Trying to network a pc and a laptop

Mike_St_Helens

Afternoon guys,

My 1st post in this area, hope you dont mind.

OK, I have a PC and a laptop. I want to network them to share docs and the internet.

I have cable Broadband.

I have bought a cross over cable, attached it to the PC and the laptop, the PC installed through the wizard no probs... it says connected when the cable is and when i take it out of the laptop it disconeccts. So I then tried to set it up through the wizard on the laptopp... All i keep getting is Cannot complete the network set up wizard. It states that it cannot find my network hardware?

They are both Windows XP, same version.

Can anyone help me connect these to beasts up before I throw one of them out of the window. :mad:

Many thanks

MIke

madpom

Try this Guide here...
Rob (a Saints fan!)

Mizz_Pink

Hubby says make sure the network card is 'enabled' as opposed to 'disabled' in your device manager, (right click my pc, then properties, then hardware, then device manager) A red cross will show if its no enabled or a yellow exclamation will mean its not installed properly.

Sorry its not more detailed I'm writing this as hubby is telling me !

Little_John

The easiest way is to buy a cable router with 4 ports on it, and use normal network cables to connect to the router. using a crossover isnt ideal as if you want to share the internet the shareing pc needs to be on. hey you could even buy a wireless router and go wireless with the laptop.

But if you insist on doing things you have so far here you go do this on both PC's.
open control panel
then network connections
right click on local area connection and click properties
double click, internet protocol (TCP/IP)

enter an IP address
192.168.0.2 on the PC and 192.168.0.3 on the laptop
subnet mask 255.255.255.0
gateway 192.168.0.2

DNS servers depend on your internet provider tell us who you use and I will try get you the dns server addreses, if you know them enter them in there.

click ok and ok again then close the window

Return to control panel then double click system
click the computer name tab
click the change button
enter a computer name (these need to be different from each other)
enter a workgroup name this needs to be the same on both PC's

You then should be able to see each other on the network

set up your shared folders and away you go.

Mike_St_Helens

Thanks guys...

Right, there were no ethernet drivers on the lap top... I have them now and the 2 are talking, I also have the internet gateway connected. The internet works good on the pc but vvvvvv slow and cant find pages on the laptop. the ip add is different than what LJ says above, its 192.168.0.1 PC and 192.168.0.124 laptop. the subnet is the same....

Im very new to this, so im sorry if i sound thick.

We cant have wireless as the laptop is quite old and doesnt have a pc card slot.,.. im more than happy with the cables tho...

Little_John

the ip addreses dont really matter it is the first bit that makes them part of the network along with the subnet
255.255.255.0 means only take note of the last bit so the 192.168.0 is ignored, as the last bit is 0 it will make anything from 1-254 as part of the same network. that is why it still works.

The speed problem is due to the PC is shareing is connection it is hit and miss a bit as it depends on the performance of the PC.

If you want to drive over to me I can give you a cable router to sort out your problems? jump on the east lancs turn off at walkden and head towards bolton. sort of direction