Home Networking

[Garden Manager]

Bit of a longshot but here goes:

I have just got a laptop PC in addition to my home PC and have wirelessly networked to two together to receive the internet on the laptop. This aspect is working fine. However what I cant work out is how to use this wireles connection to link the two computers together for printing, file sharing, saving etc.  I did a search on the net for networking software but dont know what if any additional software I want . Can anyone offer ny help or advice please?

Both PCs run AOL and windows XP and the network is set up using a Netgear DG 834G (?) wireless router, idf this helps at all.

Let me know if any other info is required.
Many Thanks

[Garden Manager]

[keithy]

If you have XP on both you won't need any additional software. You need to find the right wizard to set up a home network. I have no idea where it is as I have a "proper" network (get me !) where things are  a bit different.

You could try going to explorer or My Computer, and right mouse click and see if there is a "Share this Folder" option. With luck this will invoke the Network Wizard.

Basically, you set up a workgroup, join the two machines to the workgroup, and then you can share folders in each machine that are accessible on the other.  It helps to drink a lot of coffee, and do a lot of praying whilst doing this !

Hope this helps

keithy

[Garden Manager]

Cor! that was easy - thanks a lot keithy. I could've sworn  needed to so something technical to allow file sharing. I hadnt realised it was as simple as that.

Thanks again. :)

[Garden Manager]

No, too good to be true. Whilst enabling file and folder sharing was easy i still cannot fathom how you actualy access the the files saved on the one PC from the other one. As for saving documents created on one machine but to be stored on the other, I can access the network through 'My Network places' but all I can open is the 'shared documents' folder on the same machine! (PS - I havent even attempted network printing yet!)

I must be doing something wrong or need to do something else to activate it, but i dont know what. Please help.

[Admin aka Dan]

Try searching for one computer from the other using the start menu search facility.

If you do not know the name of each computer it can be found in the system properties window.

[Garden Manager]

Try searching for one computer from the other using the start menu search facility.

If you do not know the name of each computer it can be found in the system properties window.

Thanks dan. Found the PC. It still wont let me access it. Dont seem to have 'Permission' to do so. Any idea what i should change to get 'Permission'?

[glow777]

Easiest way to do it is to avoid the wizard!

Both PC's should be in the same workgroup. To check right click my computer select properties select name. Give each computer a name and a workgroup. Make the workgroup identical the name unique. Reboot PC's

Find a folder you want to share right click on it and select sharing.  Under network sharing and security click the line that starts " If you understand the security risks but want to share files ........etc" a pop up will appear select "just enable file sharing" and select OK. At the next screen select share this folder. If you want to change the files remotely select "allow other to change my files" OK and all is done.

To view the files either go to Network neighbourhood or whatever XP has called it and drill down to the remote PC. or even easier go to Start/run and type

\\computer_name      where computer_name is the name of the other computer.


To share printers. Navigate to the printer you want to use on the machine it is connected to right click and select share etc.
Go to the remote machine and a printer icon should of appeared. Double click this and XP will copy the drivers across the machine and install the printer. Note the machine with the printer must be switched on for the remote machine to be able to print.

HTH Glow.

BTW if any of this doesn't work it will be because of firewalls. To test temp turn off all firewalls - if it then works you need to allow traffic between the two named PC's (or IP address's) this can easily be configured in the firewall but is different in all firewalls so you will have to suss this yourself,

[Garden Manager]

Many thanks to Glow777 for the information.

I need to configure my firewall(s) to allow PC to PC comms, so I need to enter an IP address for the individual machines. However I cant work out how to find this out. Can anyone point me in the right direction please?

Cheers

PS: It would appear the firewalls are preventing the network from working properly. i can access the network which shows me the two computers but when i click on the 'away' PC I am denied access. I can only veiw the 'home' PC and the folders on it enabled for sharing with the other machine.

[glow777]

addressesses are either static or assigned by your router - easiest way to find out your address is to go to start run and type

cmd

this will bring up a separate dos style window type

ipconfig

and press enter. this will show your ip address. if your ip address is dynamic ie changes every time if possible put a small range in the firewall eg 192.168.1.0 - 192.168.2.4 just in case you have a slightly different ip addy next time you log on

HTH Glow

[ChrisH]

To setup Static LAN IP;

1. log on the laptop and PC and make sure they are connected
2. On the laptop or PC  log into the routers setup and go to the 'LAN IP Setup'
3. tick the box that says 'use router as DHCP Server'
4. In the Start IP address put in 192.168.0.2 and 192.168.0.3 in the End
5. On the Address Reservation section click on add and you should see the PC and laptop listed. select 1 or then and click add then do the same for the other.
(If they do not appear in the list then you might have add them via their MAC Address. You can find this by going start > run   and type  cmd   and press enter. Then type the following
ipconfig /all

The MAC address is called 'physical address'

You would then allow 192.168.0.2 and 192.168.0.3 through the firewall on both the laptop and PC (other wise they won't be able to see each other)


This also limits the number of connections to the internet to 2 and only for your PC and Laptop. If you need to add another computer so they are able to access the internet then change the End IP address to 192.168.0.4

PS. don't forget to share a folder as Glow777 suggests


have fun :)

[glow777]

Chris

Your slightly wrong here on a few things.

The procedure you mentioned would be for setting up dynamic ip addresses not static ip addresses. To set up static ip addresses on the PC these have to be entered manually on the individual pc via its TCP/IP address. What you describe is enabling a router to assign a set range of dynamic ip addresses

The DHCP is set as default on most routers and because Garden cadet can get on the internet it must already be enabled.

Setting the ip range to 192.168.0.X is also not recommended because you are taking for granted that the routers ip address is in that range. mine was 10.0.0.50 by default. So if the address of the router wasn't as thought you will assign the pc's dynamic addresses and then they wouldn't be able to communicate with the router!

Glow

[Garden Manager]

Thought Id let you all know, I have now sorted out my network.It was a 'simple' case of altering the firewall on the laptop to accept the Ip address of the network. I have even been able to set up network printing as well.

So many thanks for all your help.

[Garden Manager]

Been a while i kno but once again I need help on the subject.

My network had been working fine, until recently when suddenly without warning it failed on me. I had previously installed and set up Norton Internet Security 2006 on both computers, though the strangest thing is the network worked albeit reluctantly after  I had installed and set up the software (and configured it to allow the network). The trigger seemed to be the nstallation of some other software (not directly related to the wireless connection but still internet based).

I have today spent some tme trying to sort it out. i have run the windows xp network wizards several times and re configured the router set up a couple of times as well. All to no avail as all settings seem to be in order. Basicaly very little has changed except for a new firewall on both computers. On both machines the firewall is set to accept the IP addresses of the other machine on the network, yet i feel that the firewall is still part of the problem.  On this basis I tried accessing the network with the firewall disabled on both computers. I was sucessfull and whilst 'on' I switched the firewalls back on. Access to the network remained, however it is intermittent, I cannot acess the other pc every time, on the others I still get 'permission denied' messages.

Whats going on? I dont use the network that much for file sharing (I also have a flash drive to move files about), but do use it for printing. I am also experiencing performance problems with the desktop pc, so prefer the laptop as it performs a lot beter/faster. So the network connection between the two is important. Having it working only occasionaly is most frustrating!

What could be the problem and how could i fix it?

Thanks in advance

[iggy]

sounds like a permissions problem in the firewall which firewall are you useing ?

[Garden Manager]

sounds like a permissions problem in the firewall which firewall are you useing ?

Norton Firewall 2006, part of Norton Internet Security 2006. I have 'told' it to accept the IP addresses of the PCs on the network (several times) yet the problem still exists. Is that what you mean by 'permissions' or is there something else I need to do?

Like I said in the previous post it is an intermitent problem. Sometimes it works sometimes it doesnt and often through one route and not others (eg via a shortcut on the desktop, or via the windows search, but not via 'My Network Places' as you'd expect.).

Any advice ould be helpfull. Thanks.