How to unblock local network connections

Sharing Printers and Files over a private network

Unblocking local network connections:

You may be running firewall software such as Norton Internet security. If you don't have any third party firewall software installed, then you are probably running the Windows XP firewall.
Either way, this software will block the connection unless it is told which connections are safe to let through. This is the case for BOTH of your computers so you will have to fix the problem on both!
What we’re going to do here is allow anything sent directly between your computers to pass unhindered, while still protecting you from the outside world.
Now, if you are running a third party firewall, check the Windows XP firewall because it should be turned off.
If you are not running a third party firewall, check that the XP one is turned on.
Click on Start->Settings->Control panel and click "Windows Firewall".
On the "General" tab you can either turn the firewall on or off as required.
If you leave the firewall on, click the "Exceptions" tab and then make sure that File and Printer sharing is ticked. Click OK.

You can stop at this point if you have no other firewall software. Otherwise read the next section. I’m afraid I can’t explain how to set up every firewall on the market – I have used Norton as an example here.

A simple way to allow sharing in third party firewall software is by IP address. These addresses are generated by your wireless access point and you should be able to find out what "range" of addresses are relevant to your network by checking your access point configuration.
If you don’t know the range, you could take a guess as follows:
Start->Programs->Accessories->Command prompt
Type ipconfig, Under "IP address" you will see an address which looks something like 192.168.1.100,
your address range in this case would be 192.168.1.0 to 192.168.1.254 - you must keep the first three numbers as shown on your screen and substitute the last number with 0 and 254 to get your range.

So by now you should have a range of addresses which you want to allow access to.
Firewall software differs but there should be a box in the configuration which allows you to specify a range. In Norton Internet Security 2004 for example, click "Personal Firewall", then "Configure", then "Networking". Then hit “Add”, select “Using a range” and type in the two addresses which describe your range. Click OK twice and then close the main window.

Now if you’ve just finished doing this on your first computer, go and do it again on the other. The address range will be the same.

By: Maamoun Kh. Al-Shaweesh.

MCSE2003, MCSA2003, MCP, CCNA.

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