Need help setting up wireless local network

I bought a laptop for $100 from a friend... it's running MS Vista (No problems yet). To it, I bought a NETGEAR Wireless-G Router so I'm on wireless internet right now. Got that working with some trouble (I'm not much of a hardware person).

What I'm having trouble with is setting up a local wireless network, so I can use the printer wirelessly and access the other computer wirelessly (If at all possible... with password of course).

I can't seem to be able to do that. This is what I have currently tried.

• I went to the network place in my other PC (Running MS XP PRO).
• I set up a local wireless network with the same SSID as the wireless internet SSID
• I selected the settings to be transferred through the flash drive
• I got that setup on my laptop
• Then I had to bring my flash drive back to the other PC and hit next after putting in the flash drive
• That didn't work... all that did is change my encryption and password/passphrase (Took me a while to figure that one out

I did that after a setup a workgroup and a network that isn't wireless (Took me a while to see the wireless network setup button at the top left menu in MS XP PRO... I used MS XP PRO to set up the wireless network if that makes a difference.

Thanks in advance.

All devices, wired or wireless, talk to each other through the router. All PCs should get an IP address from the router. Something tells me that you don't have a wireless printer. Is it connected to the XP box by USB? A true wireless printer has a NIC that can be assigned an IP address. How is the XP box connected to the router, cat5 or wireless? Is there a modem involved? If so, the setup should be:

modem > router > all PCs & devices, wired or wireless. It doesn't matter.


If all that is too confusing, run ipconfig /all from a command prompt on both machines. Both should have an IP address from the router.

Here is how my PC is wired...

It is to the modem, the wireless router is connected to the modem (I think that is what it is called... I got DSL). My printer isn't wireless, it is connected to the computer through a USB port.

I'm aware that in order for me to use the printer, then the XP Box would probably needs to be on (I think), and that is fine, as I use the laptop pretty much when the XP Box is on.

So I was thinking I should create a network with this laptop to the XP Box and have it print through the XP Box to the printer... something like that.

I'm not all that sure how to do what you told me there.. I'm not much of a network guy.. how do I access my modem > router >all PCs & Devices.

Well, I guess what I did yesterday worked... all I needed was to restart both systems. The problem I find now is that the Driver instal for the printer doesn't work with MS VISTA... This is frustrating... you know any workarounds?

My Printer is Lexmark 5400 Series. Thanks in advance

What's the exact model of the printer? Go to www.lexmark.com
You should be able to find the Vista driver.

The exact model is x5470m ... I got the driver installed and it all works good. Thank you for the help

You're welcome