Remote PC

[pjphilli (Peter)]

Hi
I had previously arranged Remote PC on to permit me to remotely control my outside astro PC from an indoors notebook. Both computers use Windows XP Pro.
I had to replace the astro PC when the original failed and I now want to restore Remote PC as above. However, when I connect the cable between the LAN ports I see that the astro PC shows "limited or no connection".
I tried the automatic "repair" function but got the message "network did not assign a network address to the computer".
So I then went into Run - CMD and entered "ipconfig/release". This then
showed no ip address entry in the relevant LAN. I then entered "ipconfig/renew "but this action timed out with the advice that the IP address could not be renewed as "unable to contact your DHCP server" (Don't I love these Microsoft messages!).
Any ideas?
Cheers Peter

[redbeard (Damien)]

Hi Peter,

To help, first of all I need to know how things are setup on the PC's.

1. Is there a direct LAN cable going between the 2 PC's or are they plugged into a switch? If the cable is run between 2 PC's, is it a cross over cable as that is what it needs to be. If it is not a cross over cable, I have noticed that most laptops will be able to auto cross back and make use of it but some laptops do not have this ability so start there.

The other issue is looking for a DHCP server. Are you running a DHCP server on one of the PC's? If not then the new PC needs to have a static IP address given to it that is the same as the previous computer you had connected.

If all of this gear is plugged into a switch or ADSL modem then the modem may be configured to hand out DHCP IP addresses but I don't think this is your case as you mentioned that the PC's were connected together.

Let me know your exact setup and we should be able to drill down and fix the issue.

Cheers,

Damien.

[mithrandir (Andrew)]

Originally Posted by redbeard

1. Is there a direct LAN cable going between the 2 PC's or are they plugged into a switch? If the cable is run between 2 PC's, is it a cross over cable as that is what it needs to be. If it is not a cross over cable, I have noticed that most laptops will be able to auto cross back and make use of it but some laptops do not have this ability so start there.

If either one of the computers has a gigabit ethernet interface you can use whatever cable you have. It is a mandatory requirement of gigabit ports that they support automatic cable, duplex and speed identification.

If the PCs were both more than a couple of years old you almost certainly have a crossover cable.

Do not expect 100Mb ethernet ports to support auto cable, but they should support auto speed and duplex.

It is possible to set up one of the PCs as a pretend DHCP server by enabling internet sharing, but you'd be better off getting the ipconfig output from the one PC and configuring the other with a static address on the same subnet.

eg say one has:
Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection:
...
IPv4 Address. . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.4.22
Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0
Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.4.1

Then the other could be:
Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection:
...
IPv4 Address. . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.4.23
Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0
Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.4.1

[pjphilli (Peter)]

This afternoon after a lot of fiddling and attention to your advice I was able to get the Remote PC working. Now for indoor control during the coming
winter nights!
Cheers Peter