wireless network questions.

pred racer

Guys gals.

whats the easiest way to network 3 pc's (wireless) not to share an internet connection, but just to be able to share files, play some lan games etc.

1 p4 running xp
2 p3's running xp

Sorry if this is a stoopid question or if its been answered before just point me, im pretty comp savvy(hardware) but a complete noob when it comes to network stuff.

D-Generate

Buy a cheap pc or use an old pc and slam a big harddrive in to it to store the files. Hook up a wireless router to it and have the wireless cards in the other computers. Its the setup at home with all the media files stored on an old PII 350mHz and it does the job A-Okay.

pred racer

is cheap and cheerful wireless stuff ok or do you need good stuff??
is there much involved in setting it up?

Karoma

eh,not even that complicated. Add one Access Point(AP),3 wireless cards - might need to mix with one Ethernet NIC (Depending on the AP for setup config).
Routers and access points are not the same! It may be cheaper to pickup an AP-only rather than a router with a buit-in AP (Although, at this point Routers with built-in AP are probably more common...)

Price: Same as any electronics... Although, you're better to go with 802.11g all round (i.e. For router and NICS). Stick to the same brand (Although, to be honest- I wouldn't fret over it - it can sometimes save some headaches)

How long is a piece of string? There isn't much to setting it up - XP makes it easy .. when it works as it should.. The rest should he catered for by accompanying doc's, Google, and here

Start at http://compnetworking.about.com/cs/wireless/f/infrawireless.htm

Snowbat

You don't need an Access Point unless you have an existing wired network you need access to - all you need are 3 wireless cards running in ad-hoc mode.

Paladin

What snowbat said with 3 USB wireless adaptors such as:

http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.asp?sku=305893&cks=PRL

Plug and play, no need to open your PC.

Karoma

What sort of distance is there between all of the computers!?

philologos

he could also set up an adhoc network (no router just computers connecting to eachother wirelessly)
http://www.utexas.edu/its/wireless/install/install_peer.html - guide from university of texas on how to set it up. This is more affordable than buying a router which you wont be using for sharing an internet connection

Karoma

Jakkass wrote:

he could also set up an adhoc network (no router just computers connecting to eachother wirelessly)
http://www.utexas.edu/its/wireless/install/install_peer.html - guide from university of texas on how to set it up. This is more affordable than buying a router which you wont be using for sharing an internet connection

That was already stated. (And that's not the best of info to give him as he is obviously using XP. There are much better guides.) O.P.: Are you using SP2 on all/any of the machines?
My questioning of distance between each node remains.. Performance of an ad-hoc net. of >= 3 computers for gaming... eh..