Page 934 - Windows 10 May 2019 Update The Missing Manual: The Book That Should Have Been in the Box

Chapter 19. Sharing Files on

the Network

Almost every Windows machine on earth is connected to the Mother of All
Networks, the one we call the internet. But most PCs also get connected,
sooner or later, to a smaller network—some kind of home or office

network.

If you work at a biggish company, then you probably work on a domain
network—the centrally managed type found in corporations. In that case,

you won’t have to fool around with building or designing a network; your
job, and your PC, presumably came with a fully functioning one (and a

fully functioning geek responsible for running it).

Within your home or small office, though, you can create a simpler network
that you set up yourself. Your PCs are connected either by Ethernet wires or

over a wireless Wi-Fi network.

Being on a network means you can share all kinds of stuff among the
various PCs that are connected:

Files, folders, and disks. No matter what PC you’re using on the
network, you can open the files and folders on any other

networked PC, as long as the other PCs’ owners have made those
files available for public inspection. That’s where file sharing
comes in, and that’s what this chapter is all about.

The uses for file sharing are almost endless. It means you can
finish writing a letter in the bedroom, even if you started it
downstairs at the kitchen table—without having to carry a flash
drive around. It means you can watch a slideshow drawn from

photos on your spouse’s PC somewhere else in the house. It means
your underlings can turn in articles for your company newsletter by

depositing them directly into a folder on your laptop.