Setting up a network

[jshurst]

I am very new to networking, but I will do my best to explain what I am trying to do. I currently have a wireless network in my house (infrastructure mode). We have one computer directly connected to the router (my roomates computer) and various laptops, and PC's. I just built a computer which runs server 2003 that is sitting in the corner of my house which also has a wireless connection.

I would like to use this new PC as a place to store files. I would also like other computers in my house to be able to connect to this and run applications. Can someone tell me the steps I need to do to make this happen? I am not asking for you to tell me exactly how to do it, just what I need to do so I can look it up on google (cause I'm kind of lost at the moment). Thanks in advance for the help.

 

[intelwizrd]

First, make sure that the other computers on the network can see the server. this can be done by pinging the ip address of the server. It may help to set the workgroup name the same on all of the computers and server but shouldn't have to.

Second, Since I doubt all of the computers are part of a domain, set up another user account (on the server) with user priveleges only. You can have all the computers connect to the server with the same account or set up one for each user.

Then, you will need to enable file and printer sharing on your server. Server 2003 should have a wizard to do this (i think it is in the configure your server wizard and select file server). It will help you set up a share, set permissions on the share, and turn on file and printer sharing for you. Make sure the user account(s) have the correct security permissions on the folder as well.

If you dont want to use the wizard, you can do this manually.

Last, go to one of the computers and set up a mapped drive using the username and password of the account set up on the server.

Example. Server ip is 192.168.0.50, map a network drive to \\192.168.0.50\sharename, click connect using a different username to give the user info for the account on the server.

Should be it. It's pretty simple.

To everyone else: If I have given any bad informations, feel free to correct me.

----------------------------
Josh
CCNA, MCSE 2003(in progress)

 

[jshurst]

Thanks for the reply. I can't ping the server, or any other computers on my network. When I say I already have a wireless network I could be wrong. All my computers are set up to do right now is use the router to get to the internet. Is there something I need to do to be able to see the other computers?

I tried pinging like so:

ping 192.168.0.103

I know that this is the ip address of the server, but I can't see it.

 

[maqsoodjee]

Check your machines that what ip address are thy getting or the static ip if you haven't assign yet. Now when you got the every or atleast 3 computers ip try to pinging with each other. try this on atleast 3 computers so that make sure that no body is pinging eachother.
If they all are getting same class ip address but still can't pinging eachother then check your computers firewall if firewall is enable & you haven't allow ping then the computer will not respond to the ping request.
If the ip's are not on the same class then surely they can't ping you have to make them available on the same class.
Hope it will help you a little.

Maqsood AHmad

 

[intelwizrd]

for the testing and setup, turn off all firewalls on the clients as they will block ICMP packets by default. its a good idea to disconnect from the internet while setting this up and testing.

----------------------------
Josh
CCNA, MCSE 2003(in progress)

 

[jshurst]

Well, I was able to ping my server for a little while. For some reason I can't anymore. I don't know what happened, but I can't see it anymore. One of my roomates computers appears to be able to ping it, but not the other ones in the house. I did everything that you guys said, but apparently I didn't do something correctly.

Any ideas why I can't ping it anymore?

Thanks for all of your help with this, I feel like I'm at least making some progress.