I've just got a new laptop for my birthday and ideally I would like to set it up on a home network.

I have one other PC in the house that is used by the whole household and obviously has the essentials such as Broadband internet and all of my software.

What would be the easiest and cheapest way to set up a home network between the PC and laptop which would enable the laptop to have access to the same Internet connection, software and hardware peripherals (eg printer, scanner etc). and how should I go about making the network?

Thanks in advance.

You can simply buy a cross-over ethernet cable. This will plug into the network cards of the two computers and enable you to setup a mini network.

With this, you can share your internet connection and files and printers - you can't, however, share a scanner.

Connect your modem to a wireless router. And then connect the router directly to your pc (through a cable) and have a wireless internet card in your laptop. So it feels portable.

Then once you get the internet connection done then you can set up a shared printer and shared folders. You can do that on XP without alot of problem. Right click on my network places > properties > Set up a home or small office network.

I suggest a g wireless router because it's faster then a b one.

In order to set up a network, you must note the operating systems. This process will be easiest if they are both running the same operating system.

You have two choices, you can either buy a second ethernet card for the PC and connect it to the laptop using a crossover cable, which creates a virtual network between them that can be used like any normal network.

You can also purchase a Network Hub and plug both PCs into it. They will then detect the network hub as a Local Area Network and find all the computers on it.

Then you can use File Sharing (Right click on a file and click Sharing... to see more) and Printer Sharing (As above, right click on a printer and click Sharing...) however these features must first be enabled. If you are running Windows XP, you can simpily run the networking wizard on both PCs. If you're not, it could get a little more complicated, but tell us and well guide you through it.

Thanks for your replies.

Right, I have purchesed a wireless router (a BT Voyager 2100 Wireless ADSL) and my laptop came pre-installed with a wireless network card. I have installed the new router onto my main PC and the network connection is working fine (i.e I can share folders such as music and the printer and fax is shared).

However, the only problem is that I cannot get an internet connection on either machine whilst the new router is plugged in (I have to reinstall the old router to do this (BT Voyager 205 ADSL Router).

Does anyone know why this is and what I can do to resolve the problem?

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Originally posted by kieranissafe
owever, the only problem is that I cannot get an internet connection on either machine whilst the new router is plugged in (I have to reinstall the old router to do this (BT Voyager 205 ADSL Router).

Does anyone know why this is and what I can do to resolve the problem?

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I have a similar problem... i have the wires and the cards and the network set up using XP wizard but can't connect to the net

i'm not sure about your isp but with my isp your modem needs to be activated and the mac adress accepted by the isp. with ours you can call them or in our case we went to a rogers video store and got it activated.

yeah some ISPs simply dont allow shating like BT basic and many others check with your ISP. although i would have thought it would have been possible with a router.

this might be a bit slower (as in speed of network) but it works great get a wireless lan card and get a dockin station were the internet sends it out the other pc are still on network but ur on wirelless it works gr8 my nan has done it (well i did it for her)