Hello Everyone,

Here's what I would like to accomplish with my home office set up. I have a new Dell laptop with Centrino and an older Gateway desktop. Both are running on Windows XP. Today I am getting a high speed cable internet line installed on my desktop. I would like to share the internet connection with my laptop. However I would also like to sync the 2 computers, like you would with a PDA. I use the laptop for work and save everything in a folder called "real estate". I would like it if everyday when I come home, that folder would be backed up on my desktop. It would also be nice if I could access the printer and scanner from my laptop. They are connected to my desktop. I would like to keep it all wireless if possible. What do I need to do?

You can pick up a router that connects to your cable modem on one side and provides a number of ports on the other. You connect your desktop and laptop to these ports for full internet connection. You'll then run your home networking software in windows which configures the machines to connect to the internet, as well as set up shared resources. This will allow you to access all your resources from either machine. As far as syncing goes, that will be application dependant.

Alterantively you could install a second ethernet card into the desktop, which will then connect to the laptop. The router approach is more flexible and gives you room to expand.

I set up the cable modem and it works great. I installed a netgear wireless router. However the Centrino on my laptop wants nothing to do with it. It keeps finding my neighbor's router and mine doesn't show up. Any suggestions?

Return your router and cancel your internet service. Why pay extra when it's free?

Just kidding. They may have an extender that overpowers your unit. I would try moving the router/modem around (or even it's antenna first)to find it's happy spot. Move everything away from that window as it has little resistance to outside sources.

Right mouse click on the network icon and choose VIEW WIRELESS NETWORK NETWORKS. Find your network and move that one to the top of the list and tell it to connect to this one. Play with it a little... you can tell your laptop which is the preferred network to connect to.

I ended up calling tech support and talked to them for 90 minutes. I had to reinstall my centrino software. Somehow windows was managing my network card instead of proset. When I opened the proset program to view networks everything was unavailable. Thank you for all of your help. Now I just need to spend some time setting up a home network.