I am usually good at figuring out computer stuff myself (with the help of the manual), but networking my computers has me stumped.
The host computer is a P4 1.8 ghz Sony Vaio running Windows XP home ed.
The laptop is a Athlon 1.6 ghz Sony Vaio running Windows XP home ed.
I have a Linksys Wireless access point 802.11b and a notebook card.
I followed the directions that came with the access point and card and I can share my cable internet connection between the two computers just fine.
When I try and share files & printers, the instructions say to run the Home Network Wizard. When I run the wizard on my desktop (the host) I get an error message that it couldn’t complete. This is the part that is hanging me up. The network wizard runs on my laptop fine, but then I lose my internet connection.
I have looked and file and printer sharing is turned on for both computers.
Can anyone help me, with normal baby-steps instructions?
Thanks Trikdagain and welcome to the SDMB. I looked at that site and shared the specific folder I want to share, but still nothing. There must be something else I am overlooking.
Thanks for the welcome. Installing the NetBeui protocol, although no longer supported by Microsoft, has simplifed this issue for a lot of folks who don’t wish to mess with TCP/IP configuration, etc.
Make sure both computer are on the same network. You are probably using RFC 1918 addressing inside your ‘firewall’ or whatever you are using to tie into your cable modem. My guess is, your wireless access point is using DHCP, so just set up your workstation to automatically aquire a DHCP address. You should be able to PING from one computer to the next (as well as ping the AP). If you can’t, go to a command prompt and type in (ipconfig /all) and make sure you have an IP address on the correct network, correct subnet mask, and that the default gateway is set to the device you have interfacing with your cable modem.
I would set up a share (I THINK this is what your problem is…if not just disreguard) manually instead of using the wizard. Basically there are a lot of ways to set up a share, but you can go into my computer, right click on the folder you want to share on your network, and then select “Sharing and Security”.
If this is confusing, drop another post and I’ll try and explain better. The point is, you don’t HAVE to use the wizard…just do it manually.
Hope this helps. I’m an network engineer, not a MS specialist, so there is probably a better way to set up the share part…
Trikdagain, thanks for the link - I was all excited, but unfortunately I don’t have my Win XP cd - I have Vaios and all they come with is a restore disc.
xtisme - I can’t ping the laptop from my desktop or vice versa. Both computers can ping the AP. I did try the share thing with folders, but maybe I’m looking in the wrong place - where would they be? In my shared documents folder? I don’t expect shared folders will just poof appear, but I don’t know where to find them - if I am sharing, but for some reason I don’t think I am doing this successfully.
Thanks anyway for the help, I think maybe I’ll just stick to emailing files (or using ftp) but that is difficult with my big picture files. I can burn CD-Rs I suppose.
All I really need is a shared internet connection and I’m thankful I got that to work, but it would be nice to be able to transfer files from one machine to the other without too much trouble.
