Ahhh.... Beagle you have a tricky config if you wish to maintian security ...!!

I have to dash off now as the missus insists she has some tasks for me .. but I shall return...

Basically though....

When you set up an ad-hoc peer to peer network (which is what you are decribing) you use "Internet Protocol" for the comms between the two computers.

When they both have the potential for independent internet access this can create a posible security risk.

There is a way around it though but I'll need to double check.

I seem to recall you have to use one of the other networking protocols for the networking of the two PC's.


I'll dig out the info .... unless someone with greater knowledge than I can contribute in the meantime.


I'm sure that was the case with XP .. don;t know if Vista is any different!




Borrocks .... I've just read what you posted again .... I'm off up the wrong tree ... please do ignore me :}

See "crossover cable", BEagle

hellsbrink, yes thanks, I saw that.

Both laptops have unused RJ45 ports - in my simple mind I thought that it would be as easy as connecting them both with a crossover cable, then being able to use 'My Computer' to find the 'other' computer's C-drive and thence copying files by copy-and-paste.

If it really involves anything much more complicated than that, I reckon I'll stick to the simple computer A to USB stick to computer B method!

You merely have to set up a simple fine and print sharing network to go along with the cable, BEagle.

Here's the instructions:- http://www.drbillbailey.net/share.html

Just to re-iterate, Beagle, for a few hard-earned Shekels more, the "Hi-Speed USB-Network Bridge Cable" I mentioned does NOT need any shares set up. It is soooh simple.

It's not hard to set up the crossover cable to share files or the Internet. There are instructions dotted about the Internet. Allow 2 minutes to do it, and a couple of hours to find the right set of instructions that actually work for you.

I have (somewhere) one of those USB link cables. It used to work very well. I didn't use it for several months, and when I next tried I got all sorts of error messages about it. Something got "fixed" in XP, and thereafter the particular software package that came with it wouldn't work.

Enquiry found one package that was guaranteed to work, but it was about £60. Soon after, I bought a router and connected all the machines via that. Sharing drives and folders was easy, and the firewall in the router seems to provide adequate protection from outsiders.

The great advantage of using a router is that I can take my laptop to the Norfolk hideaway or one of my daughters, connect to the LAN or WiFi network, and access my files at home if I wish. That has proved extremely useful a few times.

Thanks for your advice, everyone.

Unfortunately I have a limited number of USB ports on both computers (unless I faff with the 'media base') so the rather simpler USB bridge would probably be a bit awkward.

So I'm going to stick with the simpler USB stick expedient. This is because computer A is the primary upon which I work. I don't really need to transfer files between PCs, but I do need to view work created on one on the other - and it's dead simple just to copy the file temporarily onto a USB stick (which lives next to a female socket extension to the other computer) then view it on computer B.

I also need to run a specialised application on computer A and make notes about the results in Word on computer B directly onto the comment document held on the USB stick. When I've finished, I just copy and paste the revised document back to computer A and let it overwrite the original.

This also slows down fat fingers which might lose the original file!

No need for a chair... it's just that, with ICS enabled, the Desktop actually acts as a DHCP server, so you do not need to set up IP addresses manually. If the notebook reverts to an APIPA address (169.254.xxx.xxx), something has gone wrong with that.

OP: at this point, can you please tell us where you are now?
- if you're still trying to connect the two PCs, and don't know what to do, can you tell us about your ADSL router? Make and model? That way we can figure out what it's capable of and how it connects to your PC. This will determine what you do next:
- if it connects to your PC via a USB cable, then your cheapest best way forward is to get a crossover cable and set up Internet Connection Sharing as described earlier.
- if it connects to your Desktop via an RJ-45 Ethernet cable, as in the picture... the router might have extra RJ-45 ports on the back. If so, you can simply connect the notebook via a standard Ethernet cable as in the picture, not a crossover cable.
We need to clear this point up, it will determine what you need to buy, if anything!

OK, once you get the machines connected, (by whatever means), what are the IP addresses of the RJ-45 ports on both sides? IP addresses are fundamental to getting any of this working, you have to be clear about what is happening there. Nothing will work if the machines can't talk to each other at the IP level.
- From the one machine, can you PING the IP address of the other machine's RJ-45 port? And vice versa?
- Assuming that works, have you Shared a folder on the Desktop? From the Notebook, try connecting to the IP address of the Desktop by IP address. For example: Start, Run, \\192.168.1.13 (insert correct ping-able desktop IP address) (Note that it's two backslashes, not forward slashes (/) ).
This opens a Windows Sharing (SMB) connection, which is what you use to share files between machines.

bnt, thanks - I have to admit I've never used ICS! :O

SD

Ah success! Had the brother-in-law roped into having a look during a visit and, after several cups of tea (my only technical contribution), he managed to set up what I was after using a USB-to-USB connection between the two.

Thank you for all your contributions though. They have been greatly appreciated. Had me scratching me head a bit towards the end mind :uhoh: !!!