Help me set up home network please

[exoskemic]

Hey I have three macbooks, one of them is a macbook pro

I can connect by using a computer to computer network no problem
but problems arise when I want to connect them through my home network

I have set up file sharing on all of the laptops

I have tried using Go => Connect to server ... then afp://ip address
nothing

When I click on network in finder, nothing turns up

Do I need to open up ports on my router?
what is stopping the macs seeing each other?

need some help please
starting to irritate me

any help appreciated

 

[old-wiz]

are you able to connect to the internet through the router?

 

[exoskemic]

are you able to connect to the internet through the router?

yes

 

[old-wiz]

I have an iMac, an iBook and a 13" mbp (new). When I added the MBP today, all I had to do was go to System Preferences and enable file and printer sharing and it shows up in finder. There's an option in Finder Preferences to "show connected servers" and I set that on as well. As soon as I boot the laptops they show up on the iMac and vice versa. Perhaps you have firewall enabled on the Macs?

 

[exoskemic]

I have an iMac, an iBook and a 13" mbp (new). When I added the MBP today, all I had to do was go to System Preferences and enable file and printer sharing and it shows up in finder. There's an option in Finder Preferences to "show connected servers" and I set that on as well. As soon as I boot the laptops they show up on the iMac and vice versa. Perhaps you have firewall enabled on the Macs?

THis is what I think the problem is but I do not know how to fix it
I have a firewall on my router, I have tried switching it off
I have checked the firewall on all of the macs, all of them say "allow all incoming connections"

can some one help please?

My router is a "Linksys WAG160N" if that helps

 

[exoskemic]

problem solved

I created a computer to computer network, connected on my macbook to the others, then when I returned to my home network, it recognised the other macs

cam across it accidentally