setup of a LAN with my PB and two windows PCs

[rabatjoie]

I am not really a networking expert and try to do the following:

i have

- a draytek vigor 2500We wireless router that includes a dsl modem
- my powerbook connected to it via airport
- one roomie's pc connected to the router via cable running win XP
- one roomie's pc connected to the router via cable running windows Millenium

we're already connected to the internet, everythig works fine, but we want to share our files in a Local Network.
the router behaves as a dhcp server and is also VPN-able (though i dont know what the latter means)

I dont know how to set this up, so i would already be happy about the most basic help (i.e. links to how-to guides etc.)

i am posting this here because the setup we have is quite exceptional, i guess...

any ideas?

thanks a lot!

 

[Tim Flynn]

I do something like this at home.
I connect my G5 with Panther to two Windows 2000 machines. This is quite easy.
At work I connect PCs running NT4, 2000 & XP to Macs Jaguar. Also Mac OS.
What OS are you running?

 

[rabatjoie]

my powerbook runs jaguar (10.2.8)

 

[Flynnstone]

This were things get a little stickey.
Your Mac can communicate with the PCs use SMB over TCP/IP (I think is the terminology).
The PCs can talk to each other either (or both) with TCP or NETBUEI. You want TCP. The ME machine probably defaults to NETBEUI and the XP to TCP. The netwok setup is different between ME & XP (very annoying).
Try pinging each PC to check basic connectivity. Use the terminal and use the "ping" command. Probably something like "ping 192.168.1.100" or what ever the PC's IP addresses are.

 

[mykemp]

I'm relatively new to the mac side of things, but I do have some network experience...

The router/switch should be able to act as a DHCP server, and serve out "private" or "natted" IP addresses - such as "192.168.x.x". These IP addresses won't conflict with anything in the real world, so you should go ahead and use TCP/IP as your default protocol on your network since the PB, XP and ME machines can all speak IP, and get their IP addresses via the DHCP Server/Router.


Setting up Windows ME and XP file sharing URL :

http://www.wown.com/j_helmig/wxpwin9x.htm

Setting up OS X File Sharing for Windows URL :

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=107083

If you want to throw a Linux box or other Unix Box into the mix =)
Get SAMBA at:

http://us3.samba.org/samba/samba.html


If you are using wireless, please consider looking into your security if you haven't already - pay close attention to the following:

Change the default SSID. - or - Disable SSID Broadcasts.
Change the default password for the Administrator account.
Enable MAC Address Filtering.
Change the SSID periodically.

Those are all of the tips I can think of right now. I've never used the VPN feature on a router, but I assume that allows some sort of Tunneling type software (L2TP??) to allow direct access to another network. Quick Definition of VPN from whatis.com:

A virtual private network (VPN) is a way to use a public telecommunication infrastructure, such as the Internet, to provide remote offices or individual users with secure access to their organization's network.

Sorry for rambling...

Myron

 

[superbovine]

no no its was good rambling.

 

[rabatjoie]

thanks for the help, everyone... i'm at home for christmas right now, but once i get back i'll start working on the network