Networking a PC and a laptop

Networking a PC and Laptop I would suggest you firstly run the home networking Wizard on the windows XP machine. You can access this through help or the network connections screen. As part of the setup you will be given the option to create a networking floppy disk. Create the disk. Once you have done this your XP machine will be configured. For the next step make sure the Cross over cable is connected between the 2 pc RJ45 sockets. Make sure it is a cross over cable and not a straight cable. Turn both machines on. Then insert the Floppy disk into the machine running windows 98. Navigate to the A drive and run the file on it. Do what the PC tells you to do. Make sure the workgroup name is the same as that on the XP machine. Give the computers unique names. Good Luck Trevor Martello Bay Tele Consult Ltd Making Technology work for People.

Do a search on Google Network Win98 and WinXP, I have just been asked to help someone do exact the same thing. You will find loads of step by step guides.

I have done it before using a cross over cable not sure if the XP Network Wizard will work on the Win 98 Machine. If not just run the Network Setup Wizard on both PC's but opt to configure them manually I.E. Do not create a disk to transfer to the other machine.

When running the wizard ensure that the WORKGROUP name is the same on both machines. Double check in Start/Control Panel/System (Computer Name Tab) click on change name (I have found that on doing so a different name was showing).

Once you have run the wizard on both PC's you still have to set up shared drives otherwise they will not be visible on the Network. If you only have one drive on each PC Right Click on the drive select properties/sharing and select Share this Drive. The drive will now be accessible on the Network. Ensure that you do the same on any drive that you want to access.

If you are having trouble setting up the Network use IPCONFIG and PING commands to check connectivity.

Start/Run type cmd to open a command prompt window type ipconfig this will show the IP address of all network interfaces Modems, Network Cards etc.

Do this on both machines and not the IP Address of each machines Netwok Card it will be somthing like 192.168.0.1 now on one pc in at the command prompt type ping 192.168.0.1 using the IP Address of the other computer if you get a Request Timed Out response it means that you have no connectivity the first step in troubleshooting any Network is to establish connectivity. 

If you are hoping to use internet connection sharing with a simple peer to peer Network forget it! It will work but only with Windows Firewall and is not really worth it.

I now have a D Link G604T ADSL Wireless Router, my main PC is hardwired to the router and my Laptop access the Network and Internet via a wireless PCMCIA Card. The system is fantastic and much better than all the headaches with ICS.

Please feel free to get back to me and I'll try to help some more:

billharvs@btinternet.com

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