Adding a second computer

[BocaBum99 Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close BocaBum99]

You shouldn't have trouble with straight internet access. The PC card should be plug and play and you can download any drivers using ethernet as I mentioned before.

Resource sharing is a pain with XP Pro. I used to run XP Pro on my work laptop. Typically, when you have XP Pro, it is configured to run in a domain on a network at work. So, the security is very high. That means when you get home, it doesn't work the same way as your home network which is very insecure. You won't be able to see the network or the resources such as printers if its set up in a domain.

There are two ways to solve this problem. The first is to figure out the IP address of the main computer that has a shared directory and "run" it.

Start>>Run>>//xx.xxx.xx.xxx

Then, it will ask for the admin id and password and it will open a window to that shared drive. Just copy stuff to that directory and print from the PC on the network.

Or, you can set up a separate id that is not on the domain. Or you can try to eliminate the domain. All that stuff takes system admin skills. So, I don't recommend it.

[T. R. Oglodyte Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close T. R. Oglodyte]

I run a home network with XP Pro. One of my sons bought a latop compuer without a wireless card, so he bought a wireless card that fits into the PCMCIA slot on his laptop.

I didn't have any problem getting him set up onto the network.

[lawren2 Malibu Beach Barbie & A Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close lawren2]

I just hope all of you are hanging around the internet tomorrow if I have more issues.

I'm not completely illiterate. I had a horrible complete crash from Sasser and had to completely rebuild the desktop. I know more about it then I'd like to, but that is not a bad thing.

[gophish Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close gophish]

You should be ok with what you are planning to get.
Get the laptop up and running on the wireless and get internet access first, as Boca said that is the easiest part.Then wortk on the resource sharing which is sometimes a pain but it should work ok. At least you have a version of XP on both your boxes, it's harder if you are dealing with a mix of XP and 2000 or 98(ech).
I'm sure there will be people around tomorrow.