Question about Windows XP Home 2

[deik313]

Hi... I can't find a forum for Windows XP Home, so I'm going to ask this question here and see if anyone can help me! =)

Can you network Windows XP Home with computers running other operating systems? ie: Windows 2000 or XP/Pro. I'm trying to network an XP/Home PC with a Windows 2000 PC and they cannot see eachother no matter what I do.

Thanks for any help...
Dei

 

[FaiTHLeSS]

Yes you can network the two together. What are you using to connect the computers together? Do you have a hub or switch or just using a cross over cable between the 2? Have you given the machines IP's both on the same subnet ie. 192.168.0.1 and 192.168.0.2? Need a little more info

 

[deik313]

I am using a Netgear hub. The 2 computers are both connected to the hub, and both have dynamically assigned IP addresses in the same subnet (It assigned them both 169.xxx.xxx.84 and 85). They can't see eachother in the Network Neighborhood, and can't even ping eachother.

Ultimately, I want to connect a cable modem on the hub also, for one of the computers, but whenever I try to do that, the cable modem assigns the IP address of one but not the other. So, I thought, if I can get the two computers talking to eachother, then I can figure out how to add the cable modem. =)
Dei

 

[FaiTHLeSS]

You will need to manually assign the IP addresses to the computer at the moment they are getting assigned defaults that windows give them. Give the main machine the IP 192.168.0.1 and the other machine 192.168.0.2 once thats done you can enable ICS(Internet Connection Sharing} on the main machine, you will also have to assign gateway address of 192.168.0.1 to the the 2nd machine and DNS addresses of your ISP.

 

[deik313]

Okay, I'll try that.

I have heard from a few people that XP/Home doesn't network well with other Operating Systems, and that the other machines need to be XP/Home also. Is that just if you leave it configured to dynamically assign IP addresses?

Thanks,
Dei

 

[FaiTHLeSS]

XP home should network just as well ass the other OS's only thing it doesnt do it domain support which doesnt matter because your only running a peer-peer network. XP-home network can be configured dynamically or statically but since there is no DHCP server running on your network you will have to configure it statically.

 

[deik313]

Great! Thanks for your help on this. To assign the IP address statically, do I just configure the TCP/IP settings as usual, or is there somewhere else that it needs to be set to "catch" it sooner? Also, where do I set the Internet Connection Sharing? Sorry for all the questions!
Dei

 

[FaiTHLeSS]

Just configure the TCP/IP settings as normal and on the propeties on the cable connection there should be an extract tab for ICS.

 

[deik313]

Hi Faithless...I did this, and it partially worked. The two machines can ping eachother, but they can't see eachother in the network neighborhood. They are both in the same workgroup, and both have File and printer Sharing installed. Is there anything else that you can think of that I need to check?

Also, I wondering....when I have the cable modem plugged into the hub, it gives the first machine an IP address of 68.109.184.5, which matches the ISP DNS address. Can I just give the 2nd machine 68.109.184.6 so that I don't have to mess with the configuration assigned to the machine obtaining it's info from the cable modem? We do not need to have Internet access on machine 2, we just want to share files and printers with it.

Thanks,
Dei

 

[bcastner]

Read this first:

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;Q308007

You need private IPs, and you need to install ICS. You cannot just assign the next digit over to the public Ip being pulled by the machine connected to the modem.

But you need both your home network and internet sharing, and you need ICS or a broadband cable router.

To use ICS, read (view) both of these sites:

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;Q306126

http://www.practicallynetworked.com/sharing/xp_ics/

Given that a broadband hardware cable/DSL router is under $10 US on sale with rebates, or well under US $50 if you order on-line some of the best, I would go the hardware route. But ICS can and does work in your setting, although you do need two network adapters in the Host machine for ICS, and two connections to your hub, and it appears you are missing that component at present. Rather than spend the money on a second adapter, see what it is on sale for hardware broadband routers at your local computer or office supply store.