay active.

The IP addresses you chose will do fine. Avoid 192.168.0.1 since your router will have picked that one.

Use the router's internal IP address (probably 192.168.0.1) as the default gateway on all the PCs. That address tells the PC where to send traffic packets if they are not destined for another PC on your LAN. The router part of your router switch will take care of forwarding (routing) the packets thru your ISP to the internet destination.

The DNS entries with your setup (no local DNS server on your LAN) will be those of your ISP. I really don't remember if each PC needs them or if the gateway/router takes care of that. Try leaving them blank and if your PCs can't find web sites, put in whatever addresses the router has stored.

 

Local users and groups doesn't seem to be there.

I have changed all the settings but now the 2 comps which are not directly connected to the router have stopped communicating with the router. When I changed all the settings and re-started both pc's came up with a dialogue box with "WINLANMON" in it.
The status bar for the wireless card now has a cross over it. Except mine of course.

Sorry...they do work but only on the computer admionistrators account. I presume that is right?

 

woz - sorry but I've never even seen XP-home and it does some things very differently than XP-pro. The Local Users & Groups thing may be one of those. Maybe a comment from a networked XP-Home user?

You might want to try looking for it when booted to safe mode. Some things show up there that do not in normal mode.

 

Please answer me this. By the way I am still really struggling here.
The DSL-604+ is a router modem and access point all in one which connects to my computer via a network cable. Does my pc need a wireless pci card or would it work on its own via the network cable from the router?

Actually I think I have just answered my own question. I have disabled the wireless card and my internet still works.

Cheers