PC Connection/LAN

[Deano5]

Hi guys, hope you can help.
I have built a new super comp for Trainz and all is fine,it has Windows 7 H/P, my old comp also runs great and has XP Pro/sp3.
I moved the old comp 2 feet across to my wife's desk and plugged in the Lan wire (im sure thats what it's called) at both ends and tried to connect them up together so the old one can connect to the internet through the new one ( I moved the wifi card from the old into the new) and also to share files between the two as the old one has all my Trainz downloaded CDP files.
Now I know how to run network wizzards on XP, but being brand new to windows7 I don't have a clue and i'm at my wits end trying to get them to see each other if thats even possible.
Any pointers in the right direction or to tutorials would be very much appreciated as my two young daughters were really looking forward to getting back on the internet.
P.S. I did click and try everything in the win7 network connection place, I think?
:wave:

 

[William0d0]

If you want to connect 2 PC's to each other directly you can not use a regular cat 5 network cable. You must use a crossover cable.

 

[clam1952]

May be easier getting a second wifi card or plugging one of the PC's into the router with a cat5 cable.

Reason being that if you use a crossover cable the PC with the connection to the router has to be on for the other one to access the web.

If your router is in close proximity to the PC's, just connect both PC's to the router, assuming it has more than one port?

 

[JCitron]

You could plug both PCs into a router, or as Malc says connect to a wireless one.

You need to setup the IP addresses so they are not the same otherwise you'll not connect to anything.

Configure your router to be a DHCP server (host) so that the clients (PCs) can receive their own IP Addresses.

Example:

Router is set to 192.168.1.1
Configure as as a Dynamic Host.

You have to put in a range of numbers. I usually put in 10 so I can connect this many DHCP machines.

On your PCs, set the TCP/IP connection to be DHCP so that they get their IP address from the router.

You might have to repair the network connections on the PCs so that they will get an address update. Right click on the network connection and choose repair. Enabling and disabling the connection will do the same thing.

Still at the PCs. Make them a member of a WORKGROUP. This is found by right-clicking on Computer or My Computer, depending upon the OS version.

Choose Computer name tab. On the bottom half is the option to join a domain or workgroup. Choose a workgroup, and either keep the default name "WORKGROUP" or put in your own name.

The PC will need to be restarted. Repeat the same process on the new machine, and ensure that it is also a member of the same workgroup. Restart.

Once you get your network running, you need to share folders on one of the machines. I would share the drive for folder for the old Auran install, and access it over the network from the new machine.

After this folder or drive is shared, you can easily see this over the network.

Now that you have your mini-network running, you can expand on this by adding in other computers, printers, X-Box360s, etc.

At my house we have at least 6 PCs, two network connected printers, a Sun Ultra 10 running as a server, and an X-360 all connected to a fully managed switch and then to a broadband router. The network uses both static and dynamic IP Addressing as well as both wired and wirless connections. This might be a bit overboard, but it gives me the option of connecting in multiple devices, particularly because I test machines and repair them for other people.

John

 

[Deano5]

Thanks for the advice guys, but, what the heck is cross over and cat5?
I just used the same old cable we used to use when we had two XP comps joined together and could swap and share no probs.
I have decided to get another wifi card to let the old comp connect to the Virgin broadband modem which is down stairs.
John, thanks for the advice but I have no idea what your saying to me. I only just figured out how to use the new media player tonight .
Windows7 has me back to square one on the learning curve.
I still need to know how to access the old comp from this new one in a way an idiot (or my children) can understand.
Please forgive my ignorance and stupidity as it must seem to those who can understand how to work all these magubbins.

 

[clam1952]

Cat5 is the normal networking cable that most people use, a crossover cable is made from Cat5 but has the wiring changed in one of the plugs so that you can directly connect two PC's together otherwise it won't work.

If you were using the cable before then it sounds like it was a crossover cable.

The problem you have may be the Win7 won't network with XP or any other OS in the traditional manner problem. If you have Win7 Home Premium, the only way you can get networking to work as it should and not with Microsofts, IMO daft Home Group, which will not recognise OSX, XP, Linux etc, is to do a bit of registry hacking to enable the networking bits that MS kindly disabled on Home Premium. See here:

http://social.answers.microsoft.com...k/thread/cc7adcd8-5380-4a48-89ed-bde1125c5f2f

I have a very similar setup to John's here, as up I also fix up PC's for people, I run a Mac and a couple of Linux Boxes as well as XP and a couple Win7 machines, so it is fairly important the networking works as it should do!

 

[Deano5]

That's what I was worried would be the problem, why they (MS) had to mess things up I don't know. As for hacking the registry, thats a no no for me, i'm not that confident, wouldn't have a clue what to do.
Thanks all.
Dean.

 

[Deano5]

Just one more thing. I have bought another wireless card and out it in so both the comps got on the web straight away, no prob there. Then I decided to try and connect the two comps again via the cable in the Lan ports as they were before (when both were XP) and within 10 minutes of me clicking around in win7 network settings the wife had to ring the cable company to get the internet back again, oops .
Can anyone tell me how to set up a private Wired network from Windows7 home Premium, without me knocking out the internet and getting into big trouble with my wife.
Cheeers. :hehe:

 

[chrisjohn]

Make sure that while both are connected to the wifi, they are in the same workgroup. Right click on the Trainz folder on your old computer, and select the sharing tabe, and give permission to share that folder. In the new computer start the CMP. On the left, select import content, and select the networked folder you have shared, and the CMP will do it all for you. Sounds simplistic, but I am sure you can find enough help for the network workgroup to work around it. Good luck. It sounds like you have been using a crossover cable all along.