ok, i am a toetawl novice when it comes to networking. can somone please talk me through networking (with a cat5 crossover cable) a Windows XP SP2 Desktop and a Windows XP Home SP2 Laptop? i cant get it to work, i want to be able to share files, printers and the internet. thanks in advance
First we need a little more information. What kind of internet connection do you have? Are either of the computers already connected to the internet? Let's get those out of the way, and we'll be able to help a lot more.
ok, i have a ADSL Wanadoo broadband connection, which is on the desktop. (its the usb external one) EDIT: wow! fast reply
Ok, so does your broadband have an rj45 out, or is it USB only? If it has rj45 out (looks like a big phone plug), you can get a cheap little switch/router and connect all your pcs to that. If it's USB only, you'll have to use your desktop as a router. Let me know about this, and we'll move on to the next part.
ok i think i will have to use my desktop as a router, as the only inputs/outputs are: Usb (plugs into desktop) Phone cable (from wall into the modem)
I'm assuming you have a working NIC installed in your desktop, so here goes. Plug the laptop into the desktop's NIC with the crossover cable. Open up your Network Connections window on the desktop, and select the two connections (should be one for the USB, another for the NIC), then right click, and select Bridge. That should do it. Let me know if this works.
I thought bridges were meant for joining two networks together, not sharing one computers internet. Wouldnt using the bridge just try to join his laptop on to his ISP's network which wouldnt work? Your wanting to use ICS (Internet Connection Sharing) on the host PC http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;Q306126
Correct First you need to set up IP addresses to static as it's crossover, Windows will just generate random crap. Set the host computer's (one with the internet on) to 192.168.0.1 and the other computer to 192.168.0.2 with the default gateway and preferred DNS server to 192.168.0.1 (you only need to do this on the secondary computer). Configure your firewalls to allow access between the two computers. Share the printer you wish to share, then on the other computer search for the printer using the search wizard.
