I'm not sure that you will actually ever be able to use the USB drive connect steps that you described, but setting up your network should be relatively simple. If the two XP machines have been networking fine, then cleaning out the network stuff, should not be needed. Just make sure that all your computers are members of the same workgroup on XP just right click on my computer and choose properties and go to the computer name tab and check the name of the workgroup, if needed you can adjust the workgroup name here and on the Windows 7 machine right click computer and choose properties and on the resultant page you will see the workgroup name and a link to change settings if necessary to conform with the workgroup name on the XP machines, they all have to be the same and the machine names need to be unique. Download and read the following document Link Removed due to 404 Error it's explained in detail there, better than I could do it in this post. Also you can use this link for some quick steps Sharing files and printers with different versions of Windows - Help & How-to - Microsoft Windows The networking of the scanners maybe more problematic, check with the manufacturer and see if there are any drivers for those that support the Windows 7 operating systems and we can go from there.Videography Lab has two older Gateway ROG Pentium M notebooks running Windows XP Pro Service Pack 3 [32 bit]
and a new ASUS Quad Core laptop running Windows 7 Professional [64 bit]
All these notebooks connect to a Junxion Box wifi and all access AT&T wireless network nicely. All can stream video.
We have a negative and flatbed scanners that worked well on the older notebooks but have been difficult to connect to Windows 7 so that's one reason to start networking.
I've never been skilled at networking computers. Maybe even a bit phobic because i go way back to coaxiial cable networks that were constant problems. So I'm looking to keep it simple and appreciate simple talk.
My older XP Pro notebooks have an old outmoded Workgroup and I'd like to clean out all their network stuff and just do a simple USB stick setup as described in Windows 7 Help document here:
How can I clean out the old Workgroups and start with a clean slate on the XP books and than apply the USB technique as described above? Is it the easiest way to go?
I'm not sure that you will actually ever be able to use the USB drive connect steps that you described, but setting up your network should be relatively simple. If the two XP machines have been networking fine, then cleaning out the network stuff, should not be needed. Just make sure that all your computers are members of the same workgroup on XP just right click on my computer and choose properties and go to the computer name tab and check the name of the workgroup, if needed you can adjust the workgroup name here and on the Windows 7 machine right click computer and choose properties and on the resultant page you will see the workgroup name and a link to change settings if necessary to conform with the workgroup name on the XP machines, they all have to be the same and the machine names need to be unique. Download and read the following document Download details: Windows 7 & HomeGroup: Downlevel Sharing it's explained in detail there, better than I could do it in this post. Also you can use this link for some quick steps Sharing files and printers with different versions of Windows - Help & How-to - Microsoft Windows The networking of the scanners maybe more problematic, check with the manufacturer and see if there are any drivers for those that support the Windows 7 operating systems and we can go from there.
Typically you would respond to this prompt by type the ROG's machine name and then a backslash and a username on the ROG and then the password for that user on the ROG check the box that says remember creds and you should be good to go.Followed the instructions on "Sharing files and printers with different versions of Windows" and after disabling AVG firewall and using Windows Firewall allowing Sharing Files...
I now show all three computers on Network on the Windows 7 ASUS machine. When I click on either of the ROGs a Windows Security box comes up, subtitled "Enter Network Password" and asking for "User Name" and "Password"??
Typically you would respond to this prompt by type the ROG's machine name and then a backslash and a username on the ROG and then the password for that user on the ROG check the box that says remember creds and you should be good to go.
If the machine's netbios name is graceland and the username on that machine is ElvisP it should look like this
graceland\elvisp and then that user's password. Remember to check the box or else you'll be prompted every time.
It may be that it's using some default username, like Owner or Default_User, or even, assuming that it's xp pro, the administrators account. You should be able to see this by either opening up the C drive and looking at documents and settings and see who is listed there, or going into control panel users and see the list, or if again xp pro, right click on my computer, choose manage, on the left side look for local users and groups expand that and highlight users and it should provide a list of users, you can then right click on any user and choose to set a password, Hope something in this helpsOK. I have long noted a difference in the screens that my identical ROGs show when opening or closing XP. ROG1 opens a box showing my Username and Password and will not go into Windows until I respond.
ROG2 goes straight into windows and has no such box.
So when I click on ROG1 via the Windows 7 Network icon it goes directly to "Fonts, SharedDocs" and printers. When I go to ROG2 it asks for Username and Password.
I enter the "Full Computer Name" listed in ROG2 System Properties than \user [fullcomputername\user]
Since I never had a password to open Windows on that machine I'm not sure what to put under "Password". Tried just hitting enter but no go?
It may be that it's using some default username, like Owner or Default_User, or even, assuming that it's xp pro, the administrators account. You should be able to see this by either opening up the C drive and looking at documents and settings and see who is listed there, or going into control panel users and see the list, or if again xp pro, right click on my computer, choose manage, on the left side look for local users and groups expand that and highlight users and it should provide a list of users, you can then right click on any user and choose to set a password, Hope something in this helps
Wow, wouldn't that be great. No, I wish that there was some definitive resource that I could point you to or for that matter everyone to, it sure would make answering all these questions easier. I've been doing this a pretty long time and I have shelves of books going all the way back to lantastic but none of them could be considered a comprehensive resource guide. And the fact that networking technology keeps evolving doesn't do much to simplify matters much. It's like learning to type, you just put your fingers on the home row keys and keep the bottle of whiteout handy. You learn more by actually doing, then you ever will reading.It's all working now. I think a lot of my problems were from my phobia about networking. Once I got into the Control Panel > Users it became evident from the switching options why I did not have a log on screen for ROG2, so I set it up properly.
One last question. Now that I've got this network between the computers with "Fonts - printers - SharedDocs" is there a good resource document for using this feature and especially for those pesky peripherals, like printers and scanners?
Thank you for sticking with me!