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01brclar

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Windows XP - TAN with Crossover Cable problems

Hi,

I have little experience of networks but have been trying to set up a Tiny Area Network in my home between 2 computers. They are both running Windows XP and are practically identical in setup.

I have a Cat5e Crossover cable Patch cable that should allow me to connect the two computer without need for a hub (will invest at a later date!)

I have plugged the cable into both computers - when viewing Network Connections - a connection appears which I beleive to b that of the network (I have run the networksetup wizard) and one says Nvidia MCP networking controller and the other says Realtek 810 Family Fast Ethernet NIC - so thats OK)

However, I really don't know where to go from here - My idea is to be play network games between the two - is this possible with cross over? How can I test as the games don't seem to be working. . .  

ROb
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scampgb
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Hi 01brclar,

Your cabling should be OK.
Right click on network neighbourhood, choose properties.
That'll show the network cards.  There'll be a red cross on it if it thinks there's a problem with the cable.

Your next step is to check IP addresses and connectivity between the machines.

Go to a command prompt (Start > Run > "cmd" return)
Type:
ipconfig /all

Check out what IP address you have on each machine.  They might start "169...." - in which case they've not been specifically configured and have just picked one at random.

I suggest that you specify the IP addresses manually in this case.
I suggest that you use IP addresses 192.168.1.2 (PC1) and 192.168.1.3 (PC2) - for no real reason!

Right-click on the network adapter (in Network Neighbourhood properties)
Choose Properties

Double-click on TCP/IP
"Use the following IP address"

Put in the IP address (192.168.1.2) and subnet mask (255.255.255.0). You can leave the rest blank.

Press OK lots :-)
You might need to reboot.

Next, do the "ipconfig" test I showed above.  It should show the correct addresses.
From PC1, type "ping 192.168.1.3"
You should get lots of "reply from..." lines.

From PC2, type "ping 192.168.1.2"
You should get lots of "reply from..." lines.

That establishes that they can both contact each other.

Let us know if you have any problems up to this stage :-)
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01brclar

ASKER

OK - Just testing that - Will post in a min if it has worked!
Thanks loads!

Rob . . . . . .
01brclar:
No probs - good luck :-)
OK - I put in the IP addresses exactly as shown and ipconfig /all shows these to be correct

However, PING results in 4 Request Timed out errors . Can you help?

Thanks in advance,

Rob
01brclar:
Can you please post the results of "ipconfig /all" and "route print" from the two machines?
If that's too much hassle, just one will do :-)

There could be a number of things causing it, so it might take a while to track down!
OK just doing it .. . . bear with me - - -oh and call me Rob!!
ok - This is for the first PC --  (tell me if you stil need other - will post in a min!)

http://www.methos.biz/ip1.gif
http://www.methos.biz/route1.gif

Thank again,

Rob :)
... but 01brclar trips off the tongue so easily! :-)

Tell me about it!!!??  Do you need the other - I'm fairly certain all the IP address info was put in correctly  -  do you need the other prints? Are those OK?

Thanks

Rob   . . .  :)
No - that'll do nicely :)
The routing table looks OK.

It looks like you've got serveral network adapters in the machine.  Do you have anything like a wireless card or Bluetooth adapter?
Just to check something - remember that screen where I said "you should see a red X" ?
Navigate to that, then unplug the crossover cable.
Wait 30 secs - does a red "X" appear?
No - No wireless card or bluetooth . . . .

There was no X origninally- but when I unplug the cable - the red X appears - I have done that on both machines and they both appear-  when reconnected - X goes away almost immediately.

Something I noticed that might be of help . . . . When I try a ping from either PC to the other I get the 4 'request times out'  . . ..  however, onthe PC that is 'being pinged' if I go into the connection status for the connected- shortly after each "Connection timed out" the packets recieved increases by 1 - I have monitored this and it always happens after pinging so I'm pretty sure the connection cable is oK - Does that make sense??

Thanks again for your patience with me!

Rob
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scampgb
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While PING doesn't work at the moment - I thoguht I'd test out Quake2 for the fun of it - and lo it works fine mnultiplayer across the 2 computers!! wow!!

If you can think why ping won't be working or how to fix it that would be brilliant-  but i've got to disconnect for  now anyway . . .

Please post with any other info otherwise I will accept one of your other answers latetr and 400 points coming your way :)

Thanks so much - but as I said any other info would help!

Rob
OK - in response to your lastyest!

Both computer running Norton Antivirus + Firewall and one has SP2 installed - Internet sharing shouldn't be on consideringI am stillin dark ages on 56K :)

Thanks again,
Will norton be the prob?
Rob
OK just checked with Norton deactivated ping works fine!!

You're a star - - - - thanks again,

Rob 400 points~!
Gosh - all that happened in the few mins I was away from the keyboard!

In answer to your question, the Norton firewall is what was causing the problem.
You need to look into reconfiguring that to only firewall your modem dial-up connection, not your local LAN.

The reason why Quake would work and ping wouldn't is either that Norton was specifically blocking pings (quite likely) or that Quake isn't using IP at all, but NetBEUI or IPX.  I don't know enough about Quake to comment on that.

Thanks for the points - enjoy your game :)