I have been using computers since Windows 3.1, however have never networked my machines together.

I have a BT Home Hub 2.0 (Router / Modem) connecting to a Desktop (Wired with XP Pro), Laptop (Wireless with XP Pro) and a Mac Pro (Wired with Leopard 10.5.7).

At present, they all connect to the internet via either wired or wireless connections as above - so is this called a network? But at the moment they can only "talk" to the Home Hub. I know I need to make some further changes to all machines and to firewall software to do this.

I have looked a various websites, but haven't found a good one yet that will show me what I need to do - for networking / file sharing and printer sharing.

If anyone could point me in the right direction I would be extremely grateful.

Many thanks

Welcome to the forums

The XP machines should be straight forward. Pick one of them and run the network wizard on it. You'll either need a memory stick or floppy to transfer the settings with, then go to the other and run its wizard taking the settings from the portable media.

Not sure about the Mac but one of the other guys will resolve that I'm sure.

Under XP, you can share a folder (right click on folder > properties)

In Finder on OS X:
Go > Connect to server
Enter:
smb://<ip-of-XP-machine>
IIRC, you will be asked for a username and password and then it will show you what folders you can access.

I've not done it the other way around...

I've not done it the other way around either, but I suspect that it will be PC to Mac which will cause issues.

If it's important that the XP machines can access files on the Mac you might want to post in the Mac forum. It's more likely to be read by Mac types over there.

In Tiger (don't know leopard, but it should be the same) you need to go to system preferences. Select the sharing pane. There is an option for windows sharing, switch this on and you can reach the Mac from the PCs. Personally, I always just connect my Mac to the Windows machines and don't bother connecting my PCs to my Macs.

Thanks to everyone for your help and comments. I'm off tomorrow, so will give it a go and come back with any further questions.

Many thanks
Matt