Setting up a network ? Help !

I have a Packard Bell Desktop & an Acer Laptop both on XP. I am trying to get both connected (network).

I have the desktop wired into the Netgear WPN824 router & the laptop wirelessly to it with the Netgear WPN511 Wireless laptop card.

I have gone into the `my network places` folder, clicked on `set up home/small office network` , followed the wizards instructions on both d/top & l/top. I then try to access shared files from each other but cannot.
Neither of them are showing the other in `my network places` & when clicking on `view workgroup computers` it comes up `not accessible`.

Am i doing something wrong? Is it to do with IP addresses? How do i get both connected ?

Please help, thanks.

 

Make sure they are in the same workgroup. In windows firewall make sure you have allowed files and printer sharing.

Check the IP of both computer and see if you can ping each other.

 

How do i try and ping each other ?

 

start>run

type "cmd" (without quotes) hit enter

in the command prompt that comes up, type "ipconfig" this will list that computer's IP address along with other information

go to the other computer, open a command prompt, and then type "ping the.other.computer's.ip" if you get responses, it has something to do with the sharing configuration, if not, well... I don't know.

 

Thanks everyone, i got there in the end.
It was a firewall issue. I had to put in the IP addresses in the `networking` section of my internet security software.
I then tried the `ping` test - and now i can connect between both my desktop & laptop.

One other thing, does both have to be on to access files in the other ?

 

If you want to access files from either pc, yes. If you are only going 1 direction, just the pc you are tring to access.

 

another querry...
I have still not tried networking.But if i do that, will i be able to access the whole HDD or just the shared folder?What might the difference in speeds be when compared to say, connecting an external 5400rpm HDD through USB?
thanks

 

You can access the whole drive if you make it sharable. You should only need to do My Documents.

Speed..... A 5400rpm drive is only capable of around 25mbps MAX. USB 2.0 should be able to do that. A 100baseT is faster than the HD, so the HD will be the limit, if you do a FTP transfer. The 100baseT is around 10.5MB/sec & SMB 8 MB/s.