How to Set Up a Network in Vista

If you want to create your own peer-to-peer network at home or in your small office, Windows Vista has a wizard that takes you through the necessary steps. You get started by doing either of the following:

• In the Network Center task pane, click Set Up a Connection or Network, click Set Up a Network, and click Next.
  
  
• If you're browsing a network computer's resources, click Set Up a Home or Small Office Network.
  

In the initial Set Up a Network wizard dialog box that appears, click Next. The wizard then detects your networking hardware, including whether your network configuration includes a router. Vista can detect whether your network is configured with a router.

Then Vista gives you the choice of saving the network settings to a USB Flash drive. After the settings have been saved, you simply plug the Flash drive into another Vista or XP computer that you want on your network. In the AutoPlay dialog box that appears, you choose the Wireless Network Setup Wizard option. This runs the wizard and, by using the settings stored on the Flash drive, sets up the computer on the network in seconds. Vista gives you the option of saving the new network settings to a USB Flash drive so you can apply them on other computers that you want on the same network. When you insert the Flash drive in another computer, the AutoPlay dialog box prompts you to start the Wireless Network Setup Wizard.