Sharing Your Files and Folders Wirelessly

Now that your computers are connected and can share Internet access, it is time for you to make your internal network a bit more functional by sharing your files and folders wirelessly.

Look Out for Security

Before you start sharing your folders, remember that unless you have set up encryption on your network, all the files you share will be accessible for others to read. In other words anyone, starting with your neighbors, could connect to your wireless connection by bringing their computer close enough and view all the things your shared folders contain.

To avoid this, there are two options you can choose from: you should either share only files that you wouldn't mind other people reading, or set up encryption on your network. You will certainly require encryption if you plan to modify shared files from other computers as well as uploading and downloading them. Read 'Dealing with Security Threats: Wireless Encryption' if you are interested to know more about this subject.

Automatic Sharing

The good news about placing your shared files in a special folder is that you don't have to do any extra configuration as Windows automatically shares your 'Shared Documents' folder. In fact, whenever you make a wireless network, it will provide a space you can use to have pictures and music shared throughout the network. To use the Shared Documents folders, go to My Network Places from the Start Menu.

Sharing More

Luckily enough, sharing more than one folder is possible. For instance, you can access your Word documents from any of the computers of your network, without having to save them outside My Documents. This means that you can have access to any files of your network, provided they belong to the same folder.

If you want to share one of your existing folders, you should right-click it and select 'Sharing and Security'. Choose 'Share this folder on the network' when the box appears on your screen. In order to change your files from other computers, you should tick 'Allow network users to change my files' as well. If you don't follow this step, your files will be read-only if accessed from another computer.

Keep in mind that sharing files across the network can be slow, depending on the speed of your wireless equipment is. Knowing how Windows operates, try to avoid having too much files in the same shared folder, because it can significantly slow down your network.

You Can Even Share Drives

Sharing whole drives is also possible. However, doing it for your whole hard drive can be very risky, since anyone who has access to your network would be able see what's on your computer, including your private documents as well. What's even worse, your computer could be seriously damaged if you had previously set it to allow the network to modify files.

Actually, it is sharing removable drives where drive sharing becomes really helpful. Through drive sharing, you can share everything across your network by right-clicking your CD drive, floppy drive, etc. The steps you should follow are the same as turning on sharing for a folder. However, in this case, remember to click to confirm to Windows that you are aware of the risks involved.

If you're done this, your possibilities are endless. For example, you may use software that needs the CD to run if the CD is in one of your computers, or even save your files to floppy disk from a computer having no floppy disk drives.

And, believe it or not, this is not all you can do. Devices like digital cameras and mp3 players show up as drives in My Computer as they're plugged in. If you turn on sharing for these drives, you're basically having the devices shared across the entire network. It's smart to have your camera plugged into one computer and be able to download the photos on to all of them. Well, just have a try!

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