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Help needed to network 2 PCs and share bb.

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  • 27-04-2006 5:11am
    #1
    milltown
    Registered Users Posts: 4,616 ✭✭✭


    Father in law asked me to come have a goo at the PCs in his office (2 of). Usually this means installing AV software or plugging in a new USB hub or external hard drive but this time he caught me out.

    Dell PC on his desk with 3com NIC, running Windows 98(!)
    Dell PC on his secretary's desk with NIC running Windows XP
    Eircom DSL connection running into Netopia Cayman 3346 router.

    Currently only the secretary's PC is connected to the router/internet. His is all on it's lonesome. Hence, if he needs her to work on something he has done on his PC he has to put it on a disk for her = pain in the @ss. He wants to be able to share files between the two PCs and also share the internet connection and have e-mail to his desk. Router has DSL in and 4 LAN ports so I think it should be up to the job. Unless Eircom supply a stripped down router that only allows 4 PCs to use the internet but not talk to each other. They wouldn't would they?

    So the only additional wiring needed was from his PC to the router. Did that, then started getting stuck! Internal ip of sec's PC was 192.168.1.1 so I set his to ditto.2 with the same subnet; 255.255.255.0. Don't know if it matters but both PCs are named and on the workgroup "WORKGROUP". His still won't connect to the internet and can't ping the router or the other PC, iirc I got destination host unreachable. The sec's PC has no trouble seeing the router or opening up the router's config page in IE. Pinging his PC from there I just got timeouts.

    There seems to be no end of options to play with in the router setup but I wouldn't know where to begin, maybe someone with Eircom/Netopia setup experience could point me in the right direction. Is it possible when the DSL was installed, on the one PC, that the routing function was disabled?

    Sorry for the long winded post. I've tried to include as much info as possible but I'm sure I've probably left out something crucial.

    Thanks in advance!


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    #2
    bushy...
    Closed Accounts Posts: 1,467 ✭✭✭bushy...


    ... you were so close :) you need to have the pcs on two different IP addresses , something like this will do in your setup
    PC #1 ip 192.168.1.1
    netmask 255.255.255.0

    PC #2 ip 192.168.1.5
    netmask 255.255.255.0

    You'll need to look into a bit of security too when you get it going


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    #3
    milltown
    Registered Users Posts: 4,616 ✭✭✭milltown


    I did. Maybe I didn't put it clearly though.

    By "ditto.2" I meant 192.168.1.2.


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    #4
    JoeB-
    Registered Users Posts: 689 ✭✭✭JoeB-


    Hi

    I had a problem with a similar setup... in my case it was simply the Windows Firewall causing the problem... i turned it off and the network was fine... (before the firewall was turned off I couldn't see the other computer in 'Network Neighbourhood')(the firewall may turn itself back on occasionally)

    My network is simply two PCs connected with an ethernet crossover cable which is different to your setup but the firewall may be your problem anyway...

    Cheers
    Joe


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    #5
    Snowbat
    Registered Users Posts: 1,064 ✭✭✭Snowbat


    Does the router or the 3com have link lights? Are they illuminated?

    Check the new cable on the other PC to make sure it's wired up correctly.


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    #6
    MunsterCycling
    Registered Users Posts: 4,864 ✭✭✭MunsterCycling


    Just set Windows firewall to allow an execption on the File and Printer sharing and that will sort the connection issue, if the XP machine is the Pro version then you will need to have an account on the XP machine to allow the 98 machine connect or else you will getting an 'IPS$' login error which is basic Microsoftese for the user name and password don't match any thing on this machine.


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    #7
    ressem
    Registered Users Posts: 2,426 ✭✭✭ressem


    The TCP settings that you need are ip address, subnet (which you have correct by your description) , gateway ip and DNS server, so it knows where to send the traffic addressed outside your network.
    The latter values can be seen by typing "ipconfig /all" into a cmd window (Start>Run>cmd)

    Though it's preferable to use the router's DHCP server to set this information. This will be active by default.


    If you connect the '98 PC using the XP machines LAN cable , set the network card to get the IP address automatically and restart the pc, what IP do you get? (Check by typing winipcfg into the Start>run box)

    Can you ping the router (192.168.1.254)?

    By default, the netopia router should be able to configure your windows PCs settings using DHCP, without changing settings.


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