I'm stupid and need help with networking XP...

I know this is supposed to be simple...maybe the problem is I'm too simple...read on...

I have 2 computers, a laptop and a desktop. I need to network them.

They both have ethernet cards.

I connect them from the jack that I use to connect each computer to the internet.

I run the Network Setup Wizard, workgroup name = MSHOME, and computer names are LAPTOP and DESKTOP.

I finish the wizard, restart. On my laptop when I go to "View Workgroup Computers" it only shows LAPTOP, and when I do that on my desktop it only shows DESKTOP.

Does anyone know why? I don't have a hub or anything, but do I even need one? I just directly connected the ethernet jacks, ran the wizard, and nothing.

Can anyone help? I really need to setup this network right away. If you need more info etc. or have any suggestions, please post them!

Thanks!

 

Log in or Sign up to hide all adverts.

Have you assigned each machine it's own IP?

If not you need to do so, make sure they are something like:

Name: DESKTOP
Workgroup: MSHOME
IP: 192.168.0.1
Subnet: 255.255.255.0

Name: LAPTOP
Workgroup: MSHOME
IP: 192.168.0.2
Subnet: 255.255.255.0

you might want to add GATEWAY: 192.168.0.1 to LAPTOP if the DESKTOP is your main connection.

(Please note: IP ranges 192.168.0.1 to 192.168.0.255 are "Reserved Ranges" that are meant for home networking, assigning IP's has to follow such rules or your network could become apart of an online network, potentially making your system insecure.)

Also you might want to boot them in a sequence, in this one for instance DESKTOP first then LAPTOP.

I guess you are trying to run RJ45 from both machines in a direct connection also, personally I would suggest getting a HUB for the network if you haven't already.

Hub's usually have lights on the connection ports to tell you when a connection is made, and if your lucky they might even give you a clue as to the speed (some connections might be T10, others might be T100)

You might also want to try using "PING" from the Run box. ("ping 192.168.0.2" would be the command to run from your DESKTOP to try to PING your LAPTOP. If it pings successfully then it's just Windows pseudo-networking failing, otherwise there is perhaps a ethernet driver configuration error when pings don't get through.)

 

Log in or Sign up to hide all adverts.

You need a Crossover Cable to directly connect two
computers (peer to peer). It crosses pins 1&2 and pins 3&6.

:m: Peace

 

Log in or Sign up to hide all adverts.

What he said, you'll need a cable that crosses transmit and recieve if you plan on hooking two ethernet cards directly.

You can make it yourself or buy it for spare change at your local bestbuy.

 

Thanks guys. I found a way around the whole networking thing- i just got my hands on an external CDR for my laptop, so all's well....except for the fact that I have to give away my laptop to someone...

Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!

Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!

 

This doesn't really pertain to the topic all the much, but I still have a question to ask... Isn't the entire Range of 192.168.0.0 - 192.168.255.255 reserved for home networking? If not, and I could be completely mistaken, what are they used for? Seeing as the entire 192.168.0.0-192.168.255.255 range cannot be used for public internet use, what can it be used for? I don't really have my oh-so-handy networking book here to look it up, so I could very well be mistaken.

 

The 192.168.0.0-192.168.255.255 range is one of the many reserved network addresses on the internet.

If you were to run a Traceroute on any of those addresses, the information would come back saying it was a reserved address, and a "Blackhole". (basically meaning information sent to it, disappears)

The concept of reserving address ranges was due to the fact that if two people addressed the same IP's to their computers, their communications would get messed up, for instance if they tried contacting a server one might get priority because of distance or because they existed in a resolve address list first.

To deal with these conflicts it was decided that certain ranges would be reserved for "Home networks and Office Networks", those ranges can then be used by everyone without fear of the information bleeding into other peoples networks.

I was reading from SAMS - "Teach yourself TCP/IP in 24 hours" the usage of Subnet masks, since a majority of the time most people use a default of 255.255.255.0
In the explanation of subnet masks, they gave an IP with the last number being 0 to a network (211.155.0.0), it then gave an IP to each machine in the network (0.0.0.5) and then gave a Subnet mask (0.0.0.34), this then gave an address that could be reached from outside the network of (211.155.0.39)

I just mention it because previous to reading that, I never knew how to impliment Subnet masks, but what they basically allow is a large network to create "Sub-networks".

I suppose you could look at this from a view point that a County would symbolise a network, and a postcode/zipcode would symbolise a Sub-network, with peoples houses being the differing addresses for machines in the network.