Networks cant connect to network computerss

my house could all connect at one time but we all got new computers and now we cant connect. here is the setup


mom
dell laptop
xp home
wifi

dad
dell desktop
xp home
cat5

me
xp pro
wifi

the router is a linksys wrt54g

when we try to connect it says you dont have permissions contact network admin. nobody can connect anyone. but the internet works fine.(well sorta) wifi quits responding randomly. and we have to restart router but the wired is always working i think

 

let's see if I have understood the problem correctly!

you can use internet but when trying to connect to the router via web interface you get the error msg ??

 

I think what he means is that the internet is working, but the computers cannot connect to each other.

Firstly... Tbh, the reason why your wireless drops out is probably because Linksys makes crap routers, the wireless being the worst part of it. However, what you can try is disabling "enable IEEE 802.1x authentication for this network", that often solves a lot of dropouts.

Secondly, on each computer, disable the SP2 or windows firewall and install your own firewall if you haven't done so, and configure it so that the network is allowed to access the computer. Once done make sure the computer is in the same workgroup (Right click my computer > properties > computer name) then in windows explorer, go to tools > folder options > view and uncheck "use simple file sharing" (right at the bottom of the list).

Then right click the folder or drive you want to share and go to "sharing and security", then select "share this folder", at the bottom select "new share" and name it whatever you want. In permissions you can add network users and set passwords, or simply give everyone controls they want. Press OK for everything and you should be done once you do them all on each computer.

To access the shares from another computer, type in the IP address of the computer you wish to access in teh address bar of windows exploer, such as \\192.168.1.25 and if you have configured the firewalls correctly you should be able to access the shared files.