Well, your on the right track. Networking between the machines is apparently setup, so you only need to do a few things.
First is to create a global folder for POS. To do this you need to pick one of the two machines to create a share on. It doesn't really matter which one, but for this example lets say the XP one.
It's pretty easy in Xp. To start, create a folder:
Open my computer, double click on drive C:
On the menu bar, select File-->new-->folder
name your new folder (I like to use "GPOS" for pos shares)
right click your new folder. Select "sharing and security"
Click the 'share this folder" radio button. You can leave the name as "gpos"
Now, you have a share created, and you can copy your stock table and other global files to it (see the POS manual for which files need to be global, or maybe Dale will be kind and mention it?)
For the next step, you need the XP machines computer name OR ip address. You only need ONE of the following. The computer name is prefered, because IP addresses can change on some networks. To get one...
For computer name: right click "my computer", select properties, and click "computer name" The item next to "Full computer name" is the one you want.
For Ip address: click on start, then RUN. Type in CMD and hit ENTER to get a command prompt. Type in IPCONFIG and hit ENTER to get your ip information. You want the number next to "Ip address...." It is usually something like "192.168.1.15" or similar.
Ok, now you have an address or name to reference your XP machine by. on the other machine, you need to map the share you just created as a drive for POS to make use of.
To do this, on the other machine, go to start, then run. Type into the box "\\computername" where "computername" is the name OR ip address you just found. An explorer window will come up with the share you created (and possibly others) in it. Right click on the share you want (gpos, if you used the name I suggested) and select "map network drive" You will need to choose a drive letter... it doesn't really matter which one, but make sure you remember it (G: is usually good)
Now, you should have a "g:" drive in my computer at this point. The next step is simply to go to the network option in POSCONFG and set your global folder to "g:\" This will tell POS how to find your newly created global share folder.
On the XP machine, you still have to tell POS how to find the folder, even though it's on the local drive. If you used "gpos" as the folder, all you have to do is set POSCONFG on the XP machine to use "c:\gpos\" as the global folder, and you should be good to go!
Well, thats about it. Any questions, send me an email at
jsimpson@home-nets.biz. Make sure to use a nice subject line so I know it's not spam... like "POS questions"
Good luck!