With the explosion of digital content, not to mention home-made photo galleries and videos, most users probably have gigabytes of multimedia files spread across multiple computers. The simplest way to organise all your stuff is probably a network-attached storage device hooked up to your home network. But if all you need is a quick and dirty way to share the contents of your Windows 7 machine, here's how.
Step 1: connect and set up a home network
If you have a home router, connecting to a network is a simple matter of plugging in an Ethernet port or selecting the correct wireless connection. For those who want to connect a PC directly to a host system, set up an ad-hoc network by following the instructions in the Set Network Location on the Control Panel.
Windows 7 will launch a dialog asking you to select the type of files you would like to share on the network. The various options link to the default folders in your My Documents folders. As such, files saved elsewhere will not be detected or shared.
A neat feature is the printer sharing option which allows any linked PC to print through your computer. However, note that for this feature to work, the machine to which the printer is connected must be turned on and connected to the network.
Once this is done, Windows 7 will randomly set a password for other computers to link to your network.
Step 2: linking a Windows 7 PC to your home network
After connecting to the same network as your host PC, go to the Network Sharing Center and you should see that a HomeGroup is available to join. Click on it and you will be asked to type in the password. After this step, select the folders on the computer you wish to share and you're done.
Now you can access files and folders from the host PC. Multimedia files will also show up on Windows Media Player for streaming. This allows you to enjoy songs and movies without having to copy data on your current machine. This saves space especially if your are using a netbook with limited storage capacity.
Step 3: linking a Windows Vista/XP PC to your home network
Though hooking up two Windows 7 machines is a simple process, connecting a computer running another operating system to HomeGroup is only slightly more complicated. For Windows Vista, go to the Network control panel and select the host PC. You'll be asked for the password when accessing the shared files and folders. You can also make a desktop shortcut or add the host PC under the Favorites links for quick access.
For the XP user, you'll need to click on "View workgroup computers" in the My Network Places program. Again, just double-click on the host PC and input the password. You can also map the shared folders as a network drive by right-clicking and selecting the "Map Network Drive" option.
In both cases, the multimedia files on the host PC will not show up in Windows Media Player, though you can still play the files by double-clicking on them. This process, however, does not connect to the printer on the host machine.
Step 4: linking a Linux/Mac PC to your home network
Owners of non-Windows machines will need to detect the computer name and IP address of your host PC before proceeding. On the host computer, right-click Computer and select Properties to find the former, while the IP address can be located under the Network and Sharing Center by clicking on the details option under Connections. Write down the IPv4 address.
For Mac systems, click on "Connect to Server" under "Go" on the toolbar. For Linux users, go to the Network option. Type in:
smb://username@computername/users (username can be anything). Log in with the network password and the host PC will appear under the Shared folder.
