4. Configuring your home network
4.2 Configuring the client computer/s
This is very similar to configuring the server, but easier!
As before, go into the Windows Control Panel and choose "System". Go to the "Network Identification" tab and click on "Properties". For computer name, enter anything you want - but note that each computer in your network must have a unique name. Choose to be a member of a workgroup, and put the same workgroup name that you used for the server.
Now to configure the network card. Go back to the Control Panel and choose "Network and Dial-Up connections". Right-click on the network card and choose "Properties". You should see a dialog box similar to this one:
If you're missing "Client for Microsoft Networks", click on "Install...", choose "Client" and click "Add...", then choose "Client for Microsoft Networks" and click "OK". Similarly, if you're missing "File and Printer Sharing for Microsoft Networks", do the same but choose "Service" instead of "Client"; and if you're missing "Internet Protocol (TCP/IP)" do the same but choose "Protocol".
Make sure that "Client for Microsoft Networks", "File and Printer Sharing for Microsoft Networks" and "Internet Protocol (TCP/IP)" are all ticked.
Now select "Internet Protocol (TCP/IP)" and click "Properties". Choose "Use the following IP address" and type 192.168.0.2 as the IP address for the first client, 192.168.0.3 for the second client and so on. It is important that every computer has a different IP address. Type 255.255.255.0 for the subnet mask. Make sure that "Use the following DNS server addresses" is checked and type in 192.168.0.1. You should see something like this:
Now click "Advanced...". In the "Default gateways" section, click "Add..." and type in 192.168.0.1 and leave the Metric as 1. Click "Add". You should see this:
Click on the "DNS" tab, and in the "DNS suffix for this connection" section, type in the intranet domain that you identified at the end of section 4.1.
Click "OK" to exit the advanced TCP/IP settings, and "OK" again to exit the TCP/IP configuration and get back to the main network card properties dialog box. Now, click the "Configure" button and then the "Advanced" tab. As with the server computer, you may want to enable full duplex mode on the network card (but see the explanation of this in
section 4.1 before you decide to do this). To enable full duplex, change the appropriate setting in this section:
You've now finished configuring the client computer/s. Click "OK" to exit the network card advanced settings and "OK" again to exit the network card properties.
Congratulations, you've set up your home network!