Does anyone have any experience in networking two computers together? One has XP Home and the other Win 98SE.

I've read some articles on the internet about networking problems with XP. Driver problems mainly.

Thanks,

Hi, I have no experience in creating a persistent Windows home network, but I did help a friend connect her old Win98 machine to her new XP box so she could transfer files. My experience might be informative.

We used an ethernet crossover cable and connected the two computers. Then we ran the wizard on both computers but bailed out when we couldn't find any instructions for connecting with ethernet cable. Then we tried just sharing a folder on the Win98 box, but it wouldn't show up on the XP machine.

After many frustrating hours, we finally ran the wizards again to completion, but when we STILL couldn't share, we went for supper and when my friend returned, the files were happily being shared - it seemed to need time to build the network or something.

I have to tell you that I'm a Mac person to the core and hooking up two macs is dead easy. I'm not a Win person at all, so I was expecting it to be hard.

Turns out, all we needed was a bit of patience (to let the machines do their thing) and we would have been done in under 5 minutes (3 of that dragging both boxes out from under the desk so we could hook up the cable) :D

I have both my Macs networked with the DSL modem using a simple router and some cable. Works for me.

Take care Margaret

Win98 is probably the computer with the error.

Check list

Both computers have the same network name
IP address something like 198.156.0.1
255.255.255.0
Make the XP choose ip automatically.
dns on
windows login
tcpip connected to the ethernet card on the 98 (this is where you set the ip address
make sure you have shared the drive/partion on both computers
running the wizard in XP should sort out the XP computer

I haven't done this for a while so I am going from memory :)

as Margret said unless you are connecting through a hub you need to have a cross over ethernet cable

Hope this helps

Clare

I seem to think I read in a puter mag once that you have to disable the firewall in XP. Think it is under the control panel. Then you need a third party firewall so you can selectively let the 98 box in and no one else.

Hi Clare,

Any suggestions for adding an XP home computer to a small (~12 machine) network with a Win 2000 server? I've spent most of the day trying to make it work. :-(

Tyeise

Tyeise

If you already have a 12 network computer system, you could try making a network disk on one of the win2000 systems and running it on the XP computer.

Sorry reading your question again I am unsure about a few things:
There are 12 systems on your current network, are they all running win2k? Are they networked via a hub or as a linking system where you have two cards in each computer?

Basing the network on the 12 computers each with 2k via a hub:
You can either set up the network on the XP machine manually. For this use the setup new network wizard in the control panel of the XP machine. give the computer a name and set the network name. If you will be contecting to the internet via the lan then you need the second button down when asked - or - you can create a network floppy on one of the 2k machines and see if it will run on the XP computer (I have never tried this!!)

Trouble shooting from here will include
Going to the device manager finding the network ethernet card and checking that it is working correctly. If you also use firewire 1394 on this computer and have it connected to something it might be worth a shoot to disable the firewire connection in the control panel to see whether it can see the network. Because XP can use either firewire or ethernet to connect to a network it can become confused as to which port is being used.

Remember if you are connecting computer to computer you will need a cross over cable if you are connecting computer to hub you use a straight cable. When you are linking two hubs you use a cross over.

If you have a 12 computer network and they are all talking to each other I wouldn't change any of there settings other than making the XP machine accessable through any firewalls you have running. Oh and make sure that you share a folder on the XP machine :)

It will take a little while once you have set everything up for it to all start working so be patient and make your self a few cups of coffee

Hope this helps

Clare

Hello Clare,

Sorry I didn't explain the problem better the first time.

The 12 computers have been gathered over time and are a real mix of OS's. We have Win 98, Win ME, and 1 already connected Win XP home machine.

They use a switch (not a hub), and the server is Windows 2000. They are not peer to peer.

I've been working on trying to get them to upgrade some of their antique equipment, over half of the systems are less than 500 mhz, not nearly sufficient for the programs they are trying to run on them. Getting them a switch and a real server has been a wonderful help at getting the system stablized.

On the already set up XP machine, I can see all of the other computers, and the server, and can print from a couple of the other computers on the system.

I have tried setting the new XP machine both thru the wizard and manually. I hve set the name of the computer as well as the workgroup, IP, gateway and DNS numbers. Each of the computers has its own IP address. All of the computers share their whole C drive, and several of the computers share printers, these mostly on a peer basis. I have made sure that the Server has the new computer log in name added to its list of users.

I have the settings on the new XP home machine identical to the one on the existing and working XP home machine.

I can ping the server and the individual IP addresses, so I know the networking card is working.

I can get on the internet, so I know it's connecting. I can make a shortcut on the desktop using the individual IP addresses, but when I go in thru explorer, My Network Places/Entire Network/Microsoft Windows Network, it lets me see the name of the workgroup, but won't let me see the machines on the workgroup. I spent 6 hours trying to solve this yesterday, including being on the phone with a local computer store and with Dell tech support (who won't support home with a network!)

Thank you for your help in this matter.

Tyeise

Hi Tyeise,

Unfortunately I don't have any answers for you, it looks like you have tried everything that I would have, I to have spent hours pouring over a network and know how frustrating it can be. Please post the answer if you find it, I would be really interested in the solution that you find. In the mean time I will rack my brains and the people I know to see if anyone can come up with a suggestion.

Good Luck

Clare

P.S Welcome to RetouchPro, sorry I forgot to welcome you in my first message :)

Thanks Clare, both for the welcome and the attempt to help.

Until I can solve the problem, I'm going to create a shortcut to each individual IP address, then map the drive so that we can at least get the computers to talk to each other one way or another. I finally got far enough last night to realize it was a possible workaround. I will still be looking for the answer, as it would be a lot easier to just be able to go thru the My Network, than to map 12 computers for each of the 4 new ones!

I suppose I should have introduced myself as well.

I'm a grandmother, who runs her own computer business from the home. I'm self taught for the most part, and when people ask me how I learned, I have to admit that it's mostly by asking lots of questions! :-)

Thanks again for trying!!!

Tyeise

Hi Tyeise,

You have found the right place to ask questions, one of the things that you will find is people here are friendly and ready to help. This is the reason we all stay :) :D :) (we all ask a lot of questions)

Over in the Salon you will find a welcome to all new users, heres the address

http://www.retouchpro.com/forums/showthread.php?threadid=5307&perpage=15&pagenumber=1

Pop over and give everyone a wave, introduce your self and if you read back through the tread (it's pretty long!) your find most of us at some point posted who we are, hope you enjoy your time at RetouchPro :)

Clare

Tyeise - A couple of ideas for you to try...if you haven't already! (I am by no means an expert at Networking :D )

- You might want to double check the names of each computer...make sure none have the same name and there are no spaces in the names.

- Double check the subnet mask on each computer...and make sure each computer has the same protocols, clients and services installed. (Since you have Win98 computers networked to a 2000 server, I think you need NETBEUI installed on all computers)

Greg - names were all ok. Server won't let more than one of the same name log on, gives you a message to that effect. Subnet mask was correct, as were the IP addresses and the DNS numbers. Also, WinXP does not support NETBEUI, so I can't use that. Thanks for the suggestions, though. :)

Clare - Turns out that the problem was two-fold. I had to turn off the firewall on the XP machines, and I had to enter all the IP addresses into the trusted sites in the Internet Explorer.

I didn't get home till 8:40 tonight. I installed 6 computers between yesterday and today, and 2 printers on 12 different machines, as well as installing programs, email, etc. on all the machines, and troubleshooting other things in between! I think I'm going to go crash for the night!!!

Tyeise