Two computers again...HELP !

[benedict]

Trying to set up my new dedicated video machine and network it to my old one.

Old computer: Compaq 5BW120, Win98SE, 600 MHz, 320M RAM

New computer: Compaq 5105, WinME, 1.1 GHz, 256M RAM
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Network hardware in place:

2 10/100 Ethernet cards connected by cross-over cable. WinME came equiped w/ card. New card installed in Win98SE - detected on re-start and drivers installed. Both network adapters report as good -- "working properly" per Device Manager.

Sharing procedure started on WinME Wizard. Indicated successful execution and completion. Floppy written from Wizard transferred to Win98SE. Indicated successful execution and completion. [Note: As currently defined, WinMe is to share a folder and printer, and Win98SE is to share a folder.]
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Problem 1: Win98SE cannot log on to internet any more. Initially, it would log on but not transmit after doing so. (I suspect the next re-start "cured" it of that wierdness.) A task called "Dial-Up Networking Application" disappeared from my active task list, and this is the likelt cause of this. The "phone dial" protocal is still there, but along with it was another TCP/IP dial-up protocal for the Ethernet card that I suspect pushed it out of the way. I've deleted that new protocal and have attempted to get that missing task back up, but to no avail.
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Problem 2: Neither computer recognizes the other's presence. Both computers recognize their own folder as shared, but do so differently.

Win98SE recognizes the user (computer name) as an entity in addition to "Entire Network" with the shared folder below it but does not show the workgroup in the hierarchy. Entire Network in this case is empty.

WinME recognizes the workgroup as an entity subordinate to "Entire Network", the user as subordinate to the workgroup, and both the shared folder and printer subordinate once again to the user.

Properties sheets on both computers however confirm that both users are subordinate to the same workgroup, and "Disconnect network drive" on both computers confirms "no network drives currently connected".
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The BIG question is: Where in hell am I going wrong?

I'm pretty well convinced that I have to pull the drivers I installed on the Win98SE, but I hate to start that on just one more fishing expedition.

P.S. Obviously the dial-up on the new box has remained unscathed, ... at least so far.

And by the way, WinMe is kind of crappy, isn't it?

[sarahjh69]

only use pci network cards!

delete both network cards from
control panel/system/device manager

re-install drivers, make sure both HAVE SAME WORKGROUP name
enable file sharing on both pcs
share drives on both pcs

it should work now!

[killingspree]

pinging each others ip adress!

open command prompt (start/run/cmd or command) and type in ping and the ip adress...
if you don't know their ip adresses
run ipconifg (start/run/ipconfig) and then it shosw your current ip! also look at their tcp/ip configurations
check if the client for windows networks is enabled and also check that other clients like netbios etc are disabled/ uninstalled!

generally you might think about upgrading both of your computers to win2k/XP if you can get your hans on either one of them... i think with 320 megs of ram even the older computer will run XP without major problems if you try to keep your resource usage down.

oh yea... and try to get rid of winME ... it's sh** (just in MHO of course)

regards
steVe

[SirElvis]

I think since he is running Win98 / ME the "ipconfig" command won't work. As far as I remember, you need to use "winipcfg".

[benedict]

I am pretty sure the WinMe box is set up correctly, and that the Win98SE is wrong. I'm also pretty sure that the driver set-up for the card I put in the Win98SE assumed that I wanted to share internet connections. :angry: IDIOTS!

As to pinging, I only have a single connection (even if I could still get on with the Win98SE). The "no shared connection" option was taken so I wouldn't have to have both computers turned on just to use the web from the slave. While I could probably back off of that, is that still a possibility with a crossover cable instead of a router?

As to upgrading to XP, that's probably in the future for the WinMe box, but not for the Win98SE box. That latter box is my workhorse for less compute-intensive applications, and I typically run a great number of them simultaneously.

:scared: And WinMe? I've only been on it for two days. Whatever were they thinking?

[benedict]

11 days later !!! Tore those babies apart and put 'em back together. Re-installed all those clients, adapters, and protocols again and again, finally by hand. Nothing. And no one had a clue. :confused:

Just happened to run across a site called HomeNetHelp an hour ago: They said to turn off my firewall ???

BINGO !!! :angry: Sure got to learn a bit about networks though.

[Mac Sidewinder]

I should have thought about that before. I had the same problem. You should be able to specifically identify the ip address on each computer and put it in an exception list for your firewall to pass. This way you can keep your protection high but still "see" the other computer.

Mac

[benedict]

@ Mac: I've just been reading some stuff about assigning IP addresses, but I don't remember seeing that sort of exception list in my firewall (McAfee). [I haven't re-activated it yet to check, and the offline docs suck.] Even if it does, here's my concern:

My ISP requires that I let it assign my IP address at each dial-up (naturally). If I was networking thru a router instead of just a cross-over cable, hardcoding IPs on each computer wouldn't be a problem as the IP assignment would be for the router. I'm not sure yet if it exactly works this way, but my thought is that my hardcoded IPs might then effect my ability to even log on to the net, or, if not that, at least might cause my network to stop functioning each time I logged on.

Are you aware if my concern here is a real issue or am I missing something by "over-thinking" this situation?

[Mac Sidewinder]

How do you have each computer hooked up to the net? Have you split a single phone line and run to each or is one computer a gateway for the other?

Check your firewall software and see if you can specify a network name (workgroup) or if you have to specify a specific ip address to allow passthru the firewall.

Mac

[benedict]

@ Mac - A sore subject indeed. My desire was to have each with separate dial-ups, but since the plug 'n play first picked up my LAN card in the old computer, its dial-up won't kick in. If I play with the protocols, I can get it to make the connection, but even then no transmissions will occur and the network disappears. I've also noticed that "Dial-Up" has also disappeared from the control panel, and I can't seem to get it back. I checked the msconfig start-up, but nothing there was recognizable as being the missing Dial-Up. Any ideas on that?

I did go into the firewall (McAfee) and found a generic setting to allow file shares, and that seemed to do the trick until I re-started that computer and it "forgot" to re-establish the "shared" setting. I'll probably be moving to ZoneAlarm however, so I'm not too concerned about that.

One other curious item: I had listed one drive and one folder on the old computer as shared and that worked fine. I later removed the fold from sharing, but the new computer refuses to stop seeing that folder as part of the network. Of course, it cannot access it, but it still seems to "see it" there? Obviously I don't want the "litter" of old network shares hanging around confusing things, but I can't seem to remove it, even when I re-start. Is this a bug or is there some command I'm not familiar with? [Note that I never mapped any of these shares to drive letters.]