XP Networking Headache.... - Page 2

they should both be using tcp.ip.
make sure file and print sharing is enabled. then share a folder and try to map a drive to it and see what happens

i dont think I saw this but are the hard drive set to share.

First let me sat that I am not an expert at networks and I too was having problems sharing drives and a printer. I read all the posts here and tried all the suggestions including upgrading both machines to WinXP. I visited a few websites that explained step by step how to network my two computers, but the suggerstions did not work.
What finally worked for me was to install "Client Service for NetWare." It changed my login screen, but gave me file and printer sharing on the network. I do not know exactly what NetWare is or why I needed to install this when none of the sites recommended it, but it works for me.

Hope my experience helps.

thats designed to allow you to connect to netware servers and services. it probably just enabled ipx/spx. if it works for you then i wouldn't worry about it.
normally being in the same workgroup will allow the computers to communicate. its hard to troubleshoot these issues sometimes.

OMG. starting to dread getting my laptop now that I see these kind of headaches in store. I don't know squat about this stuff. I was hoping the router software will walk me thru all this crap! you guys stay handy please--will be needing some hand-holding in the next few days (my baby is due tomorrow...) and getting the wireless online is one of my first priorities....

one concern right off the bat is my desktop (where the router will be connected) is running ME and the LT of course will run XP. Is it time I upgraded the desktop or can that work? geez, Citan sounds like he knows his ****e and he's having problems....oy!

Standing by (and watching the networking threads go by...).

I am quite convinced they need to change the syllabus at kindy. Rather than teaching read'n, 'rite'n and 'rithmetic it needs to be web surfing, networks and hardware fault tracing...

It is simple people (ok, its simple for me, but not everybody has had my experience, I grant you that ).

From the top:
1. control panel -> system -> hardware tab -> device manager

2. open network adaptors. You should see each piece of network hardware you system has (I am talking internal hardware here). As a minium you should see the Realtek Ethernet NIC. That is the std port out the back of the laptop. If you have wireless, Bluetooth, USB Ethernet adaptors or PCMCIA Ethernet cards installed they should also show up here. If the device is active it should be showing GREEN. If the device is disabled (like the BT module for example) it will have a RED X across it. If your device is not even there you have a driver missing. In this case you may have a YELLOW ? somewhere else in the hardware manager list.

3. Assuming we have a GREEN device listed in the hardware manager list, exit the hardware manager window and double click on "Network Connections"

I will assume we are doing a cable connection and not a wireless setup.

4. Look at entries under LAN or High-Speed Internet. Is there an entry in the 4th column "Device Name" that lists "Realtek..."?

5. If an entry exists for the Realtek hardware device check the 3rd column "Status".

6. If the status is disbled, double click on the name of the device (I called my link "officelan"). It will bring up a window showing the Connection. Check that the connection speed matches your external hardware (say 100.0 Mbps). If it doesn't then you have either an auto negotiation problem or your external hw does not support auto-neg.

7. Click on properties. In the new window click on the Advanced tab. Click on Link Speed/Duplex mode. This will show you the current setting and allow you to manually change the connection type if required. Close that window.

8. Click properties again (the previous properties window gets auto closed).

9. In the General tab window, scroll down to the entry labelled "Internet Protocol (TCP/IP)".

10. Either double click on it or click on "Properties".

11. For an internal network of a few computers I would recommend you use fixed IP addresses. The standard (RFC1918) for internal network addresses (sometimes called Private Address Space) is either 10.x.x.x (class A), 172.16.x.x (class B) or 192.168.x.x (class C). If you stick to these any stray packets that leak out of your computer onto the Internet at large are not going to cause any harm. My recommendation is to use the 192.168.x.x network address range. So lets say you pick 192.168.0.1 for your Sager and 192.168.0.2 for your second PC.

12. Select "Use the following IP address" and enter your IP address. In the subnet mask you should have 255.255.255.0 (for a class C network anyway - I won't go into what class C means here). I also assume you have not been messing with the Advanced settings either (DNS should be clear btw).

13. Close that window.

14. On your other PC do the same thing. Roughly the same setup is present from Win98 onwards. Obviously your hw will show up differently but the procedure is the same.

15. Although not strictly required for XP, I would reboot all your systems. Win98 requires it.

16. For XP/NT systems, open a command line prompt (ie. a DOS window) and type: ipconfig /all
First check your hostname - you did set your hostname didn't you???
Next look for your Realtek adaptor. It should show its physical (Ethernet address (this is NOT your IP address). DHCP should be OFF and the IP address should match the IP address you entered in step 12. The subnet mask should be also as in step 12. Default Gateway should be clear. Close the DOS window.

17. For Win98 systems click start -> run and enter "winipcfg".
This will bring up a GUI. Select the hardware device from the drop down menu and then click "Details". Check the IP addres and subnet mask are as entered for the second PC.

18. If all is well go back to control panel -> network connections, select the realtek device and check the link. Status should be "Connected".

19. Open a DOS window again, and type: ping <IPaddress>
where <IPaddress> is the address of the other system. So if you selected 192.168.0.2 you would type: ping 192.168.0.2
This should return with stats on the link.

If you still don't get anything you may have to get a copy of Ethereal to do some serious network debugging.

20. For those of you that don't have a network connection showing up in the "network connections" window click on "Network Setup Wizard" and follow the prompts. Ignore the New connection wizard - it will only drop you into the Setup wizard anyway.

Let me know how you get on.

For anyone reading this post if you have any other questions about networking just post away and I will see what I can do to provide some answers.

if you are connecting to the internet don't use a private ip address like 192.168.x.x. you want to use dhcp to recieve an ip address from your ip. i assume that you are not using a router but only the hub you mentioned before. if this network is strickly private and none of the machines contact the outside world then you could use any ip address you want. except 127.0.0.1

oh and make sure you are not using the "uplink" port by accident for one of the machines as that may be causing your problems

If you read his orginal post, the base level networking stuff is working fine, it is ms browsing that isn't. I already mentioned the fix for that in this thread.

Excellent short tutorial aussie. And I agree on the kindergarten priorities thing. Read "Daddy, Are we there yet" by Alan Kay.

Meanwhile, I don't think anybody tuned into the forums has to worry about there not being enough support in here. I have the sneaking suspicion there isn't a computer subject that doesn't have at least a couple of dozen very expert experts herein.

One thing, for anybody doing something new, especially with computers, just figure the first time you try it, it won't work. Period. Oh, it might, but its very unlikely. The second time either. And perhaps the third. Just get used to that fact. This isn't reading and riting and rithmatic, its very complicated software being applied to very complicated machines and when you throw the internet in, you are adding zillions of very complicated machines to the equation. So, just sit back, relax. Its going to be OK. Yep, you will get frustrated, at least the odds are for that possibility/probability. Especially the first two or three times you try something entirely new. You will want to tear your hair out and toss the dang machine in the drink. You will feel like a complete idiot and become convinced all techical support services have a basic criteria that precludes anyone who is not a scheming sadist who intentionally tries to drive you crazy while their co-workers listen in on the PA system. Yah, they have awards like the Oscars and such for Best Misdirection of a Noob on an Initial Network Setup.

Actually they do, but that's besides the point. Once you have done it a couple of times, it will become second knowledge. Remember when you first learned to ride a bike, how frustrating that was. How it seemed like only a god could make it happen. Then, wham, it happened and then it seemed like "how could anyone not know this?". Riding a bike is easy, especially if you've already learned how. Comparatively, learning to set up a LAN is perhaps 10 million times more difficult. At least until you've done it a few times.

So, just accept that the first hour or 10 will be incredibly frustrating. Get yourself a good night's sleep before hand. Have a nice breakfast. Put on some relaxing comfy music, turn off the phone, send the servants away. Then just dive in. There is a huge amount of help available here in the forums. And yes, we will put your frustrations up for all to see as well, we do have an awards night as well. But who cares, maybe your dilemna will get an award. Think of the fame and honor. And just muddle through it. In the end, you'll have a great system that will seem like magic to your friends and family. It will change your life and make the world a wonderful place. Well, maybe not that great but it will be better. And you will have learned something that perhaps you can help someone else with.

Correct about connecting to the internet but the original issue was a private network.

Also litehedded, whilst you can use any network address for your internal network, the RFC was designed to help people keep the Internet a bit more manageable. By sticking to the RFC's there is less incompatibilities and less problems long term. The people that write the RFC's don't do so just for thier own edification - they are well reasoned and have very good logic behind that reasoning. As I mentioned, the reason these network numbers were chosen was to address issues of packet leakage. If you can tell my that your networks have never leaked packets on to the Internet, then maybe. By using the recommended networks you are helping all of us in the long term.

As to other people's suggestions my understanding is that Citan could not even get ping to work. Without that all other things are not going to work.

Mind you if we are talking Netbios or IPX (Novell's network protocol) running on the other systems in native mode, none of what I said in my previous post is going to work at all. Personally I would recommend TCP/IP as the main protocol then use Netbios over the top of that. That is why you need to start with fundamentals first. Get ping working, then and only then add other layers.

doesn't matter if hes not connected to the internet tho

What? People do that? Your kidding right? They actually don't have an Internet connection. No, that can't be right. How would they breath? What about the hole in the back of your head where you connect to the Matrix. What you you use that for .

It's all a bad dream, bad man go away .

I linked two XP's together over a crossover cable. No IP assignments. Only components being the standard QoS, TCP, File sharing, and Client for MSN. I did have some problems initally, but that was because I had assigned a static address to my eth card on a friends network. Once I released it and made sure my wireless connection was disabled and turned off, I ran the networking wizard and they started talking to each other like old friends. I wish I could give you better details, but it has been a couple of weeks since I did this.



EDIT: I'd just like to note that there was no assigning of IP or sub mask. I assigned them both to the same workgroup and ran the network wiz. If you need the exact steps I went through, just let me know and I will post them.

I may have done an ipconfig /renew or two, though I think that was to clear the leftovers from the static IP assignment.

I had my tongue made really really long with the end flattened out and fitted with contacts so I could insert it into the PCMCIA slot. It tingles a bit, like having a battery on your tongue but you get a really good connection. And people aren't constantly asking you embarrassing questions about that hole in the back of your head if you don't wear a hat down low which freaks out the bank tellers and the airline security folks.

I've also found women seem to have been taking a great deal more interest in me as well as, since I can't talk very well anymore for obvious reasons, I appear to be a very good listener which as everyone knows is one quality all women, indeed, all humans seek out and appreciate. A side benefit is I don't stick my foot in my mouth as much any more, there not being any room left to get it in, however I do step on my tongue from time to time but that's a whole lot better than stepping on other elongated parts.

doubt this would help much.

when browsing, open Explorer (so the folder tree is showing on the side)... (winkey+E)

then click THE PLUS SIGN for My Network Connections (if you click the words, nothing shows up!!!),
then click on Entire Network (this time you CAN click the words)
then click on Microsoft Windows Network...

at that point you should be able to see any windows based workgroups.

ain't it strange that if you click on "My Network Connections", NOTHING shows up... but if you can browse completely throught the folder tree... you'll see lots of stuff.

the other day my boss was complaining that he wasn't see anything, till i mentioned this... then he was like... that's strange... i couldn't agree more.

like i said... MaYbE this helps... maybe not.