trouble in networking land

I have a problem with netorking all the computer's together.We love to play games and want to play them together.So we where advised to get a hub. So i did i got a 5 port workgroup linksys 10/100. We get on but we have alot of lag but we could play together. So i was told we need a router and to make sure it the model they gave us . So i went out and bought one of those. Now we cant play together all. So i was told we need to share files .My computer is Xp i have all the other computer on here it say and all ,But when it come to the windows me it say's it sharing has the passwords and everything ,but still wont let me acess them from my computer say use dend acess .And know it wont even let him in to the the networking folder on his computer at all it freeze.My son computer is fine and hes running windows 98.I've done just about everything i know to do .We are on cable if that may help you help me with this problem.And the computer shop here in our town said after i get the computer sharing each other that well need to be configure and that they do that for fifty dollars an hour is that also true ? This is getting very prices when your on a buget.And i did replace all the netowrk card to be the same in all computer like we we're told too also. And the computer are not far apart either.All on the same wires as it said in the directions.please help

1. RE: trouble in networking land
theung Nov-20-01 06:40 AM
In response to message 0

if you are new in networking, you have two choice. first choice is do some studying, either from a book or search more basic infomation from the net. it will take a little longer time, but you can learn a lot of things. the second choice is fast, i guess you know what it is.

2. RE: trouble in networking land
tpeter Nov-20-01 09:59 AM
In response to message 0

play game together does not require a lot of things as you listed. it required that all computers on the network can see each other and able to access the shared files if the game installed locally. because WinME and Win98 can only access FAT and FAT32 while Win W2K and XP can access both FAT32 and NTFS, therefore, make sure that if you're running a mix windows-base environment you should use one File System such as FAT32 for all computers on you network.
As said, the computer hosting the game should grant sufficient access to other computer accessing it. Such accesses are: Execute, Write, Modify, Read... if you only have Read access then obviously you cannot run anything.
I hope this will help you somehow. Just consider that, people who play game on the internet do not have the same hardwares configuration.
Most of the time, it is access problem.
so good luck to you.

4. RE: trouble in networking land
lbyard Nov-20-01 04:38 PM
In response to message 2

One can network NTFS drives with FAT32 drives and move stuff between them. I found that if you have Windows Me and XP on a network, you have to get rid of NetBEUI for the two computers to see each other. Larry