In the next room there is a computer running windows XP with a broad band connection and a cable modem. In this room is a PII with windows 98. Both boxes have network cards.
I want to know how to connect this computer (Win98) to that computer (WinXP) so that I can have broad band internet while some one in the next room is logged on as well.
I do not know, but I think it has to do with sharing the connection or something through the XP box
But I do not know how to adjust the 2 machines so the older one can utilize the recources of the newer one. I do think it has to do with network settings and what not but I don’t know.
To answer the question as you have asked it, you need to network the two machines and then enable Internet Connection Sharing on the XP box. Here is how to do home networking with XP. If you decide to connect the two machines directly to each other, you will need a crossover cable, not a patch cable. This is the cheapest way to go but it is also the most problematic. You will need to be “good with computers” to do it this way.
Another way to do the whole thing is to use a router instead. In this way of doing things, the cable modem plugs into the router as if it was a computer and then the router does the job of sharing the connection between the two machines. Not only is this more simple to setup, but you get the added advantage of the router acting as a firewall.
If you get a combination Switch/Router, then the same box will do the Internet connection sharing AND act like an Ethernet hub (a switch and a hub do the same thing in different ways but for the purposes of this discussion there is no real need to go into all that). If you get a regular Switch/Router, you can use your existing network cards but then it all has to be connected with Cat 5 cable (or better). If you get a wireless Switch/Router then you can still use your existing cards and cable, or you can replace your existing network cards with wireless network cards and do it all without cables.
The regular Switch/Router will cost about $50 and the wireless is about $10 more. The wireless network cards are in the $70 range.
Linksys makes all the bits and pieces you will need and is a popular brand.
What is the diff? I have the cat 5 cable. BTW, there is not much about computers
that I don`t understand, I have just never hooked 2 diffrent flavored machines togeather before.
I have no wireless anything, and will not buy one for now, so wire it is.
What would happen if I don`t use one and just go straight from the one machine
to the other? why wouldnt it work?
Thanks for the link as well, this cant be to complicated. Both machines have network cards and I have the cable as well, my Q really was 1) will it work without a swich/hub, and how to adjust XP to share internet.
So what can I expect if I just run a line oc cat 5 between the 2 machines?
I dont think it will blow up, (but you never know)
Think of your network card connections as having some pins for input and some pins for output. With a patch cable, what is the output on one end is also the output on the other end. If you use this sort of cable to directly connect one computer to another, you have input connected to input which obviously won’t work. A crossover cable has the ends wired opposite to each other and so the output of one machine will be the input to the other machine and everyone will be happy. When using a hub or a switch, they do the crossing over inside their box so you must use patch cables with them.
It won’t hurt anything to use a patch cable to connect the two machines, the connection simply won’t work.
Check the Help and Support on the XP machine and search for “enable Internet connection sharing” for step by step on how to do it.
Ok. That’s really clear. And what it says right on this cable is “Space Shuttle (UL) CAT-5 PATCH-CORD”. So with this cable I would be attempting to do just what you described above, and thus, it won’t fly. A hub/router/switch is then necessary. OR, go buy the crossover cable to match up input to output correctly. Am I following you so far? I always thought the hub/switch was necessary to distribute signals to several computers from 1 server, I figured since the “server” only has 1 node, a hub would not be necessary because there was only machine accessing the “server”. I guess I was half right. So what happened to the idea of a “daisy chain” (which I thought I was doing), Would that need to use a different port on the machine or can you rig it with this patch cord? I’m not in denial, really, I’m just broke and would like to try to pull this off with what I have on hand. In any case, thank you so much for your information and clearing up some of my foggier notions on the subject.
You need one free network interface card in each computer. How does your cable connection plug into your XP box? Likely it plugs into your NIC. So you need one NIC for your 98 box and another one for your XP box, and a crossover cable to run between the two. You then set up Internet Connection Sharing on the XP box and TCPIP networking on the 98 box and you’re done.
If you can afford the extra, better would be to go the switch / router route. Don’t bother with wireless.
And if you can get a Windows XP license cheap, put 192 or 256 MB in the 98 box and install XP.
I’m just broke and would like to try to pull this off with what I have on hand.*
It can’t be done.
Depending on how far apart the two machines are, it may very likely be that a cheap hub will be cheaper than a new 50ft crossover cable. You will, of course, also need a cable to go from the hub to BOTH machines, but if you put the hub right next to one of them, that second cable can be very short (and cheap). In my area, the local weekend swap meet has a strong geek contingent and I have seen new 3 port hubs for $8. Your local Goodwill Industries may sell used/refurbished computer stuff. You can use the Goodwill Locator to find their retail store closest to you and then call and ask them if they have hubs and/or cables.
If there is a high school or college or university in your area, they almost certainly have a computer club and those guys will definitely be able to tell you where to get cheap stuff. Bragging how cheaply you can build a system is standard operating procedure for every club that I have been to. “I once built a system for a nickel and a bus token, both of which I found in the gutter!”
Boeing has a surplus store not to far away from here, it has a computer grave yard section, that’s where the cat 5 cable came from (5 bucks!) last year. So I’ll mosey on down there this week and get a little bitty hub and some shorter cables. And do what you guys are suggesting. The whole reason for this is that I want to set up a web cam and microphone to converse with my wife and son (who are in another country) without the hurkey- jurkey images of dial up. The other machine is in a public area (living room) and is shared by the whole house. This set up would leave that one free. Thanks all you Alls for your advice. When I get the stuff I will follow the above instructions and then let you know what happens.
Hmmmm, maybe I’m in just a bit over my head, I checked the back of the XP machine. There is a TV cable going to the cable modem, and from there we see a thin cable from the modem to the back of the machine. The connecting plug appears to be the size of a normal net work cable plug but the wire itself is very thin, further where the plug itself connects to the machine is flashing – yes, the plug itself, NOT lights above the port as with a digital network card (fiber optic?) I have never seen this before. The XP machine has no other ports of this size, all the other open ports (except for the sound output, and old printer, and game ports) are these small flat ports of the kind you would use for you digital camera – (scizzie?). This XP machine is a Dell something or other, very powerful and only about 7 months old. On My machine there is the old familiar port set up with a digital network card, phone modem and 2 scuzzie ports. This machine is only a pentium 2 – 266, with more then 256 megs of memory. That’s why no XP or win2k, it would be way to heavy (and almost no DOS support)
Knowing this would I take the fiber optic cable from the modem, put it into the hub then run one lead from the hub to the XP machine and one to the old PII? Because the line running from the cable modem to the XP machine appears to be fiber optic, should I be thinking that just any old hub will not do? Rather wont I need to get a “special” hub that can handle that kind of signal? OR can a digital set up read an optical signal, OR am I so far behind in the latest stuff that I should call a geek from the local High School Club? :smack:
“Knowing this would I take the fiber optic cable from the modem, put it into the hub then run one lead from the hub to the XP machine and one to the old PII? Because the line running from the cable modem to the XP machine appears to be fiber optic, should I be thinking that just any old hub will not do? Rather wont I need to get a “special” hub that can handle that kind of signal? OR can a digital set up read an optical signal, OR am I so far behind in the latest stuff that I should call a geek from the local High School Club?”
You seem to have the setup right and that should work but I would guess that there is not fiber optic cable that runs to the XP Box. My DSL cable is thinner than network cable.They should all RJ45 network connectors. I think those other “scuzzie” ports are actually serial com ports.
You gonna try to run a webcam on a P2 266 machine? I hope that works but I am sceptical that it will run smoothly.
That’s really no problem at all. There were web cams WAY before broad band was common.
And way before the event of the “gigahurt” clock speeds we have today.
The problem is the speed at which the packets hit your machine, (to a point – you suffer some loss of fluidity due to processing power and if you have small memory there is no space for buffering the images as they come in) I watch Brazilian TV with this 56k dial up and it is doable but not very natural.
I have tons of memory on this old machine for buffering. Also it sucks waiting forever when I want to download big files. I just suffer the maximum speed limits of the telephone lines connected to the house. So what I want is a bigger data pipe.
Feel free to correct me BTW. This is my understanding of what the matter is with
slow to load streaming images any way.
*small flat ports of the kind you would use for you digital camera – (scizzie?). *
SCSI connectors have fifty pins. If they look like this, they are USB ports.
…would I take the fiber optic cable from the modem, put it into the hub then run one lead from the hub to the XP machine and one to the old PII?
If you connect the cable modem to the uplink on the hub, then both computers will need to have valid Internet IP addresses and I doubt that you are paying for an extra IP address from the Cable TV people. When you share an Internet connection, you are sharing more than bandwidth, you are sharing an IP address as well. If you use a router/switch, then the router gets the real Internet IP address and both machines get LAN type IP addresses assigned by the router. This is one reason that most people prefer the router/switch method. It’s way easier to setup and you can do it with only one network card per computer.
As it explains in the Home Networking tutorial I gave you a link to, if you decide to go the Microsoft Internet Connection Sharing method, you will need two network cards on the XP machine. One to connect to the cable modem and one to connect to the other computer or hub. Seriously, read the tutorial. You might surprise yourself and actually understand how it all works.
