Connecting Notebook to Desktop

Hi,

I'm trying to connect an IBM Think Pad running WinXP Pro to my old desktop PC (Win Me) and have the IBM use the desktop's Internet connection (ADSL SpeedTouch USB) and the printer.

As I've never done this before, I used the wizard to set ICS and set up the network on both computers, which are connected with an Ethernet cable. The Ethernet cable light on both computers are on, yet there is no network. Neither computer can find the other, although Win XP Pro tells me that the connection is "enabled" (translating from Italian here) but that it's "unplugged. "

As to the desktop, under System Properties --> Hardware, I get an explanation form over the icon for ICS. When I double click on it I get this message (transslation): "Impossible to upload the driver for this with NDIS.VXD (Code 2). To resolve this issue click on Update driver." So I load the Win Me disc and click on Update and the computer restarts and I'm back to point one.

Additionally, although I do connect to my ADSL modem and manage to use other software on it, neither IE (or Opera) nor my e-mail clients manage to connect to the Internet and I get a Server Not Found message.

Can you help please?

Caren

 

The "unplugged" part is probably an indication you have the wrong sort of cable or a bad cable.

For connecting any "like" devices (2 PCs, 2 switch/hubs, etc.) you need what's called a crossover wired cable. Specific wires need to be moved around so if you look at the plugs at both ends, you'll notice the wire colors aren't going to the same pin position.

For connecting unlike devices (PC to switch/hub) you need a "normal" or non-crossed cable so if you look at the ends, the left-most wire will be the same color at both ends as will all the others.

If you find you have the correct wiring pattern in your cables, try to borrow a known good cable to test and if it works, you have bad cable.

If the cable is OK, post back since there are other possible sources for your problem but if the cable is wrong, it's silly to waste time trying any other fixes.

 

Hello Newt and thanks for your reply.

The cable I have is brand new and it is crossover. I'm going to take it to a friend's later today and try and see if it actually works there.

I will post back later today.

Caren

 

Hi Newt,

I reconnected the NIC (it had come loose) and reset all the Networking preferences using a step-by-step guide I had found on the Internet.

Now the green light is on on both ends (PC and Notebook) and I can successfully ping the Notebook from the PC but not the other way around. (To ping the Notebook, however, the PC asks for an Internet connection). When I try to ping the PC from the Notebook, I get a timeout error message.

To make things more complicated, I can see the network and the PC on the Notebook but when I double-click on the PC icon, I get a long error message mentioning (a) possible lack of authorization and (b) a message in Italian which roughly translates in: "Impossible to find the network route. "

On the PC side, when I click on the Network icon, the PC waits a very long time and then comes up with an empty window.

I can't believe I have to go through this again if and when I isntall wireless cards in both the PC and the Notebook.

Thanks for helping me, Newt.

Caren

 

Progress anyway. Just a few kinks that still need un-kinking.

Next step is to take a detailed look at some of your network settings. Have to do it a little differently on XP than on WinME. Easier on XP too.

XP - do the following and post the contents of the resulting text file here.
start~run~cmd
ipconfig /all > c:\ipconfig.txt

ME
start~run~winipcfg and click the button for details.
You can't post a picture to this forum so two choices. Either write down all the values you find and post them or if you have web space, ALT-PRT_SCR to send a pic of the info to your clipboard, paste it to a picture app, and post the pic with a link on here.

 

Here are the contents of the ipconfig files for the pc and the notebook. Ultimately, the pc should be connected to the Internet through an ADSL modem and should allow the notebook to share that connection as well as any devices (printer, scanner) attached to it. I would also like the pc to have access to the documents on the notebook so that I can synchronize them using special software.

PC (Win Me):

Configurazione IP di Windows



Nome host . . . . . . . . . : DESKTOP

Server DNS. . . . . . . . . :

Tipo nodo . . . . . . . . . : Trasmissione

ID Scope NetBIOS. . . . . . :

IP Routing abilitato. . . . : Si

WINS Proxy abilitato. . . . : No

Risoluzione NetBIOS con DNS : No



0 Scheda Ethernet :



Descrizione . . . . . . . . : NETGEAR FA311 Fast Ethernet PCI Adapter

Indirizzo fisico. . . . . . : 00-02-E3-22-0E-80

DHCP abilitato. . . . . . . : No

Indirizzo IP. . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.10

Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0

Gateway predefinito . . . . :

Server WINS primario. . . . :

Server WINS secondario. . . :

Assegnazione indirizzo. . . :

Scadenza indirizzo. . . . . :



1 Scheda Ethernet :



Descrizione . . . . . . . . : PPP Adapter.

Indirizzo fisico. . . . . . : 44-45-53-54-00-00

DHCP abilitato. . . . . . . : Si

Indirizzo IP. . . . . . . . : 0.0.0.0

Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . : 0.0.0.0

Gateway predefinito . . . . :

Server DHCP . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.255

Server WINS primario. . . . :

Server WINS secondario. . . :

Assegnazione indirizzo. . . :

Scadenza indirizzo. . . . . :


==================================

Notebook (XP Pro):

Configurazione IP di Windows



Nome host . . . . . . . . . . . . . . : IBM-BCD1D50A823

Suffisso DNS primario . . . . . . . :

Tipo nodo . . . . . . . . . : Sconosciuto (a.k.a. UNKNOWN)

Routing IP abilitato. . . . . . . . . : No

Proxy WINS abilitato . . . . . . . . : No



Scheda Ethernet Connessione alla rete locale (LAN):



Suffisso DNS specifico per connessione:

Descrizione . . . . . . . . . . . . . : Intel(R) PRO/100 VE Network Connection

Indirizzo fisico. . . . . . . . . . . : 00-06-1B-D1-7E-09

DHCP abilitato. . . . . . . . . . . . : No

Indirizzo IP. . . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.40

Subnet mask . . . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0

Gateway predefinito . . . . . . . . . :



Scheda PPP Atlanet:



Suffisso DNS specifico per connessione:

Descrizione . . . . . . . . . . . . . : WAN (PPP/SLIP) Interface

Indirizzo fisico. . . . . . . . . . . : 00-53-45-00-00-00

DHCP abilitato. . . . . . . . . . . . : No

Indirizzo IP. . . . . . . . . . . . . : 62.123.129.139

Subnet mask . . . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.255

Gateway predefinito . . . . . . . . . : 62.123.129.139

Server DNS . . . . . . . . . . . . . : 213.234.128.211

213.234.132.130

=================================

BTW Atlanet is my ADSL provider. I now connect to the Internet with the notebook because my pc is so messed up that it no longer manages to connect to the Net, or rather the pc does connect, but IE and other browsers give me a "Server Not Found" error message.

Thanks.


Caren

 

Thank you for that information. You have some configuration problems (probably caused by a glitch in the networking wizard) but easy enough to fix. I'll walk you thru doing all the setup things manually so don't run the wizard again.

Bear with me if I tell you more than you wanted to know but it always helps me to know the why as well as the what and I always assume that is the case with others.

First, your local area network [LAN] (laptop & desktop)

For devices on your LAN to communicate, they must be on the same network/subnet. In this case, the 'network' is defined by the subnet mask and with the 255.255.255.0 you have, any PCs with IP addresses that are identical in the first three octets (sets of numbers) are on the same network. In your case, 192.168.1.1 to 192.168.1.254 will work fine.

So DESKTOP using 192.168.1.10 and IBM-BCD1D50A823 using 192.168.1.40 are fine. For the remainder of this I will call the IBM-..... thing LAPTOP since it's lots easier to type and I'd suggest you change it's name to that and save yourself some typing. Otherwise, when I say do something to LAPTOP, you need to substitute IBM-BCD1D50A823.

Test things now as follows. If it fails, post back with specifics.

DESKTOP
start~run~command
ping 192.168.1.40 and you should get a response similar to
Pinging 192.168.1.40 with 32 bytes of data:

Reply from 192.168.1.40: bytes=32 time=323ms TTL=253
Reply from 192.168.1.40: bytes=32 time=19ms TTL=253
Reply from 192.168.1.40: bytes=32 time=23ms TTL=253
Reply from 192.168.1.40: bytes=32 time=17ms TTL=253

LAPTOP
start~run~cmd
ping 192.168.1.10 and you should get a response similar to
Pinging 192.168.1.10 with 32 bytes of data:

Reply from 192.168.1.10: bytes=32 time=323ms TTL=253
etc.

Do the same again but rather than the IP address, use the names so:
ping DESKTOP from LAPTOP and ping LAPTOP from desktop.

The specific time values don't matter but you should get 4 replies with no errors, no losses.

Assuming the above worked OK and assuming that you have Client for Microsoft Networks and File & Printer Sharing turned on:
- set up user account /w NON-BLANK passwords on both PCs. You can use the same one or different ones but you must be logging on if you want to get access to XP from ME.
- add the ME logon name & password to the local users on XP unless you are using the identical logons for both machines.
- share a folder on each PC. Name it Share (or whatever suits you).
- on DESKTOP, set the share to allow anyone access
- on LAPTOP, you've already taken care of this by putting the DESKTOP logon into local users.

Now from DESKTOP, do the following
start~run~\\laptop\share and if all is well, you should have a Windows Explorer window open and the folder displayed. If so, then from LAPTOP do start~run~\\desktop\share and the same thing should happen.

Your LAN should now be ready for you to set it up as you please. I'll do the internet part on another reply to keep this one from being way too long.

 

On DESKTOP when I ping I get identical results as in your example, except that the TTL in each case is 128 (TTL=128)--no errors no losses.

On LAPTOP I get "Request expired" (that's a rough translation) and the following:

Ping statistics: transmitted=4, received=0, lost=4 (100%)

When I ping from DESKTOP using the LAPTOP, the computer asks for an Internet connection and once that is established, it pings with results identical to the above.

Pinging DESKTOP from LAPTOP, I get the same "Request expired" message as above.

<- set up user account /w NON-BLANK passwords on both PCs. You can use the same one or different ones but you must be logging on if you want to get access to XP from ME.>
SORRY, NO IDEA HOW TO DO THIS.

<add the ME logon name & password to the local users on XP unless you are using the identical logons for both machines.
- share a folder on each PC. Name it Share (or whatever suits you).>
SAME AS ABOVE

<on DESKTOP, set the share to allow anyone access>
SAME AS ABOVE

<on LAPTOP, you've already taken care of this by putting the DESKTOP logon into local users.>
I MAY HAVE, BUT I'M CERTAINLY NOT CONSIOUS OF IT

<start~run~\\laptop\share and if all is well, you should have a Windows Explorer window open and the folder displayed>
I GET THE FOLLOWING MESSAGE (TRANSLATION): Impossible to find "\\IBM....\share. Check the spelling or try the Search function.

<start~run~\\desktop\share>
NOTHING HAPPENS. I JUST GET THE TIMEPIECE CURSOR WHEN I MOVE THE CURSOR OVER SYSTEM TRAY (IN FACT IT'S STILL THERE... OH WAIT! IT JUST GAVE ME THIS MESSAGE: Impossible to find the network path).

Also, how and where can I change IBM... to something more human friendly?

I really appreciate your help, Newt.

Caren

 

Does the ping failure on laptop when trying to reach desktop happen with both the ip address and the name? If it happens when you use the IP address, try this on laptop

ping 127.0.0.1

Until we get this part working, the rest won't do well because for some reason you don't have good communications.

Also - to move things back to basics, I want you to set the speed and duplexing on both PCs to 10Mbps half-duplex. Control panel~network connections then right-click the network adapter and click properties. Click the Configure button under the network adapter name and depending on the specific card, you will need to set the speed and then the duplexing or set them both in the same place. They are both probably set to "auto" right now.

To change the PC's network name you just right-click on My Computer then left click on properties, click the Computer Name tab and make your change.

 

OK. When I ping 127.0.0.1 on LAPTOP it works fine. But pinging the name doesn't work.

I also changed to "10BaseT" (there is no "half-duplex" choice) on DESKTOP and am going to do the same on LAPTOP, which means I'll have to restart it. If things work out fine I'll post back and let you know, otherwise it means that the problem's still there.

Also, when I went to change the speed on the network card, I noticed that "NetworkAddress" is set to "None" or something of that sort. Same applies to LAPTOP.

P.S.--EXPERIMENT FAILED. I can still see DESKTOP on my LAPTOP but can't access it. And DESKTOP takes upwards of 5 minutes to open empty window when I double click on the "Entire Network" (??) icon in "Network Resources" (remember this is the Italian version of Win Me).

 

OK. Beginning to smell like a bad network install of some sort. Maybe bad initially or maybe just burped or something but this is absolutely not normal behavior.


I'd suggest removing networking from both PCs completely and then starting from the beginning. As follows: (Note that you will be without internet access on either PC for a little while so probably good to print your settings from this thread along with this "how-to" before you proceed.)

Network Card (NIC) Drivers - make sure you have the latest for both PCs.

ME PC
- turn off system restore.
- get rid of any temp files, temporary internet files, and any files in C:\ that have a name filennnn.chk where nnnn is any number.
- boot into safe mode and run scandisk then defrag.
- still in safe mode, go to device manager and remove/delete all network devices.
- shut down the PC and physically remove the NIC.
- boot up again so the PC sees no card and then shut down and replace the card in it's slot.
- boot and allow the NIC to be seen and reinstalled. Use the new drivers if you found any.
- set up networking. No ICS at this point.
.. use 100baseT (or 100Mbps full duplex if you can find the settings)
.. load TCP/IP
.. IP address 192.168.0.1 subnet mask 255.255.255.0 blank default gateway and any other IP values.
.. load Client for Microsoft Networking and File/Printer sharing.
.. name the PC again if the name is gone (probably). Desktop is fine.

XP PX
- same instructions for cleaning out temp files.
- start~run~cmd and from the C:\> prompt,
chkdsk /f, answer Y(es) to doing the deed at next boot then reboot. When it boots back up (after the chkdsk finishes) defrag.
- no need for safe mode but do remove any network devices from device manager.
- shut down the PC. If your NIC is a removable card, remove it and boot then shut back down. Otherwise just boot back up and set up the NIC and then networking. The only difference is to use 192.168.0.2 as the IP address. Name Laptop is fine but you'll again probably have to enter it again.

Both
Create a file using notepad or any other text editor (not a word processor though). When you finish, save it as hosts. You don't want an extension and notepad will probably have put .txt at the end so just rename it to hosts. File contents will be the following two lines:
192.168.0.1 DESKTOP Desktop desktop
192.168.0.2 LAPTOP Laptop laptop

The completed hosts file needs to be placed in c:\windows on ME and in C:\windows\system32\drivers\etc on XP. Replace any file you find in that location.

Try the ping testing again using first the IP address and next the name. If it works, share a folder and try connecting to it using start~run~\\desktop\share from Laptop and vice versa.

Regardless of the success/failure of this, set desktop to connect to the internet again and post back your results.

Note: if you prefer to use the laptop as your ICS host for connecting both to the internet later, just reverse the IP addresses since the ICS host will want to use 192.168.0.1 and will fuss with any other address. If you do that, be sure to modify the hosts file as well. Then connect the laptop to the internet.

But do decide which you want to use since having the PPP adapter on both PCs isn't necessary and will just complicate things for no good reason. The re-install of networking services should have gotten the ME PC behaving again - at least as well as ME can behave. ME is not an OS I am particularly fond of. 98SE I like. 2K/XP I like. But ME is what you have and it does usually work.

Note2: If the above cleanup/reinstall of networking doesn't fix things, you need to look at a reinstall of ME since there may be other problems.

 

Hi Newt,

Sorry for the late reply. I have followed most of the instructions in your last posting. My host files did not have any relevant information in them and, on the PC, the file was actually blank.

I have now ordered WinXP Pro for the PC and am waiting for it to arrive, presumably sometime next week, so that I can just reformat the PC, upgrade some parts of it, and install XP on it. After a few days of work on the notebook, which runs XP Pro, I like it soooooooooo much better than ME.

I will post back once I've done all of the above and let you know if the problem has been solved.

Thanks again for holding my hand through this and please look out for new postings from me later next week.

Have a great weekend.

Caren

 

Good decision I think.

Since the desktop is now running ME, I strongly suggest you format the drive to get a clean start and then install XP. It does fine as a 98 or 2K upgrade but not really well with ME.

 

Hi Newt, I'm back

So, now I've got a whole different setup, but the same problem plus a new one.

Desktop runs on XPPro now, just like notebook. But besides the Ethernet card (they still don't see each other but I haven't reconfigured anything yet) I've also installed one wireless USB adapter (NETGEAR MA111) in each machine. I've followed all the instructions, step by step, in the manual. PC's fine with its wireless adapter and gives me "excellent" signal strength, but notebook is not. It did get going once but after that it went dead. In the network connections window, MA111 is DISABLED and it just won't be enabled.

Also, when I do ipconfig (as per your earlier instructions), I get the a full report on desktop (see below), while on notebook I get a message saying (rough translation): "Internal error: a device is not working. Contact Microsoft tech support. Additional info: unknown support code.

I'm going to get some sleep now but would love to read your reply tomorrow

Caren

IPCONFIG ON DESKTOP:

Windows IP Configuration



Host Name . . . . . . . . . . . . : desktop

Primary Dns Suffix . . . . . . . :

Node Type . . . . . . . . . . . . : Unknown

IP Routing Enabled. . . . . . . . : Yes

WINS Proxy Enabled. . . . . . . . : No



Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection:



Media State . . . . . . . . . . . : Media disconnected

Description . . . . . . . . . . . : NETGEAR FA311 Fast Ethernet Adapter

Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-02-E3-22-0E-80



PPP adapter Atlanet:



Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :

Description . . . . . . . . . . . : WAN (PPP/SLIP) Interface

Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-53-45-00-00-00

Dhcp Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : No

IP Address. . . . . . . . . . . . : 62.123.50.238

Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.255

Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 62.123.50.238

DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . : 213.234.128.211

213.234.132.130

NetBIOS over Tcpip. . . . . . . . : Disabled



Ethernet adapter Wireless Network Connection:



Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :

Description . . . . . . . . . . . : NETGEAR MA111 802.11b Wireless USB Adapter

Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-09-5B-42-84-C0

Dhcp Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : Yes

Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes

Autoconfiguration IP Address. . . : 169.254.212.105

Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.0.0

Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . :