[Kosta Kondratenko]

Hey

I have a laptop and a main computer. I have one 'brother' printer 'MFC-620CN' model. The printer has USB cable that plugs into a computer. I would like it so that both the laptop and my PC were both connected to the printer, so it was like a network sort of thing, or sharing resources, and so both of them could print instead of me having to change the cord every time.

The other thing is my cable modem. I'm with OPTUS Broadband cable, and I have a MOTOROLLA cable. The cable has a thing where you plug in one of thoseEThernet or whateverwires and plug it to the computer, how do I make it so the ethernet wire goes to both computers and so both computers can share resources. It is a Motoralla model SB5100.

Any help much appreciated. Thank you.

Best Regards

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what you could do is get a small router (linksys makes agood easy one to set up)...then create a setup like this

cable from wall to modem > modem to router (via ethernet) > router to computers (via ethernet...both computer's will need ethernet network cards for this to work)...

you would need to set up the router to connect through your cable connection (follow the instructions from your cable provider and router for this setup)...once you do that...all computers connected to the router..SHOULD be able to connect to the internet...

to share the printer..you would need to enable file and print sharing on the computer with the printer attatched...then share the printer..and add a network printer on the other computer....you can also set up a workgroup (small network) by using the xp network setup wizzard...which would allow you to share files and the printer...

[dsenette]

what you could do is get a small router (linksys makes agood easy one to set up)...then create a setup like this

cable from wall to modem > modem to router (via ethernet) > router to computers (via ethernet...both computer's will need ethernet network cards for this to work)...

you would need to set up the router to connect through your cable connection (follow the instructions from your cable provider and router for this setup)...once you do that...all computers connected to the router..SHOULD be able to connect to the internet...

to share the printer..you would need to enable file and print sharing on the computer with the printer attatched...then share the printer..and add a network printer on the other computer....you can also set up a workgroup (small network) by using the xp network setup wizzard...which would allow you to share files and the printer...

[Kosta Kondratenko]

Thanks a lot.

Two last questions in regards to what you just said;
Q1: How do I know if my laptop or my computer has an ethernet card? (My laptop is new and very expensive so it should have it).

Q2: If I set up my computers to share the printer in Windows XP, don't I still need some kind of wires so that both computers are connected to the printer? Can you be a bit more specific with setting up the sharing of printers?

[dsenette]

an ethernet (NIC card) has a port on it that looks exactly like a phone jack...but wider...

if you have the computers networked...then there will be wires between the computers...so you don't need wires from each computer to the printer...

once the physical setup is done...the network setup wizard in xp will guide you through most of the rest of the setup