[quote=patchcr,Jul 26 2005, 12:28 PM]
My roommate and I have been looking for a way to share a network drive. I recently bought a 250GB SATA HD for my computer because I desparately needed more space. When I go to college in August, my rommie and I want to share that space. Is there any enclosure that will support a SATA HD and still allow two computers to access it simultaneously.
Here is a PC to PC Networking ProcedureThe process of establishing sharing between these PCs is really just a lot of steps involving software settings. It takes a while to do, but is pretty straightforward. This setup assumes that both computers hae Windows XP installed as the operating system.
1. The first step is to make sure both computers have a distinct name and are using the same workgroup name.
a. To do this, click the "Start" button in the lower left corner and select "Control Panel." In the left channel, you'll want to click on "Classic View" if you haven't previously done this.
b. Double-click on the "System" icon and then on the "Computer Name" tab. On this screen, click the "Change" button to set your computer name and workgroup name.
c. Each computer will need its own computer name. I recommend changing it to something easy to identify such as "desktop-den" for a desktop computer in your den. You can't use non-standard characters and it can only be 15 characters.
d. Then you will need to enter your workgroup name. This must be the same on all computers you would like to connect to the network. Make sure you write this down because it must be exactly the same on all computers in order for them to communicate. It can be as simple as "home network."
5. Your computer will need to be restarted for these changes to take effect.
2. Now that you have created a network, the next thing you'll need to do is set up your computers to share files. Here's how to do that.
a. On the primary computer that you'll be sharing files from, right click on "My Computer" and click "Explore."
b. Find the folder or entire drive you would like to share and right click on that item. Select "Sharing and Security" from the drop-down list.
c. If it isn't already selected, click on the "Sharing" tab at the top.
d. In the "Network sharing and security" section, click to put a check beside "Share this folder" if it doesn't already have a checkmark beside it.
e. There is an "Allow network users to change my files" selection as well. You may want to leave this unselected if you don't want to make any changes to your files or mistakenly delete any of them.
f. Now that the main desktop system is set up to share files, go to the second computer and set it up on the same workgroup and enter the name of that computer just as you did to the primary system.
g. Then from the Start menu, choose "My Network Places" on the second computer. The folders you selected for sharing on the primary computer should be available.
This setup can work with either a wireless router and wireless NIC cards, or using a hardwired router system. Have fun with that huge hard drive space. Windows XP has good instructions in the help files on setting up a network and sharing files. Make use of those resources if this tutorial does not quite work for you.
Rodney Lay
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