Networking... How?
If i may ask for some of your knowledgeable thoughts on networking... before i go off half-cocked and make a mess of something i have not done before (something i have proved to be quite good at...)
I would like to hook together my HP Omnibook4150 (win2000, P3 650mhz, 256MB RAM) with my Lady's Dell Inspiron (win2000, P3 700mhz, 320MB RAM)- both are laptop computers. Extra devices i would like to hook up and have accessable to both are a USB Kodak CD-R/RW and a USB Lexmark colour Scanner/Copier, and from time to time a USB digital camera.
Recently i tried to network them via her inbuilt ethernet port and a PCMCIA ethernet card that i purchased for mine. At the time i had winXP and she had winME. This did not work- i connected the wire directly from mine to hers, ran the "networking wizard" in XP, made a floppy that it said to and ran it on the ME machine. It kept saying a network cable was unplugged.
Since then, and having installed win2K on both, i have thought that maybe it would be best if we could network via a USB hub seeing as how our "periferal devices" are USB run. Is this possible and does it make sense? Can i have the periferals running off a USB hub and accessable to one or both computers? Would there be conflicts if both machines tried to access say the CDRW at the same time?
As i am a contractor and go away for extended periods and her work often req taking her machine, i would like to set up a system that allows one or other or both machines to use the network, and to network together.. ie i would like to stay away from having one machine as the 'parent' or host or what-have-you.
Hope i have been a little clearer than mud, appreciate any advice you all have for me
HJ