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Resolved Question

homegroup file share

Aug 6, 2011 2:02AM PDT

Could you give me an example of how this feature can be utilized?

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johndoe77 has chosen the best answer to their question. View answer

Best Answer

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Sure.
Aug 6, 2011 10:17PM PDT

I have 3 computers at home.

Windows 7 on a Desktop
Windows Vista on a laptop
Windows XP on an older Desktop.

Windows 7 is connected by physical cable to a router that is wireless capable, (a 'wireless router').
Windows Vista's laptop has a wireless card already built into the laptop and that connects to the router.
Windows XP has a wireless USB adaptor connected, and that connects to the router.

The router is connected to the cable modem, so all computers have equal internet access.

All of my computers are connected to a Home Network. That means, if any two (or all three), are turned on, I can access all 'public' folders from all computers on any computer. Public means that the OS doesn't restrict sharing anyway, and that those folders are shared.

It works well for me apart from the usual head-banging to get it all set up.

Hope that helps.

Mark

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usefullness
Aug 7, 2011 5:15AM PDT

I appreciate your reply. I have the newer networking whereby you need two Win 7 o.s.'s -once the homegrooup is created with a common password you can file share. I agree with the setting up as I have to initially connect my laptop to the router with an ethernet cable. Once connected I can then remove the cable and share files wirelssly in my home network.
My question was,"What purpose does this serve?
In other words, can you give me a concrete example of how file sharing can be of use. It seems as though you can amend a file on one pc while typing on the other pc. I don't see the concept they had in mind when they created this file sharing by whatever means.
Thank you,
Peter

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In my case
Aug 7, 2011 5:26AM PDT

I have to admit that in my case it was a matter of, "Can I do it?".

Sine then I don't use home networking that much, but it is still useful to me. For example, my Win 7 is the only one I use to manage emails, but my XP machine is the only one that has Office installed. I sometimes need to send a document or a spreadsheet to other people, so I create those on the XP system, copy the files across to the Win 7 system, then email them.

I also use the hard disks on other machines as backups of data I want to secure so I have more than one backup safely stored.

Other people will have different uses. For instance, using one computer simply as a storage device is a common occurrence. Another example, sharing photos, music and videos between family members' computers.

I'm sure there are 1001 uses. I haven't found them all yet! Happy

Mark

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Networking whether in a home or a business ...
Aug 7, 2011 7:27AM PDT

allows the sharing of files (as long as the application that uses the specific type of file is loaded on both machines), control of the other computer without leaving your own, backing up the valuable data from computer A to computer B and vice versa (keeps you from losing the file if one computer has a catastrophic failure and you haven't made backups on other media such as CD or DVD), allows you to play multi player games, allows you to download an application or utility on one computer and install it on the other without downloading twice or having to copy the file to removable media, etc. ...

Your ability to use networking is limited only by your imagination and the capabilities of applications (the same data file usually can't be in use by both computers at the same time as it is normally locked by the first computer to access it so changes are not lost).

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files
Aug 7, 2011 11:37PM PDT

I have to admit that in my case it was a matter of, "Can I do it?".

>This is why I wrote b/c I felt the same way.
Most of the things I want to do I can do w/o filesharing.
Reading the following post did, however, enlighten me to the possibilities which I may explore. Thank you all for the help.
Peter