starting.....

[gERONIMo]

two nics. some cable. what next? i wanna end up being able to play some multiplayer games via direct cable connection.

[Stan]

Starting your own LAN ?

Consider a minihub (Intel InBusiness), some more cables, and some more computers...

At home, I have 4 PC's: PDC and 3 ws... top for network games... cool

Stan

[kwai]

if you only ever are going to have two computers, you can just use two nics and a "crossover" cable. just ask for one at your local computer shop -- they don't cost any more than a regular cable.

[gERONIMo]

ya but after i get all that what do i do to set it up? do i gotta setup windows networking?

[frogpuff]

Once you put in the NICs, windows will see them and setup a basic network neighborhood, you will then have to go into each computers control panel and setup your network. Turn on file and print sharing, maybe add a protocal, windows seems to love netBEUI, you will also have to change your login to "client for microsoft networks" Once you have done all that you should be able to view each pc via network neighborhood or explorer, then you will have to setup the games you want to play too, ipx is a popular protocal for some games, I don't use my network for games so all I use is TCP/IP and NetBEUI. Good luck!

[BBA]

Ok frog, your a little astray!

Heres what you need, and write this down as it is valuable information:

2 PC's
2 NIC's
1 Crossover cable (or a Hub and 2 RJ45 patch cables)

Load the drivers for each PC's NIC.

Remove all but tcp/ip protocol.

Set the properties for tcp/ip to manually assign IP address, set one to, say: 155.155.155.5, set the other to 155.155.155.10 (you dont have to use these numbers but they do have to be different numbers)
Set the default gateway to say: 255.255.255.0 (again, the number can be something different, but this does have to be the same for both PC's

You can leave Wins resolution disabled, I dont recommend using the NetBios protocol, just enable it over TCP/IP.
Set DNS to disable dns.

You can set the Primary Windows logon to either 'Windows Logon' or Client logon, but if you set it to client logon, you will have a password prompt each time you start the PC, but it is not required to use the network.

Select 'File and Print Sharing' to share access to files and printers.

To see the other PC's drives, each drive has to be shared from explorer or my computer by right clicking the drive icon and setting sharing.


That will be all you need to do, All your games will work between the 2 PC's.

If you want both PC's to have access to the Internet from one PC's modem, then you will need a Proxy program installed. I would recommend Sygate 2.0 and allow its DHCP to set up your protocol settings automatically.

BBA

[sourjon]

One more thing I can see: Go to control panel|network and scroll down to file and print sharing in the window. Double click(or click then properties) and in the properties window highlight "Browse Master" and change the value to "enabled" on ONE of the machines. Leave the other at automatic. Leave LM Announce alone. This will speed things up at boot. Unless one of the boxes is NT as it will be the master. My $0.02

[DougM]

Crossover cable
http://www.digitalmx.com/wires/peer.html
http://www.cis.ohio-state.edu/hypertext/faq/usenet/LANs/cabling-faq/faq-doc-12.html

Setting up Win95 home networks
http://home.keyworld.net/~davcefai/net_1.htm
http://www.corp-reflection.com/pub/peer/
http://www.mindspring.com/~arlieo/peer.htm
http://www.anandtech.com/html/review_display.cfm?document=207
http://www.homepcnetwork.com/
http://www.winplanet.com/features/howtos/networking/
http://www.hardwarecentral.com/features/reports/networking2/

General Networking Information
http://www.hardwarecentral.com/features/reports/networking1/

FAQ Windows 95/98 Networking
http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/J_Helmig/faq.htm