Networking two computers with a BEFW11S4?

[Jeriko]

Let me describe my setup. I have a desktop system and a little Shuttle XPC box and I want to network them together. The desktop has Windows XP Home, the Shuttle has Win XP Pro.

I have a Lynksys BEFW11S4 router that I use to share my cable internet connection between them. What I'd like to know, though, is if it's possible to:

Share data between these two systems with the router (explore, transfer files back and forth between the hard drives on both).

and...

Do so without letting everyone else in the world or on my cable modem network do the same.

I don't know much about networking other than setting up my cable connection. Can anyone tell me if this is possible, and if so, give me a Dummy's guide for doing it?

 

[Amorphus]

what if you had the shuttle box wired straight into the desktop system, and had the desktop as a gateway (no DHCP) for the shuttle box?

I'm not a network expert, so this may/probably won't work.

 

[Jeriko]

^ The problem with that is I purchased the Shuttle to serve as a silent home theater PC system - something relatively quiet I could watch movies with and play music on without the desktop hair dryer running.

If I use my desktop as a gateway, it'll need to be running.

If I need to buy another wireless router, or install another networking card in my desktop and switch the Shuttle to a WiFi setup (they just released an antenna for it) to free up its networking port, I can do that if sharing with the router isn't an option.

-J

 

[gunrunnerjohn]

No sweat at all, the output ports on your router are a simple switch. If you enable NETBIOS over TCP/IP in the TCP/IP advanced properties, and enable File and Print Sharing, you should be good to go. You'll need to have an account on each machine that matches the login name/password of the other machine...

 

[Jeriko]

^ I've always heard that file sharing was dangerous with cable modem connections. Something about even having it enabled at all allowed everyone else on your local cable network access the same files.

-J

 

[gunrunnerjohn]

That's balony, I have file sharing enabled, and nobody can see anything here. The broadband router NAT translation blocks any attempts to share files unless I go out of my way to forward the NETBIOS ports through the router. Any firewall, even the XP one, does the same thing.

 

[InlineFive]

It's not a problem, most routers turn on the internet only when they need it. And if you have a good one it will block all ping attempts on it's ports so as to confuse hackers. It's not bulletproof but it does work very well most of the time. If you really want a second layer of protection (I would for that router, it's not very new) get ZoneAlarm Basic on both computers.

Welcome to the world of broadband by the way!

-Por