Another Home Network Problem

[Itsalwayssumpin]

Hi All, here's what I have, laptop w/ WinME and a new PC w/XPpro. I would like to network them together so that I can use the modem on the lap to access the internet for updating drivers on the PC(modem won't stay connected)and have laptop access to the printer/scanner that are connected to the PC. I have a patch cable connected to both puters 10/100 ports and ran the network wizard on both making sure that internet connection was selected on the laptop and no internet connection selected on the PC. Then I ran the netsetup from XP on the lap. Both ports have the lights lit up but neither puter can see the other. Also I've been going through troubleshooter and making sure that the names are different and that they are using the same group name(mshome). Each puter shows itself and shared items on the network but won't show the other puter. I'm sure its something simply, but I can't find it. I saw something about static IP addresses, could this be the problem? and how do I set them on each system.

Thanks for any help!

Steve

[PrntRhd]

Is the 10/100 cable a crossover cable or is it a patch cable? It should be a crossover cable to direct connect the two.

[Itsalwayssumpin]

It's a crossover cable. I found where to set IP addy's on both puter's, but how do I set them up?? The automatic doesn't seem to work, the one with the internet connection(laptop) shows a 192 addy and the other shows 169. The laptop shows 3 sets of 255 and the PC shows only 2.

Thanks

[pave_spectre]

If it shows a 169 address on the PC it sounds like, it is configured to get an IP address automatically and is failing.

For that to work you need to have configured ICS correctly on the laptop.

To test if there is a conection configure the PC with the address 192.168.0.5, and 255.255.255.0 in the appropriate places.

If the address of the laptop is 192.168.0.1, then, on the PC, open up a command line by Start-- > Run-- >cmd

and type ping 192.168.0.1 and tell us what response you get.

[Itsalwayssumpin]

Here's what showed,
Pinging 192.168.0.1 with 32 bytes of data:

Request timed out.
Request timed out.
Request timed out.
Request timed out.

Ping statistics for 192.168.0.1:
Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 0, Lost = 4 (100% loss),

C:\


Thanks,

Steve

[pave_spectre]

A few things you can check.

1. Make sure the cable is a crossover by looking at the wires in each connector. If the wire colour sequence is the same then its a patch cable. If the colour sequence is slightly different it's crossover.

2. Check both computers are part of the same workgroup. Generally found by right-clicking on 'My Computer' and selecting properties. Under the 'Network Identification' tab it should have the name of the workgroup they belong to.
If you havent made any changes to it previously then it is likely they are still on the windows default, 'WORKGROUP'.

3. Try the command ping 127.0.0.1. If that works it will at least tell you that TCP/IP is working.

[Itsalwayssumpin]

Thanks pave_spectre, heres what I got back with this one

Pinging 127.0.0.1 with 32 bytes of data:

Reply from 127.0.0.1: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=128
Reply from 127.0.0.1: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=128
Reply from 127.0.0.1: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=128
Reply from 127.0.0.1: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=128

Ping statistics for 127.0.0.1:
Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 0ms, Maximum = 0ms, Average = 0ms

C:\

Thanks for helping, I take it this means the TCP/IP is working

[pave_spectre]

Yep. If 127.0.0.1 replies then TCP/Ip is functional. Now its just a matter of determining how to get it to talk to the laptop.

Does the laptop have any kind of firewall installed on it?
If so have you tried temporarily disabling it?

[Itsalwayssumpin]

Thanks pave_spectre, the firewall was the stopper! At least the two are talking now I need to figure out how to get the PC to get onto the internet through the laptop. I set it up to do this but its just not happening.

Thanks again!

Steve

[pave_spectre]

What firewall are you using? It may need configuring to allow the local network to be trusted.

For ICS Practically Networked (http://www.practicallynetworked.com/sharing/ics/icsmeinstall.htm) should help so you know its configured correctly.

Plus with ICS in Win98 the client had to be configured to obtain an IP automatically, or it would be denied access, but apparently with XPs ICS the client can be configured with a static address and it will work.

Since ME is 'somewhere in the middle' I dont know how exactly it handles clients.

Best bet would be to configure the PC to get an IP automatically, and specify a gateway address of 192.168.0.1