Networking with AirPort

Question

I'm sure this has been asked and answered millions of times. If someone could just direct me to a comprehensive FAQ I would be grateful. Here's the issue:
I have an eMac 1.25ghz, an iMac 700 & an iMac 600. All are in the same household and use AirPort cards via a Netgear router. I just want to network them together wirelessly. I've followed the directions in the Help Menu, but with poor results. The furthest I could get was the iMac 600 recognizing the eMac, but I couldn't transfer any files.
Obviously, I'm not doing something essential, but I don't know what. The Help Menu keeps directing me to iDisk as the networking mechanism, which I've tried to use, but without much success. It seems an unnecessary detour to the seamless integration I envision.
Right now I just use a flash drive to manually copy files from machine to machine. Intuitively, I feel there must be a simple way to network these Macs together via AirPort without having to use iDisk.
Thanks for your patience. I wouldn't have bothered anyone with this, but I've spent several hours trying to "read the manual" and now I need some expert help.
Glenn

Answer 1

I don't think it matters, but I use a Netgear WTG624 v.2, which was bought off the shelf at Best Buy. Set up was a snap. I just followed a few online instructions in the Netgear software and the AirPort cards did the rest. (Occasionally, one of the Macs will lose the wireless connection and the AirPort icon will go gray. I've learned simply to unplug the router for a minute, then plug it back in and let it reset. This restores the connection.)
As for setting up a wireless network with the other Macs in the house, I simply turned them all on and under the AirPort icon in the toolbar clicked on "Create Network." Each automatically created its own network with its own name. Then I clicked back to the Netgear network.
Next I clicked on "File Sharing" on each computer (System Preferences in the Dock, then the Sharing icon). I didn't make any other changes.
Once this was done, on each computer I went to "Go" in the toolbar and clicked on "Network." This opened a window, and after about 10 seconds each Mac would could "see" the other two on the network.
Now this is where I got stuck before, but finally figured out (d'oh!). Double clicking on another Mac in the network will ask me for a login and password. What threw me off is it automatically provided my login name, and I couldn't figure out why my password (which is the same on all the Macs) wouldn't work. Believe it or not, this stupid step cost me hours of aggravation.
What I didn't realize is I had to use the admin login for the Mac I was trying to access, not the one I was logging in from, which is the login name automatically provided. Since each Mac has slightly different login names, I had to jot them all down, then erase the login name that was provided for me and type in the proper admin name for that computer. Then the password worked and I gained access to the other Mac.
From there is was a simple matter of dragging what I needed from one Mac to the other. I was even able to install large applications without having to haul out the disks.
I knew it would be simple, but as always the first time is always hard.
Glenn