Can you help me set up a home network wireless router to access files across computers: XP, 2000, 98 & Macs?

I want to be able to share & retrieve various files across all platforms in the house (Windows XP, Windows 2000, Windows 98, Mac OS X (10.4) & OS 9.2). Can it be done? Can it be done securely? Only laptop at present is wireless, but I have PC cards for others if needed to make this work (otherwise, I assume they should remain wired connections to help secure the network-am I right?). Also, while I'm at it, what are WEP, MAC & any other encryption settings that I need to make to help secure this network to make it work? Thanks in advance for any help with this since I'm not sure where to start.

Public Comments

1. File sharing on the network is file sharing. As long as you have permissions on the station sharing the files from the station you are viewing them with, then you should have no problems. OS 10 and Windows 2k / XP can share files fine back and forth, simply setup shares and then connect via UNC paths. WEP is a wireless key security - this doesn't impact file sharing so long as your computer is connected to the network. File sharing involves knowing how permissions work from machine to machine, as well as knowing IP addresses, etc. It's all very easy to setup, but not something someone is going to write out from start to finish in a Yahoo answer session. The simple answer here would be to share a folder from the Mac OS 10.4 box, allow everyone permissions to it. Get the IP address of your 10.4 box from the networking icon in your system prefs. Go to any of the windows boxes and go to start - run and type in \\1.2.3.4 (thats two backslashes and then the IP address) You should be able to connect to the share on the 10.4 machine and share files.
2. Ok, the first thing that you're going to need for this, is a wireless router. This way you can connect all the PC's and MAC's into the same home Network. It is preferred to have one of the computers (PC's) to have all the files one, or the one that has the larges hard drive installed on it. If you haven't already done so, you need to install the drivers for each of the network cards that are install in each of the PC's. The MAC is already setup, because they come with the network NIC already there. Once you have all the network NIC cards working. Then you connect each of the computers from the back of the computer to the main router. You should see a status light of each of the connects that you make to each computer. If the status light doesn't turn on, there are a few reasons why, 1) NIC card drivers not installed correctly, 2) wrong/bad Ethernet cable 3) Wrong configuration in the setup of the NIC card. Once you have all the status lights on for each connection, then you will need to setup network sharing between each of the PC's. Since I don't know a lot about the MAC OS, I'm limited as to how to share on a mac. But for Windows it is easy. For Windows 2000 and XP, there is a Wizard that you can run to set that up. as for the Win95 and Win98 boxes, there is a little more involved in that. You need to add the File and Printer Sharing driver. then go into the files and folders and printers and select the Share option for each folder or printer that you want to share on the network. If you need more detailed instructions, please email me at PianoMan_64@yahoo.com
3. TO START OFF NOT A LOT OF NEW HARDWARE/SOFTWARE FOR NETWORKING WILL SUPPORT WIN98 & MAC OS 9.2.... BUT AT&T DOES HAVE A WIRELESS GATEWAY THAT CAN RUN PC'S AND MACS SIMULTANEOUSLY. UP TO 10 PC'S AT A TIME. (THE OLDER COMPUTERS PREVIOUSLY MENTIONED ARENT COMPATIBLE BUT THE OTHERS ARE) YOU CAN SHARE PRINTERS AND OTHER PERIPHERALS, FILES, ETC. YOU CAN VISIT ATT.COM THE GATEWAY IS 79.99 WHEN YOU ORDER ATT DSL SERVICE. IF YOU ORDER ONLINE YOU CAN GET A $79.99 REBATE FOR IT ALSO. PLANS START AT $14.99/MO NO MATTER HOW MANY PCS YOU HAVE. ALTHOUGH FOR THAT MANY I WOULD RECOMMEND AT LEAST THE PRO $24.99 (3.0 MBPS) OR ELITE $34.99 (6.0 MBPS) BECAUSE THEY WILL BE SHARING THE BANDWIDTH. IT WILL COME WITH SOFTWARE WITH EASY SETUP INSTRUCTIONS & 24 FREE TECH SUPT IF U NEED HELP. SO IF YOU DECIDE TO GO WITH ATT JUST GO TO ATT.COM OR CALL 1877UASKATT USE REFERRAL CODE MP4341
4. You have to set all computers to the same work group that is on the main computer that you plan on using.