How do I network my home computers together so that they can share hard drives and printers?

I currently have both connected to the internet (DSL) using a router and Cat 5 cables. Both computers are Dell XPS computers one is XPS 500 and the other XPS 600. Thank you for your time!

How do I network my home computers together so that they can share hard drives and printers?bmw

If you have them both connect to a router, then you don't need a switch. I'm sure that they both are setup to get their IP addresses automaticlly, so that's half the battle. Both computers need to be in the same workgroup. To do this, do the following:

1. Open Control Panel

2. Open the System ikon

3. Select the Computer Name tab

4. Select the Change button

5. Under workgroup, give noths pc's the same workgroup name

6. Reboot

You can also check the link below for additional help.

How do I network my home computers together so that they can share hard drives and printers?free adware remover

I would go to Best Buy or somewhere else and ask. There are also books on how to do it.
I'll give you a start. Windows already provides a peer to peer network in their operating systems without having to buy the server edition of the software and run one of your computers as a server. It's easy to enable the peer to peer network function in the software (Start/Control Panel/Network Setup Wizard), but first you've got to run Category 5 (''CAT 5'') ethernet cables (they have RJ-45 connectors on them) from each computer's 10/100 Mbps ethernet ports to the router, assuming it has extra ethernet ports available. If not, you need to add an ethernet switch (don't buy a hub, because switches are much better and are real cheap) and you can buy them with as many ports as you'll think you might need as your network expands. Once you get that done, check back in!
in this case you no need to buy any thing your both computers are allready conected to each othere you just check that both or same work grop if not then just change the work grop name %26 make it same shair the hard drives so you can access from othere computers do the same for printers then instal the printer on othere computer as network printerit ll start working on both systems