Asked By Lem
19-Mar-07 01:26 PM

I suspect that your "linksys modem" actually is a Linksys wireless
router, and that you are, in fact, "networked." You apparently haven't
secured your wireless network ("any other wireless computer near the
modem can get to the internet") which is something you ought to take
care of soon, but for your current issue, see MVP Malke's standard
networking advice (you can stop after the first paragraph if you don't
care about sharing files):
Run the Network Setup Wizard (NOT the Wireless Network Wizard) on both
computers, making sure to enable File & Printer Sharing, and reboot. The
only "gotcha" is that this will turn on the XPSP2 Windows Firewall. If
you aren't running a third-party firewall or have an antivirus with
firewall, then you're fine. If you have third-party firewall software,
configure it to allow the Local Area Network traffic as trusted. I
usually do this with my firewalls with an IP range. Ex. would be
192.168.1.0-192.168.1.254. Obviously you would substitute your correct
subnet.
If one or more of the computers is XP Pro:
a. If you need Pro's ability to set fine-grained permissions, turn off
Simple File Sharing (Folder Options>View tab) and create identical user
accounts/passwords on all computers.
b. If you don't care about using Pro's advanced features, leave the
Simple File Sharing enabled.
Simple File Sharing means that Guest (network) is enabled. This means
that anyone without a user account on the target system can use its
resources. This is a security hole but only you can decide if it matters
in your situation.
Then create shares as desired. XP Home does not permit sharing of users'
home directories (My Documents) or Program Files, but you can share
folders inside those directories. A better choice is to simply use the
Shared Documents folder.
--
Lem MS MVP -- Networking
To the moon and back with 64 Kbits of RAM and 512 Kbits of ROM.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo_Guidance_Computer