Wireless networks

Thank you for reading this.

Continuing on with my new Internet connection I now have two laptops, 
both running Linux, wirelessly connected to the Internet via a 
Technicolor (real brand name) modem.

I had expected that both laptops would have access to each other's files 
but that is not the case, so far. I have experimented with smb4k but 
with limited success.

Some time ago I had connected to someone's Windows wireless network and 
was able to access their desktop computer with smb4k without any effort 
at all.

Am I using the correct tool or is there more to this than I had expected?

-- 
Regards,
Phil