total noob networking advice needed

[parley]

hi guys, this is the situation, in our school office 3 PC's running windows XP are connected to the admin server, in another small office nearby there is a free admin data point i need to connect a laptop running windows 7 so that it can access admin data i.e pupil details etc.. stored on the admin server, i don't have a clue where to start and would greatly appreciate some advice, many thanks in advance. i connected the laptop to the admin data point and under network connections it said unidentified public network, file sharing is on if that helps at all.

[kianniamh]

Probably need to go on the server and add a user to give the data point access rights also add the workgroup name on the laptop.

[oneman]

By admin data point I am guessing your networks are split (quite common in schools) and you are connecting to a network point that is on the same network as the server ?

Are the computers in the office part of a domain or workgroup ? You can check this at logon prompt it should give you a domain name on the third input box. I am going to guess you are running a domain.

Do you have an user account on the domain (i.e. can you log onto one of the 3 PC in the office). In which case after you plugged the laptop in your need to map a drive from the laptop to the server. Logon onto one of the PC in the office. Note down the what is written next to the drive letter of where the data is. So for example you might see something like S: (\\server1\shared). This is the server and share name.

Its very easy to do, in Windows explorer on the laptop select the option to map a drive. Enter the server and share name as you saw it on the offce PC.

Also in there use option to select different credentials. Select this and enter the userid and password you used on the office PC.

There is a youtube video of how to do it here,

YouTube - How to map a network drive in Windows 7

Instead of entering the server and share name, they browse for it which you can do.