How can I talk to my 3 computers? I have a LAN connecting all 3 but I have no idea how to communicate from the master laptop to the 2 slaves.

I have an IP address, a subnet mask and a default gateway but how can I talk to each computer from the master which is the Internet access point. Also I have an external hard drive with all my backup files connected to one slave and if I knew how I could cross load the back up files at 100 Mbps instead of a slow rate.

What exactly do you mean with "talkin" to other computers?

I guess you want to share devices such as hard disk, printers, etc...

First question: do all your computers run the same operating system?

It's for example very easy to share a drive on a WinMe machine, so every other PC has access to it, regardless of OS. Shared drives on WinXP or Win2000 will be very hard to share towards a WinMe or Win98 PC!

What exactly do you mean with "talkin" to other computers?

I guess you want to share devices such as hard disk, printers, etc...

First question: do all your computers run the same operating system?

It's for example very easy to share a drive on a WinMe machine, so every other PC has access to it, regardless of OS. Shared drives on WinXP or Win2000 will be very hard to share towards a WinMe or Win98 PC!

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Hi Monty

Yes that is what I meant but it was getting late and the Sangsom had kicked in.

They are all on Windows XP Pro and I have 1 printer connected to the master, 1 external hard drive connected to 1 slave and my Internet connection is GPRS connected to the master.

Good morning Bild...

Can you share the internet already?

If so you have the IP settings correctly already, if not let me know...

The sharing of resources is not to hard to do!

First you have to make sure all your PC's are in the same workgroup.

Go to control panel, system, and look in the "computer name" tab.

If the workgroups are not the same you can change them by clicking on the "change" button (to rename this computer...) and make sure you name the workgroup identically on each PC.

Next step is to share each and every drive you want to be shared.

On each PC open "my Computer", right click on the drive you want to share and choose "properties".

The choose the "sharing" tab, and click on the message warning you for the risks inherrent to sharing.

In the "network sharing" part tou mark the box "share this drive on the network", and you can choose a name how the drive will be visible on the network. (good, because having 3 "disk1" on the network might get confusing!

This way you can share all drives, or just seperate folders. Just right click on a folder and repeat the steps above.

Any shared drive or folder should appear with a hand underneath...

Now all the shared devices should show up when you click on "my network places"

This icon should be available on your desktop, or alternatevely you can open "my computer" and choose my network places from the pull down arrow to the right of the address bar.

You can share the printer in the same way in the "printer and faxes" window. Once the printer is shared, you'll have to do the "add printer" routine on all other PC's, and during the install you choose "network" printer instead of "local" printer and the pc will search for a printer on the network...

Hi Monty

I will try that this morning, wife and baby permitting.

Cheers Bill