Before you start sharing
resources on your network, you need to make sure you configure Windows 7
to enable it to share and access shared resources. By default, Windows
does not make network resources available to everyone. Instead, Windows 7
requires users to explicitly share resources before others can access
them.
A first step on each computer
is to make sure sharing and discovery is enabled, and all computers
belong to the same workgroup. You need administrative privileges to
makes these kinds of changes, so log in to an account that has those
privileges before you get started. Then get to the Network and Sharing
Center using either of these methods:
Click the Start button and choose Control Panel => Network and Internet => Network and Sharing Center.
Press 
, type net, and click Network and Sharing Center.
The center opens as in Figure 1.
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If you see any messages
about connecting to your network for the first time and questions about
the network type, choose Home Network. Your local network is a private
network. The Internet is a public network.
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If you see Unidentified
Network or Public Network where the figure shows a Home Network, click
the link under View Your Active Networks. Change the setting to Home
Network as in Figure 2.
Designating the network as a
home network makes it discoverable to other computers within the same
private network. However, it's important that all computers belong to
the same workgroup, particularly if you are going to use workgroup
sharing rather than a homegroup. So on each computer you also want to
make sure Network Discovery is turned on and all computers have the same
workgroup name.
In the Network and
Sharing Center, click Change Advanced Sharing Settings in the left pane
to open the Advanced Sharing Settings dialog box (Figure 3).
In the dialog box, turn on Network Discovery and File And Printer
Sharing under the Home or Work profile. If you want to use the Public
folders, also choose the option to turn on Public Folder Sharing. If you
want to enable people to access shared resources without a user
account, choose the option Turn Off Password Protected Sharing.
Otherwise, turn on this option. Finally, if you are using a homegroup,
you can specify that Windows manages the homegroup connections
automatically, or choose to use user accounts and passwords in the
homegroup. Leave this option at the default of Allow Windows to Manage
Homegroup Connections.
If yours is a small network and
you won't be using a domain for sharing, make sure all computers are in
the same workgroup. On a Windows 7 or Windows Vista computer, click the
Start menu, right-click Computer, and choose Properties. In the
resulting System dialog box, click Advanced System Settings in the left
pane, then click the Computer Name tab (Figure 4).
On a Windows XP computer, click the Start menu, right-click My
Computer, and choose Properties to open the System Properties dialog
box.
The Computer Name tab shows
the current computer name, description, and workgroup name. If the
workgroup isn't what you need it to be, click the Change button. In the
resulting Computer Name/Domain Changes dialog box, click the Workgroup
option and type the required workgroup name in the Workgroup text box.
Then, click OK. Click OK again to close the System Properties dialog
box.
When you've turned on all
the Sharing and Discovery options and set the workgroup name, you're
ready to move to the next computer in the network and repeat the
process. Once all of the computers have sharing and discovery enabled
and belong to the same workgroup, they'll be able to find each others'
shared resources. But it's still up to each user to decide what they
want to share. The sections that follow look at techniques for sharing
resources.
Homegroups simplify setting up a home network and sharing resources on the network.
