Internet Sharing

[toetoe (Peter)]

Both laptop and pc have wireless network cards in them and still can`t get them to look at each other which is a real pain, but my question is, do i need to get a wireless router to share the internet connection or should i be able to do this if the networking was working properly. Any feedback on this would be appreciated.

I have 3 computers, 2 desktops and my laptop networked, and they can all share the internet. I gather you have separate network cards in each computer. Are you running Windows XP.?


Peter

[Howzat (Phil)]

if your not using a router the network cards need to be set up as "ad-hoc" this will make the cards look for other network cards and not a router/hub

[toetoe (Peter)]

Sorry, xp on both and i have done the ad-hoc.

[toetoe (Peter)]

I am using the software on the pc which came with the network card(Belkin). Would it it simpler not to use this software and let xp do it all.?

My network is fixed wiring and not wireless, initially had some problems, but the secret is to let windows do it and you nominate the addresses for each card and it should work ok.
EG for my main computer I am using:

IP: 192.168.1.51
Subnet mask: 255.255.255.0
Default gateway: nominated IP address
Pref DNS: nominated IP address

Next computer:

IP:192.168.1.52

Remainder as for the main computer

does this help at all?

This shows it better, I have blacked out my isp IP address for obvious reasons. You should be able to see what I am getting at.

[toetoe (Peter)]

I will give it a go and see what happens, thanks

[Howzat (Phil)]

Do you have service pack 2 installed?
If so XP will be "wireless network aware" and it will be able to set up the network itself and you will be able to export your settings to the other computer

[mojo (Terry)]

For the sake of accuracy and sanity, 192.168.x.x is a local subnet. It is not your ISP's ip address. It is your local router/server/cable modem address. Anything 192.168.x.x will never appear on the internet. It is a Class C subnet.

You can also use 172.16.x.x - 172.32.x.x
or 10.x.x.x as your local ip addresses.

No need to black out the ip address Exfso. It's meaningless to anyone outside your own network. And 192.168.1.254 would probably be a reasonable guess for a gateway on that subnet.

toetoe: you'll want to setup your network like Exfso. change the ip addresses of your computers so that they're all on the same subnet. eg. 192.168.0.1, 192.168.0.2, 192.168.0.3, 192.168.0.XXX, etc.
or
192.168.1.1, 192.168.1.2, 192.168.1.3, 192.168.1.XXX, etc.
It doesn't matter what subnet you use, just as long as it's on the same one. It'll make things simpler that way.

The gateway and dns fields will probably be identical. This is the ipaddress of the computer that is connected to the internet - where all the other computers connect through it to the outside world.

You can also use the DNS of your isp's ip address. If you don't know it, your ISP will probably have a page where they tell you your mail server, news server, etc. it'll be on that page.

But more than that, seriously, google is your friend

[toetoe (Peter)]

Thanks guys, service pack 2 i have on the machines. I think i will uninstall the belkin software, give the pc a boot and let xp take over without the belkin software anywhere to be seen. All notes taken Terry on the ip numbers and yes google is a friend in deed.

Thanks Mojo, wasnt too sure about that one, better to be safe than sorry. Sounds like you are the bloke to get him running mate, I am very much a learner in that respect and was only relating to what works for me.

Cheers.

Peter

[toetoe (Peter)]

Still having no luck, what hair i have left i am starting to pull out. Back to the start again and step by step we will try again and see what happens. I must say this is very frustrating tho..

Here is a site that gives a fairly good tutorial on setting up a home network. It has a lot of adds and stuff, but if you ignore that, I reckon this should be of assistance.

http://www.howstuffworks.com/web-server.htm

[acropolite (Phil)]

Peter,
Howzat's right about the Ad hoc mode. Wireless networking devices can talk via each other to an access point and Ad hoc mode forces them to communicate with each other exclusive of an access point. Have you tried pinging the other machine/s?? Also it is worthy of note that windows is notoriously slow at recognising other machines on the network. This is because machines "elect" a browse master from all machines each time a new machine connects and it may be some time before your machines show up in each others "network neighbourhood". I usually just map whatever resource I am sharing by using \\machine_name\share name. Try allocating fixed IP addresses in the 192.168.x.x range (e.g.192.168.1.1) Subnet mask 255.255.255.0 to each machines wireless I/F then try pinging the other machine by using START RUN then typing ping192.168.x.x (the IP address you have allocated to the other machine). If you get a reply then your machines are talking to each other.

[toetoe (Peter)]

Thanks again people, i will play around a bit more later on today after i finish work. I am not going to let this beat me..

[toetoe (Peter)]

I thimk that site will be handy Exfso, thank for the link.

No problems at all, I found it very useful when I was having teething problems as well

[Howzat (Phil)]

Another thing to try is to set the laptop to "obtain IP address automatically" and don't forget to allow internet sharing on your desktop

[toetoe (Peter)]

I`m getting frustrated with all this. Think i best leave it for a while as i am getting cranky as i am having no luck.