Networking just 2 PCs, help is needed.

[DavidCane]

Hi,
For the last year I've had a network with six computers on it, one with a Cable Net commection, and the others all using that connection. It was connected with straight thru CAT5 cables and a hub and it all worked fine.

Now I'm trying to set up a small network at home, just 2 computers, no hub and an external USB DSL modem on one of them. The PC connected to the net has WinME and the other one has Win 2000.

I've bought a Crossover adapater for the network cable, set both PC's to use the same name Workgroup, and get a successful ping on both to the loop back address 127.0.0.1 BUT I can't get either PC to 'see' the other one.

TCP/IP is the default protocal on both machines, the WinME machine has an IP of 192.168.0.1 and the Win2K machine is 192.168.0.2

Where am I going wrong? Is there smething really obvious that I need to check?

Cheers

David C

[Bigjakkstaffa]

Have you enabled file and printer sharing in the dialup+network options ??

--Jakk:t

[BipolarBill]

Primary logon on the Win9x box must be Client for MS Networks. The username and password must be added to the Win2K Users and Groups too. Subnet masks must be identical.

As stated, Print and File Sharing must be installed on Win9x.

[toms111]

I disagree with both of the prior responses. Before you even worry about sharing and connection issues, you gotta be able to ping! From you post it sounds like you have done eveything right. Verify that both machines have their tcp/ip set as fixed addresses with the same subnet. Try opening a dos window and typing "IPCONFIG" on both machines. The comp with the USB DSL connection shoud show two different tcp/ip addresses, one for the network card and one for the DSL. The other should show only the network card. If these are showing up correctly and you still can't ping, you must have a problem with one of your network cards or with your crossover cable. Do the network cards you are using show a light when properly connected? On your W2K machine you can set the properties of your card to show an icon in the taskbar when connected. (Go to control panel->Network and Dial-up Connections->Local Area Connection->Properties and chec the box) See if this indicated a connection. Good Luck.

[BipolarBill]

Originally posted by toms111
I disagree with both of the prior responses.What's to disagree with? You don't think that those are valid concerns? DavidCane said he could ping and he has both IPs. He did not say he could not ping PC to PC - I read his post and I believe that he inferred that he could ping each node. He may have forgotten to mention the node ping. He also said that he has a new crossover cable.

If he can do a loopback ping, the NICs are good.

[Bigjakkstaffa]

..see what happens when you speak against the almighty bill!!

--Also -dont forget bothe PC's must be in the SAME workgroup under system properties

--Jakk:t

[BipolarBill]

I just love it when someone tries to poo-poo another and proceeds to make an **** out of himself. :p

[toms111]

My interpretation of the original post was that he could not ping machine 1 to machine 2. If that is not the case, my bad!

[Bigjakkstaffa]

-- i see you already have the workgroups set up okies ... my bad

--I had a similar prob before with ICS (although lan was okay) the client could ping the outside - but not get internet itself - just formatted and upograded so both were 2k machines worked okies from then on :)

--Wouldnt reccomend this to you just yet - as that was mainly due to the fact the client in the above case had been left to the dogs for about a year and the OS install was a bit dog eared...:(

--stick about a bit and we'll see what we can do :)

--OOOOH - have you assigned the client a fixed IP?? You could always try using an automatic assign...

--Jakk:t

[AllGamer]

Originally posted by DavidCane
Hi,
For the last year I've had a network with six computers on it, one with a Cable Net commection, and the others all using that connection. It was connected with straight thru CAT5 cables and a hub and it all worked fine.

Now I'm trying to set up a small network at home, just 2 computers, no hub and an external USB DSL modem on one of them. The PC connected to the net has WinME and the other one has Win 2000.

I've bought a Crossover adapater for the network cable, set both PC's to use the same name Workgroup, and get a successful ping on both to the loop back address 127.0.0.1 BUT I can't get either PC to 'see' the other one.

TCP/IP is the default protocal on both machines, the WinME machine has an IP of 192.168.0.1 and the Win2K machine is 192.168.0.2

Where am I going wrong? Is there smething really obvious that I need to check?

Cheers

David C


David, is either of your computer able to ping each other?

Ping -a 192.168.0.1
Ping -a 192.168.0.2

??

if it works then try to ping by the computer name.

example

Ping -a Machine1

[DavidCane]

Right, thanks for the replies.

I can NOT ping PC a from PC b or vice versa. The light on the NICs are NOT on.
Running IPCONFIG on the WinME machine gives me 3 entries:

0 Ethernet Adapater:

IP Adress 0.0.0.0
Subnet Mask 0.0.0.0
Default Gateway

1 Ethernet Adapater:

IP Adress 0.0.0.0
Subnet Mask 0.0.0.0
Defaulft Gateway

2 Ethernet Adapater

IP Adress 81.86.193.227
Subnet Mask 255.0.0.0
Default gateway 81.86.193.227

On the Win2K machine I get a message saying Cable disconnected, But that's not true.

Cheers

David C

[toms111]

From this it looks to me like a defective or improperly configured NIC your WinME machine. The IP Adress 81.86.193.227appears to be your DSL address. I assume that machine is able to surf the net ok. Run ipconfig on the Win2K machine and confirm that it shows 192.168.0.2. If so, look to replace or reinstall the NIC in the ME comp. The other smart people here may have other ideas.

[Midknyte]

are you running ICS? if so, the ICS server will automatically configure to do dhcp to the clients. you'll have to set the client system to autoconfigure ip. i think the ICS server will default to 192.168.0.1.

[Bigjakkstaffa]

AHA!! - cable disconnected - i had this problem once before - turned out id bought just plain old Patch instead of crossover, lookup make your own crossover cable in google, and compare your cable ends to the diagrams shown. If they dont match what you see - take you cable along to some one you know who has the apropriate kit and beg that they do it as quickly as poss. --- thats just what i did :)

--Jakk:t

[Midknyte]

After BigJak said that, I re-read your post. No light means no link. Check your cable like he said. :)

[AllGamer]

Originally posted by DavidCane
Right, thanks for the replies.

I can NOT ping PC a from PC b or vice versa. The light on the NICs are NOT on.
Running IPCONFIG on the WinME machine gives me 3 entries:

0 Ethernet Adapater:

IP Adress 0.0.0.0
Subnet Mask 0.0.0.0
Default Gateway

1 Ethernet Adapater:

IP Adress 0.0.0.0
Subnet Mask 0.0.0.0
Defaulft Gateway

2 Ethernet Adapater

IP Adress 81.86.193.227
Subnet Mask 255.0.0.0
Default gateway 81.86.193.227

On the Win2K machine I get a message saying Cable disconnected, But that's not true.

Cheers

David C


OK that's helpful, for troubleshooting that is.

Alrite now what you need is to.

Assign Specific IP address for PC1 and PC 2

usually i'll use 192.168.0.1 and 192.168.0.2

then Assign DNS
now this part is tricky

you can either use:

1. your router DNS #
2. your ISP DNS #
3. your primary machine that is sharing the internet IP #

then make sure every other box is clear, other than the:

1. IP # in the DNS IP# field
2. Host NAME (machine name), on the name field

That is your computer name YOU WANT TO ASSIGN.

so in this example PC 1 and PC 2

3. Subnet # in the Subnet field.

usually 255.255.255.0

but it might change if you use your Router DNS #, or if you use your ISP DNS #

4. make sure where it says DOMAIN, it's empty, so i can auto-populate that field, when it needs it.

see how that works, then we'll go from here.

[Bigjakkstaffa]

If hes got a cable disconnected and his cards have got no lights, its his cable at fault, its no good telling him how to reconfigure windows Allgamer if quite clearly the two PC's arent even connected never mind seeing each other across the connection.. check out the cable - then get back to us..

--Jakk:t

[BipolarBill]

Another possible sticking point (not for the current situation though) is identically named PCs - all PCs on a network must have unique names.

I suspect that the crossover is actually a patch cable.

[AllGamer]

You both right.

But there are NIC cards that will have no lights on, unless there is traffic going along.

i've seen prenty of those here at work.

those are usually low cost OEM cards.

and if one of those goes, the only way to find out besides checking to see if the cable is hooked or not, is basically to throw in another card, and see if it works with the new one.

cuz i've fixed a couple where over time, they just died by whatever reason.

Cable was connected to both Switch and (Dead) cheap NIC, all network settings, protocols, etc configured properly.

but there was simply no connection.

The Switch was behind walls, or up the hanging ceilings, and it's too much trouble to open the top or go to the server room to see if the lights is blinking on the switch.

so the fastest way was to pop in another card and see.

all these becasue the **** cheap ***** who manufactured the NIC cards decided to safe 1 cent, by using 1 less Diode, for connectivity.

and programmed the only DIode to only blink if it has traffic going by it.

that was waaaaaaaaaaaay back then when 10 mbps and BNC was the king of the hill for networking.

i'm so grad all new NICs has at least 2 Diode lights

or even if it's 1 it'll remain ON to verify connectiviy, and blinking for network traffic.

This is the time, when i'm grade for the some sort of industry standards.

[Bigjakkstaffa]

If your getting a cable disconnected message - either A) Your cables wrong (probably a patch) or b) you have a DEAD or incompatible NIC...

...i cannot see this being related to any windows config settigns at all...

--JAkk:t

[AllGamer]

Originally posted by Bigjakkstaffa
If your getting a cable disconnected message - either A) Your cables wrong (probably a patch) or b) you have a DEAD or incompatible NIC...

...i cannot see this being related to any windows config settigns at all...

--JAkk:t

the point here is that Windows does not provide any kind of error message at all,

since every is setup properly.
and the NIC "reports" everything is "fine" back to windows.

but physically was dead.

[Bigjakkstaffa]

On the Win2K machine I get a message saying Cable disconnected,

Is the message he is hetting FROM WINDOWS, i know because this has happened before - therefore the two NICS cannot be reporting each other as they cannot be connected to each other 0- hence the cable disconnected -- therefore this points to most likley the wrong type of cable (patch most likely) or a wazzed NIC in one of the machines...

--Jakk:t

[AllGamer]

Originally posted by Bigjakkstaffa


Is the message he is hetting FROM WINDOWS, i know because this has happened before - therefore the two NICS cannot be reporting each other as they cannot be connected to each other 0- hence the cable disconnected -- therefore this points to most likley the wrong type of cable (patch most likely) or a wazzed NIC in one of the machines...

--Jakk:t

well as a matter of fact
David never mentioned if he got any message at all.

[Bigjakkstaffa]

If i may quote David C

On the Win2K machine I get a message saying Cable disconnected,

--Anyway - dave - check out the cable first - i think its the most likely source of your problem :)

--Jakk:t

[AllGamer]

Originally posted by Bigjakkstaffa
If i may quote David C



--Anyway - dave - check out the cable first - i think its the most likely source of your problem :)

--Jakk:t

uhh.. i guess i missed that post, i was only reading the first posting.

in that case yeah, make sure all cables are stuck into the holes at both ends.