Vince - and all:
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I have zip-silch-zero experience in networks. However, there are now three computers here at home and I would sure like to tie them together. What
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For the above, a network is possible. As 2 of the 3 do window$, you are looking at running Samba on your network.
Your biggest issue is establishing a configuration which will play with your wife's machine, while maintaining her work config. This could be an advanced topic, depending on what you want to do and how her work have configured the machine.
Better leave that alone ... the IT Admin at work has qthing passworded and nothing can be changed unlwss he does it... He is willing to have her bring in anything she wants loaded and does it for her. She would like to have asscess to a lot of files she has on her old M$ desktop here at home without dumping it to a floppy and then taking it to the laptop. Would seem that is not a good idea... What I may do is just put the two boxes side-beside here at my desk and set a switch box between them to share the monitor. Another problem I was wanting to get around was I-net access... sometimes her wireless connection doe snot work here at home... and I thought if a home LAN could be established she could use that. O well, ...
As for a hard-wire solution: My house is wired for telephone in every room and there are four pairs of wires in each box, but only one pair is being used for telephone service, do if worse comes to worst could I use some of those extra 6 wires?)
Networking down telephone wires is probably not impossible, but it is an advanced topic, which I would suggest you leave well alone for the time
Thirdly, doing both in the same cable and mixing telephone voltages with your ethernet cards - and the issues of earthing, mutual capacitance and lightning protection are so advanced, that if you could frame the right questions, you might not be asking them here...
The extra wires in the boxes are not connected to anything... only the blue/white pair are used to provide phone connections. The orange/white - green/white and brown/white are unused and not connected to anything... just part aof the cable that runs from box to box... ===== Stephen W Sarasota, FL "A merry heart doeth good like a medicine ..." Proverbs __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Photos: High-quality 4x6 digital prints for 25� http://photos.yahoo.com/ph/print_splash