Hey all!

I just purchased a used Dell Inspiron 9300 running Windows XP. I want to setup a home network between it and my old HP Pavilion running Windows Me for the purpose of file sharing since my desktop is loaded with years of information.

Prior to reaching this point where I'm tearing my hair out, I managed to get the network to the point that my laptop is sharing the cable internet connection through the desktop. However, neither computer will recognize the other. I have gone through the ipconfig checks and manually input IP addresses but no avail. I have disabled all known firewalls but no help there, either. I tried pinging the laptop IP from the desktop but it just timed out. The laptop will not allow the ping command and I'm not "up" enough on the newer software to know what the alternative to pinging is.

Any and all suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks!

Hi Garthfan

If you've managed to get the internet sharing to work thats a step in the right direction.

A few question came to mind when I was reading to problem(s). If you could give a little bit more information it will help to diagose where the problems might be.

One of the first things that I know I would need to know is how everything is set up. I know you have an HP desktop, and a Dell laptop. How are the two connected for the internet sharing?
How is the desktop connected to the internet, is it through a cable modem, or DSL modem? is the modem internal or external?
Do you know the IP address of both systems, and are they both set to obtain there IP's from a DHCP server? (auto obtain IP)

I'm sure there will be other questions as you provide more information but that should get thing rolling.

P.S. another thing that just came to mind, for the Windows ME have you setup (installed) file sharing? Also did you already share a folder on either computer?

Hi adavis! Thanks for the reply. I ended up having to do the quick re-install of the OS on the Dell because I was just having way too many problems getting these two computers to talk to each other and my settings got all messed up. However, I would appreciate some additional help on this issue because I would like to make another effort to connect these two systems.



Thanks for the help!

This post has been edited by garthfan0523: Mar 27 2008, 08:57 AM

1st thing real quick edit your post, so the IP address's aren't in the post, the 1st one is exposed to the internet.

I'll continue to reply after this post.

This post has been edited by adavis: Mar 27 2008, 08:33 AM

Be patient with me as I ask more questions and try and suggest a few things.

Just want to make sure I understand your setup. The Modem has a total of 3 things connected to it, a cable(coaxial or ethernet) that connects it to the internet. Then two Ethernet cables connected two ports on the modem, one goes to the laptop(XP system), and another goes to the desktop(ME system).

Do you know the make/model of the modem? I can find the doc’s for it if I know the make/model and have a better understanding of what we can do with it.

The IP address’s are on different networks right now. One of them is on the 98.216.xxx.xx and the other is on 192.168.x.x. The 1st thing is we need to get them on the same network.

To do that we’ll need to know more about the modem which sounds like it is also working like a router. 192.168 networks are private, and 98.216 is assigned by your ISP and is public.

How many ports, ethernet plug in spots are on the modem?
Is it a wired and wireless modem?

 If you post the make/model I’m pretty sure I can answer those question myself.

Hi Garthfan.

I did manage to find the documentation for your modem. It looks like you have everything connected correctly.

The two computer do appear to be on the same network. I did some research and found some reading for you.
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/306126 is an article that microsoft has to help in setting up just what your trying to do.

Read through it and if you have any questions please feel free to post back here with any questions you might have.

Some of the steps you have already completed but double check and see if you have everything set the way the article suggest.



This post has been edited by tonka001: Mar 27 2008, 12:09 PM

Once again, thank you for all the help! That article is definitely a good read.

My only concern is that I think we might have gotten off track a little from my original question which was that I was successful in sharing the internet connection but could not get the two systems to recognize each other for the purpose of file sharing.

Do you think the steps outlined in this article you provided will help toward that end? I'm not actually going to try anything until I have all my ducks in a row because the Dell just got completely screwed up after my last attempt.

Thanks for everything!

Sorry about that Garthfan, I did get sidetracked a bit.

The article from MS I posted was just for the internet sharing.

I also re-read your 1st post to get myself back on track.

Of course I have a few other questions

Do you know the difference between a "crossover" network (ethernet) cable, and a straigt thru cable?
Do you know which type of cable you used to connect the laptop and desktop together?

You mentioned you tryed to ping each computer from the other.
Have you tryed since the internet was working?
Lets try that again. I'm goning to post the private IP address's you should try and ping

From the desktop try and ping 192.168.0.2, it might time out like it did last time but give it a try.
Then from the laptop try and ping 192.168.0.1.

With your next post let me know how the pings worked, and also what type of cable your using (if you know)

Thanks

This post has been edited by tonka001: Mar 27 2008, 02:51 PM

Greetings all:

Does this image help discribe your set up?

When only one other computer needs to share this connection (as in Figure 1), then Computer #2 can connect directly to Computer #1 using a crossover cable. Note that both computers must have network cards installed.

Figure 1: Using Microsoft ICS with two computers





Regards

Kaz.

Greetings all once again,

Any reason you are not doing this? Just curious. I do believe you dont need ICS in this case. That and you wouldnt need to keep the gateway computer on all the time for the other computer to have internet access.




Regards

Kaz

This post has been edited by kazzoo: Mar 27 2008, 02:38 PM

Hiya Kazz

I agree the router would be the best path to take.
He would still need the modem between the router and internet. in the diagram.
btw Kazz very nice diagram, shows everything very well.


I hadn't suggested that. I know for me cash seems to be a bit on the short side right now so I think along the lines of $0.00 being spent.


Garthfan,
Is the router option that Kazz mentioned an option for you?




And offtopic, been meaning to ask. Garth Brooks Fan, right?

This post has been edited by tonka001: Mar 27 2008, 02:56 PM

Hi guys. Thanks for the suggestions. I appreciate the help, I really do.

I'd like to get away from all this talk about the internet connection though. I don't need to connect to the internet with my laptop; I need to share the files from my desktop with my laptop as mentioned in my original post. When I mentioned in my original post that I had managed to get the laptop to connect to the internet through the desktop, that was really just a function of setting up the network protocols between the two systems; it wasn't something I intentionally did.

So, to clarify: I need to be able to share files between the two systems. Restating my problem is that setting up the internet connection (again, just a side-effect) happened almost naturally, but I couldn't get the two systems to recognize each other on the network. I would have thought this would be something as simple as hooking up a direct cable link between the two systems and setting up the network protocols, but I'm not (obviously) a network guru.

I'm going to try all of your suggestions this evening and anymore if you have more to add with this new information! Thanks!

(and, yes, huge Garth fan. lol )

Greetings all:

I would have snapped a straight through ethernet cord on that one open rj45 port on the back of that thing.

From what I read you should be able to use the usb and the Rj45 jack at the same time.

But if garthfan already has it like figure one, it is workable, he has internet going! Reconfiguring could be troublesome.

(As a side note you can use a switch, I have seen 5 port switches for less than $10.00. Modem to switch to 5 devices.)

Let me get out of the way here, back to your regulary scheduled program...

Regards

Kaz

SUCCESS!!!!! Woohoo!!!!

I'm not entirely sure what the exact fix was, but I think that it was manually inputting the IP addresses that did it.

Thank you so much for all your help! Now I can do all the file transfers that I have needed to do for the past two weeks.

By the way, the reason I had to go about this the hard way is that the CD burner on the Millennium computer died. So I needed the direct-cable link in order to get all of the files off of it and onto my new laptop.

Thanks again!