How to properly configure a home network using both Mac and PC computers

Question

Is there a book or set of guidelines that can tell me how to properly configure (exact specifications) my computers in a home network? Here is what I am trying to do and using:
1) Three computers: iMac (late 06 ver), Macbook (newest version), Dell laptop. The two Macs are using Leopard and the PC is XP.
2) Bellsouth modem which feeds into the Airport Extreme Base Station (AEBS)
3) The AEBS has a USB hub which is connected to a external hard drive and two inkjet printers. A third laser printer/scanner/fax machine is connected to the AEBS via ethernet.
4) All three computers use a wireless connection to the AEBS.
I would like the following:
1) Have a secured and password driven network - don't want outsiders connecting to the nework without permission.
2) All computers to be able to access the USB printers and ext HD.
3) The two Macs to read/write to each other with password access
4) The iMac to have read/write capabalities over the PC via VSFusion or Bootcamp if possible.
Currently, all three have Internet access via the AEBS and can print on the ethernet printer. Both Macs can see the Bonjour USB printers and print (however they to do not display on the AEBS configuration display utility and neither does the ext HD). The USB ext HD is shown on the iMac desktop and I have access to it, but does not display on the MacBook. I have not checked if the PC sees the external HD and it really does not matter if it ever does, although it would be nice.
I am hoping that there is some standard configuration that I can "cut and paste" that is generally used to allow a home network to share resources while still being secure.
Any advice and help is greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
Andrew

Answer 1

Andrew,
What you would like is fairly complicated so this will probably be a lengthy post, but hopefully I can assist you.
As others here have pointed out, networks can vary widely, but the best networks have one element in common: planning. The first thing you need to think about is how you would like all of these systems to cooperate. For instance, do you want one of the machines to serve files to the others and be a central repository, or are you just interested in having them share documents on occasion so that you don't have to carry around, say, a USB key all the time? That said, here is a basic list of things I think you should look into.
1. Network Basics
First step is to get your local network set up. I'd go for WPA or WPA2 wireless security as they are relatively strong standards and you can use human-readable passwords. Additionally, unless you have an explicit need for someone outside your network to initialize a connection (Windows' RDP for instance), do not allow any passthroughs or port redirects on your AEBS.
2. Network Topology
Decide how you want computers and networked devices to identify themselves and their relative locations in the network: in short, do you want static ip's or dynamic ip's? Most of the time, static IP's can be assigned on a DHCP router, the trick is to assign the statics higher than your number of devices (or lower on some routers - for instance Linksys routers start DHCP at 192.168.1.100 but you could have statics from 192.168.1.2 to 192.168.1.99). For instance, it is impractical to set a laptop to static because I'm often in coffee shoppes and other environments that assign via DHCP; on the other hand, it's a good idea to have a printer be static so that you always know where to find it. So, I have 10.0.1.x network (default on AEBS), and the printer is 10.0.1.24, since the likelihood of my encountering an IP conflict with 4 computers on the subnet is virtually zero. If you configure a static device behind your AEBS, defaults are usually
Default Gateway 10.0.1.1
IP Address 10.0.1.(your choice)
Subnet Mask 255.255.255.0
3. File-sharing.
3a) Mac OS X has a built-in SMB/CIFS (Windows file & printer sharing protocol) client, and a basic SMB [samba] server can be enabled in the sharing preference panel (enable file and/or printer sharing). Windows XP can use these shares, but must authenticate. For that reason, you may not be able to see your shares in the Network Places browser, however you should be able to get to them by mapping the network drive (tools menu) or executing RUN with \\computer.name\share.name. You will then be able to type in your credentials. I would also suggest relatively simple names for the Macs in question (set in Sharing preference pane). Typing Andrew's-iMac-G4 in every time you want to find it will get irritating after a while to say the least, especially if you need to troubleshoot.
3b) The reverse works similarly. You can Connect to Server... from Finder to get to the Windows shares. To do this you must have Windows File and Printer sharing enabled (most easily through the Network Setup Wizard in Control Panels - Use Classic View). It's really easy if your account names and passwords are identical on the Mac and PC, because when loading user profiles, the Mac will generally automatically try to authenticate against the Windows machine with your Mac logon credentials. (Windows seems to do this against the Mac as well) You can write an Applescript or there are some PLIST modifications you can make to mount Windows shares at login.
4. Printing
I'm not exactly sure what you had in mind here since I'm not sure what's connected to which computer or directly to the network. If it is possible, I personally find putting my printers directly on the network to be the easiest thing. Especially if printing large PDF or graphics files, the spooling on the host system can really slow the computer down, and slow down printing. For example, I used to have a laserjet on a Windows box and had to print a very large file. Going through a Win print server, it only printed a page every 30 seconds, but when I got a jetdirect adapter, the whole thing was done in under two minutes. If you have HP Printers, I would recommend the jetdirect print servers (I have used with both a laserjet and a supposedly unsupported color inkjet).