Home Network Setup Help

[xkRoWx]

I want to set up a home network but I'm utterly clueless in networking so I turn to you guys for help 🙂 I believe I should have almost all the components to set one up but I need some pointers.

I'm the only person in the house who uses a Mac, also have two Windows 7 desktops (one connected via wifi and the other ethernet). I also have a printer and a 500GB hard drive (the 3.5" IDE ones) that I want to hook up to the network.

I guess my end goal is to have all three machines in a "LAN" and play nicely together (file sharing and stuff), print documents through the network and have a "central backup".

Currently I have a Linksys wireless router with SpeedBooster (model WRT54GS), it doesn't have any USB i/o so I guess I will need a router with USB? If I don't get a router with USB then will I be able to print from my MacBook if the printer is plugged to another desktop? Perhaps a TimeCapsule?

Sorry, although I'm quite tech-savvy I don't know anything about network and it's just about as confusing as a Rubik's. I tried Googlin' but I find it much easier to troubleshoot and ask questions here (I'm so sorry if this has been done numerous times) 😛 Any and all suggestions/inputs/tips are appreciated!

 

[pastrychef]

You may not need to purchase another router if your WRT54GS is working.

The printer that you have, is it a network printer or does it only work via USB? If it's a network printer, just plug it in to the WRT54GS and install the printer on all the computers. If it's USB only, I'm not sure if Apple's printer sharing will work with Windows computers...

You can share the 500GB hard drive with all the computers just by connecting it to one of the computers (doesn't matter if it's the Mac or one of the two Windows 7 machines) and enable sharing.