I am in need of expert advice and am confident that someone here will give me some assistance!
Briefly, I have a home wireless network which is functioning well, and allows me to connect my own desktop PC (Win7), my wife's laptop (Win7), an old desktop PC (XP) and my son's netbook (Win7). So far so good.
My potential problem concerns the old desktop PC which is running XP and my son's Windows 7 netbook. My son has moved out of the parental home and is taking the old desktop and his netbook. My question is: Can I use a network cable to connect the Win7 netbook and the XP desktop without making any changes to the current wireless settings? I want to ensure that when my son visits with his netbook he will be able to reconnect with the home wireless network (for internet access and printer sharing etc) and this is why I dont want to do anything that will upset the current wireless setup. Maybe I am anticipating problems which will not arise, but would be most grateful for any hints/suggestions anyone can provide please!
I must say that I am surprised that the wireless network does in fact work as the PC is in a workgroup named MSHOME and the netbbook is in one called WORKGROUP, as shown in the attached screenshot. Aren't the workgroup names supposed to be the same? If I change the names to be the same when they are in a wired network, will this upset the current wireless network?
I look forward to hearing any comments and would ask that anyone replying assumes I know very little when it comes to network settings and would appreciate simple and rahter explicit instructions, please!
Edit: Since posting the message above, I have again been into 'Network' on the Win7 Netbook and the old desktop no longer appears! When I wrote the original post the Desktop showed up twice and connection was fine but now neither device appears visible to the other. What can have changed/gone wrong in half an hour?
Thanks,
Roger
Edited by rogerbid, 05 July 2012 - 07:41 AM.