Networking with 2 laptops and a dial-up?

[Captain Over]

Need help big-time for configuring a network using 2 laptops with WindowsXP and a dial-up plus a twisted-pair 10/100 LAN cable to run between the computers and have both connected to the Internet at the same time.

We've tried configuring on 2 laptops, making one the "host" and the other "guest" but could not get the second one to connect at all regardless how many times we ran the network configuration wizard on each unit. With or without firewall enabled, and with or without "Allow Internet Sharing" or "File Sharing" selected.

What gives? Where is the "ease of sharing the Internet" that MS promised?!

Help, please, anyone.

[amanoffewwords]

One things that will stall your plan is if the guest account on each machine is not switched on. This can be done via the Control Panel - ->> user accounts -->> click on guest and then the relevant option to switch the account on.

The wizard should do the rest.

amofw

[ck4707]

Captain Over

When you say the second machine will not connect do you mean to the internet? Can each machine "see" each other on your network?

Not sure about XP but in all other versions of windows you only install Internet Connection Sharing on the host computer and configure the browser on the client machine to use the same dial up connection.

Hope this is of some help,
CK

[Tinstaafl]

If you're connecting the two computers directly ie not using a hub or switch, you'll need to use a 'crossover cable' and not the normal 'straight through cable'.


XP has a network setup wizard that is able to set up a machine to be the one through which others connect to the net. Quite handy but a pain in the @rse when you want to enter the settings directly.

[Captain Over]

Crossover cable = Twisted Pair. Yes we are using that.

Enabled Guest on both machines. Even gave permission for each to access one another = made no difference, firewalled or not.

Also when the wizard was run it prevented the one host machine from accessing the net from a LAN (when connecting at another time all by itself) and only when the "Network Bridge" is removed did it allow browsing.

Back to the original issue. We did this once, but darned if I recall how it went.

Answer to one of your questions: the second machine cannot connect to the internet but the host machine can with no problems.

This is a royal pain in the arse. Thanks MS.

Grrrr.

Captain Over

[The Nr Fairy]

Twisted pair is not necessarily made up into a crossover cable. Twisted pair refers to the fact that of each of the 8 wires, they're paired up and twisted together, and connected in such a way as to reduce crosstalk and interference.

Each of the 4 pairs of wires may be a 1-1 match at each pin at both ends, or some of the pairs may be crossed. Depends.

Easiest way to check ? Put the ends next to each other, and see if the colours are in the same order. If they are, it's a straight through. If not, it *MAY* be a crossover.

The other way to tell if the two machines are communicating at the physical layer is to see if there is a "link light" on the network card. Plug the lead in, it should go on at both ends. Take it out - you get the picture.

A google search on "Twisted pair" would also reveal the pukka technical details - I'm a software guy who works with networks, I don't plug 'em together very often !

[amanoffewwords]

Here is a quick guide to networking (http://www.linksys.com/faqs/default.asp?fqid=20) - provided on the Linksys site - shows you in full technocolor what a crossed cable should look like. Very well written in plain language. :eek:

[Mac the Knife]

It can be done. Got a Win98 box, a Linux box, a Win3.11 box and an XP box all talking to each other at 100 thru a switch and all using the 98 box to access the Internet. Just can't remember how I did it...

[Captain Over]

The twisted cable is a legit one - thanks though.

The issue is the connectivity set-up with Windows XP.

Any more takers, please?

[The Nr Fairy]

An alternative is to give up on the ICS, and use something like a 3Com 56k LAN Modem.

It gives 4 ports of 10Mb Ethernet, and a modem which can be configured to dial automatically. It also serves as a DHCP server, and is a doddle to configure.

[Lost_luggage34]

Or run a simple proxy server on the Internet connected machine - works for me.

Plenty of them available as shareware.

[Captain Over]

I'll look more into the proxy server thing, thanks for the tip.

As for going pure hub, I may simply give up on this supposed easy way to share a connection (again, thanks, Microsoft, on assuring this was easy!!!) and may just go with a D-Link Wireless Hub / DSL Router to share the connection.

In the meantime, stil researching how to do this. There must be a way!

Thanks everyone for your input. I've read and checked everything you all have suggested.

Will be in touch on how it works, if ever.
:p

C.O.

[Tinstaafl]

I know I'm returning to a point, however...


Are you absolutely **sure** you're using a crossover cable & not a straight through?

They are BOTH twisted pair cables but they are not interchangeable.

I only ask again because your language in your posts doesn't quite seem to differentiate between the two types.

Sorry if I'm harping on about it.

T.