In the previous article, I wrote about setting up a local network on Windows 7. But, since the number of Windows 10 users is growing every day, I decided to prepare instructions for setting up a local network in Windows 10. According to these instructions, you can combine everything into a home local network. computers that you have connected to one Wi-Fi router. I will show using the example of setting up a network between a computer on Windows 10 and Windows 7. But, computers on Windows 8, or several computers on Windows 10, can also participate in this network. The instruction is universal, and if you have several ordinary desktop computers and laptops connected to the same router, then you can integrate them into a local network without any problems. And at the same time, it doesn't matter at all which version of Windows they run on (except for Windows XP).
After creating a local network, you can:
- Share files between computers on your home network.
- Share the printer. For example: you connected a printer to one computer on the local network, and documents can be printed from other computers.
- Play games over the local network.
And all this can be done by air. If your computers and laptops are connected to the router via a Wi-Fi network. This is how you do it. You can connect some computers by cable, and laptops, for example, by Wi-Fi. Everything will work.
I have set up a local area network between two computers (stationary PC and laptop). One works on Windows 10, and the second on Windows 7. I set it up through the homegroup. I think this is the most correct and safest way. You can also configure it by disabling sharing with password protection, as I did in the instructions for setting up a local network in Windows 7.
How does a local area network work through a homegroup setup? A very important point, since the settings are a little confused there, the main thing is to understand how everything works, and it will already be easier to configure. This means that we create a home group on one of the computers and get a password (I created it on Windows 7, it doesn't matter). And all the other computers that we want to network, we simply join the homegroup using the received password. That's all. It is this scheme that we will now consider in more detail.
I made a small diagram for clarity (you may have more or less computers, and the printer does not need to be connected):
Before proceeding with the setup, you must check time and date.Check that the time and date are the same on all computers that will participate in the network.
How to create a homegroup in Windows 7
If, for example, you have all computers on Windows 10, then we create a home group on one of the computers with a "ten", everything is exactly the same there. Or in Windows 8, for example.
Right-click on the internet connection icon in the notification bar. Then, select Network and Sharing Center.
There will be our connection to the router (via cable, or Wi-Fi). It is important that it has the Home network status. If you have a Public network like mine in the screenshot, then click on this link and select home network.
Close the network location selection window. Now, our connection is "Home network". Go to section Home group.
Click on the button Create a home group.
Highlight the required items to be shared (shared folders) and press Further.
Write down or take a photo of the password that you will have. With this password, we will connect other computers to our network.
This completes the creation of the home group. If you go to againNetwork and Sharing Center - Home group, then you can remember the password, change it, leave the group, change the sharing settings, etc.
Everything, the group has been created. We have the password. Now we connect the necessary computers in our network to the homegroup.
Setting up a local network in Windows 10: connecting to a homegroup
Let's move on to another computer. Now I will show, using a Windows 10 computer as an example, how to connect to a homegroup to create a home local network. Using this scheme, you can connect not only computers with Windows 10 installed, but also with Windows 7 and Windows 8.
Already according to the standard scheme, right-click on the Internet icon, and select Network and Sharing Center... Go to Home group.
If you have a message "The homegroup is not available because you are not connected to your home network.", then click on Change location on the network, and click on the button Yes.
We wait a bit, and we see a message that we can join the home group. Click on the button Will join.
A password prompt will appear. We indicate the password that we received when creating a homegroup on another computer. Push Ok.
A message appears that you have joined the homegroup. Click on Done.
If you open the Network and Sharing Center - Homegroup, you can set up sharing, leave the group, see the password, etc.
That's it, the local network between computers is already working. Open the explorer (This computer), go to the left on the network tab, and see computers on the local network. We can open them and view the folders that are shared. A computer with Windows 10 can easily see a computer with Windows 7 installed on the network.
Likewise, a Windows 7 computer sees and logs into a Windows 10 computer. In this way, you can connect other computers. One condition is that they are connected to your router.
What to do next? How to use a local area network?
It all depends on the purpose for which you combined computers into one network.
- If you want to play online, then everything should already work. Sometimes, antivirus programs block such connections. Therefore, if you have problems when computers cannot see each other, then just try for a while. disable antivirus.
- To share files, you can use shared folders. Just copy the files, for example, to the "My Pictures" folder (provided that we shared this folder during the setup process), and they will be available from all computers on the network. If you want to share your folder on a local drive, then follow this instruction. See after the heading "Configuring File and Folder Sharing".
- And on setting up a shared printer, I will prepare a separate article.
These are the tips. I hope this article was useful to you.
