If you have several PCs at home and an Internet connection provided by a router, then you already have all the necessary elements to form a personal network. This term refers to the interconnection of computer systems to share resources such as multimedia files, documents, printers, Internet connections, etc.
All working computers at home can connect to each other through a common access point; in this case the router with its Wi-Fi or wired connections. It does not matter any of them because what matters is that they all belong to the same Work Group, an essential network function so that effective communication can be established.
For this, Windows 11 has an easy-to-use wizard for setting up a private home network at home. Once this is done, it will be possible to remotely access shared folders and printers and back up files from any connected computer without having to go to that location and without using additional storage media.
Therefore, we show you how to configure your Windows 11 computer for networking.
First of all, press the Windows + I keys to open the window that gives access to Windows 11 settings. Then, go to System > About.
In this window, click on Domain or workgroup. When the System Properties window opens, click Change.
Modify the Team Name and Workgroup options to your liking. Then click OK. Restart the computer for the changes to take effect.
Once this is done, open the Windows 11 Control Panel (click the search field and type “control panel” in the Type here to search box to bring up that function). Now, go to Network and Internet > Network and Sharing Center and in this window click on Change advanced sharing settings.
Here you can find three sections: Private, Guest or public and All networks. Expand the Private and All networks sections. Then enable the Turn on network discovery and Turn on file and printer sharing options.
Additionally, in the All networks section, make sure to enable the option Turn on sharing so that all users with network access can read and write files in public folders. You’ll also need to check the Turn off password-protected sharing box. To finish, click Save Changes.
Once this configuration is finished, all that remains is to establish which will be the shared folders on the network. For this, choose the folder of your choice, right click on it and select Properties. Open the Sharing tab and click Share. Then, finish this configuration by selecting the network users with whom the folder in question will be shared.
Repeat this process on all the computers on the network.
Image by Picography from Pixabay