HOW TO MAKE A SIMPLE WORKGROUP IN YOUR HOME

As I have promised last week, I will teach you guys how to create a workgroup in your home environment. Before I start this tutorial, I would like to apologise to those who are already got the knack and even master in networking. This post may sounds disappointing to you because this post is meant to be created to those who are newbies in networking. All you need before following this tutorial is to have a laptop with Windows OS installed (I haven’t try this on any Linux OS or Mac OS before) and a router or switch (not necessarily to be connected to the Internet) and RJ45 cables. The RJ45 cable looks like this in the below:

          Actually the cable itself is not a necessity if you have a switch or router with wireless capabilities. Let’s get the things ready and let’s start the tutorial!

1.     First, connect all the computers you wish to connect to the network to the same network. For example: my house’s network, scw_unisza, as shown in the figure below:

2.     Then right-click on My Computer and hit Properties.

 

 

3.     After that, a window pops out showing you the details and information of your computer. Scroll down until you see this section:

 

4.     From here, you can check your computer name and your workgroup name. Click on the ‘Change Settings’ on the right if you wish to change your computer name and workgroup name.

5.     In this example I will just leave the name unchanged. However it’s okay if you change the name.

6.     Next, you have to make sure that all the computers have the same workgroup name. For example, the workgroup name that the computers in my house had entered is “WORKGROUP”. (Just as what have written on the above image). Computers with same workgroup name means they are in the same workgroup and are able to form a Local Area Network (LAN).

7.     After that, you are done. You can see other computers easily by going to ‘Network’ that can be accessed through double-clicking My Computer and select ‘Network’ on the left pane.

8.     From here, you can see your friend’s computers displayed on the window. As in the image above, currently we have 5 computers in my workgroup including my computer named PANG-PC. The image below is a screenshot taken from another computer in our homegroup

That’s it! You have created your own network in your home. The next post I’m going to write about how we can apply this technique in simple distributed computing. Thanks, everyone and Selamat Hari Raya Aidiladha.