Problem setting up simple network.

[Virtualbody1234]

My syggestion is that each PC should be connected to the router, and any other ethernet ports should be disconnected and disabled. It will save confusion if you need to look at it later.

That's what I said at the beginning of this thread.

The only problem is that there isn't more than one port on the router.

Adding a hub would solve that.

[digmen1]

Hi Guys

I finally did the right thing and bought a switch (as you say my modem/router) only had one ethernet port.

I set up the switch and kind of got the network going !

But I still have the same problem on my main machine in that I cannot see the other machine (my workstation) ! On the work station I can see the main machine and any shared files all OK.

What I put it down to is that when I first set up XP on the main machine 18 months ago I probably said No to Networks while installing XP. This is probably why My Network Places never showed up (it does now see the start of this thread) I followed Lynx's suggestion and edit the Start Menu. So now My Network Places shows up on the Menu, but when I click on it it is empty.

So I have decided to reinstall Xp on this machine in the hope that it fixes this glitch.

Kind Regards

Digby

[ilw]

in my experience the whole computers are connected but sometimes see each other and sometimes don't and can't share files etc.. is usually a problem with passwords and enabling "simple file sharing". windows is utter, utter shit for setting up network shared folders

my recommendation is turn on simple file sharing (google if you don't know what i'm talking about) and also either create network drives with appropriate login info or create an account on each computer which matches the main account on the other comp,
e.g.

computer 1: normal login name: john password: john1
computer 2: normal login name: chris password: chris1

then on computer 1 you should add an account name: chris password chris1 and vice versa.

[digmen1]

Hi ILW

Thanks for the suggestions, I tried "simple file sharing" but that made no difference.

I do not really want to try your second suggestion as I tend to dislike having user names and logging in as its only me that will be using the 2 computers (in different rooms).

This problem is now really annoying me and after doing a bit of googling it seems that it is a very common one. Many people offer many solutions but none of them seem to work.

So I must agree with your first statement that Windows Networking is Shit.

It seems that If it gets out of whack there is no one central place that you can look for settings.


Regards

Digby

[digmen1]

To re-state my problem

I have got my network kind of going with a switch and router.

But one (machine A) of my 2 PCs (both XP Home) will not show the other PC in the My Network Places folder. (The other one machine B does, and this one can access shared files from machine A)

If I go into the My Network Places folder (it comes up empty) if I then click on View Work Group Computers, there is a slight delay and then a beep.

I have tried every single firewall setting and disabling otpion.

The one thing that makes me wonder is the four options at the end of the Network wizard. It seems to say that you should insert your XP disk into the first machine and then fire up the second machine using the CD!

Is this required ? Has anyone ever done this ?

Because, when I run the wizard on machine A it comes up with the 4 options and I just click finish and I am then returned to XP. But on Machine B when I finished the wizard I seem to remember it saying I had to reboot.

Regards

Digby

[digmen1]

I Finally got my 2 PC XP Home home-network going ! after 2 weeks, one new hard drive, two new XP installs and great loss of time and hair.

I finally deffered to some advise from posters and Uninstalled my firewall, in this case ZoneAlarm Free. And lo and behold as soon as did that my network worked perfectly I could see all shared Folders and files !

So I cannot believe how bad Zonealarm is - as they have been going for years and SP2 has been out for a year also.

Regards

Digby

[Virtualbody1234]

Zonealarm isn't bad.

In Firewall>Zones there are settings for "Trusted" zones. Use Add IP Range and put your local IPs there.
Ex: (192.168.1.100 - 192.168.1.104) for up to 5 computers in the network.

I also think it's a good idea to add the single IP address of your router to the trusted zones.

[digmen1]

Zonealarm isn't bad.

In Firewall>Zones there are settings for "Trusted" zones. Use Add IP Range and put your local IPs there.
Ex: (192.168.1.100 - 192.168.1.104) for up to 5 computers in the network.

I also think it's a good idea to add the single IP address of your router to the trusted zones.

I accept what you say, but that is getting a bit technical for a newbie (I'm not a newbie) to enter such data. But I will have a go, because, other than that ZA did seem to work for me for 2 years.

Regards

Digby