Once you can see between the two systems, you'll be able to try lots of new things, like play games with your other PC. When launching a game, there will usually be a series of options that indicate a LAN game. If you can, use IPX or "LAN" for the game. If your cannot find these, TCP/IP can be used. Simply connect to the assigned IP address of the other computer (e.g. if you assigned your other computer the IP 192.168.0.1 you would connect to that address) or you may even be able to connect to the computer's name. For example, in Half-Life you could specify the IP address of the server and type tweak3d in place of a number address.
Sharing
One of the most useful things to do on a network is access directories and printers of the other computers. To do this, you must have the other computer's folder or drive set as "shared."
To specify which drives, folders, and printers are shared, enter My Computer on your desktop. Right click the drives or folders you wish to share and choose "Sharing". You will now have several options to configure how the drive/folder is shared. To share a printer, enter the Printers folder under My Computer. Right click your main printer and choose "Sharing". You will again have options for sharing. Now you must head over to the machine without the printer physically attached, and choose "Add Printer" from the Printer directory under My Computer. Choose Network Printer, and it should bring up your printer. Try printing a test page from the remote machine to ensure it's working properly.
Shared folders and drives have a blue hand holding them up. If you don't see a hand, your drives probably aren't shared.
Sharing CD-ROMs and floppy drives can lead to trouble. If the other PC tries to access your floppy drive and there isn't a disk in it, you'll have to hear that great grinding noise. Ugh.
To access shares from another computer, you can double-click the computer name under Network Neighborhood to get a list of everything that computer is sharing, or you can click Start, Run, and type:
\\computername\share
(if you know the name of the share you want to access, of course). You can also specify directories. If I shared my entire C: out and wanted to access my desktop, I could type \\tweak3d\c\windows\desktop at the Run prompt.
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