Remote Desktop and LAN help...

OK, I'm new to XP - finally left 98...
So far, life was much easier with 98.

I have 3 computers, one with 2 NICs and the cable modem.
The other 2 have just one NIC and all 3 plug in a hub.
In 98 I used Sygate to share internet and had NO problems setting up a LAN. I used Remote Assistant to control computers from one another.

I thought the move to XP Pro would be smooth - so far, no.

I think the internet sharing is correct but I don't have a gateway I don't think. I used the wizards. Do I need to re-set it up to get rid of this 'gateway' configuration?

I tried to use Remote Desktop and just can't get it to work.
It's enabled on all 3 but when I type username and password it says can't connect because of account restrictions. And if I didn't know the names of the computers I couldn't attempt connections at all because when I click browse it shows my MSHOME workgroup but NO computers listed....

Can someone on the side help me to 1. correctly set up internet sharing on these computers based on the above setup description and 2. get remote desktop running correctly?

Thanks!

 

Joe - I moved this to networking since part1 of it is pure networking stuff and part 2 will be OK here too.

Gateway address - The gateway is just the IP address of the device a PC needs to use to get out of it's local network to the wide world.

Your host PC (that's doing the modem sharing and suchlike) will be getting a gateway address from the ISP on the NIC connected to your cable modem. It does not need a gateway address on the NIC that goes to your hub.

The client PCs should use the IP address of the internal (hub connected) NIC of the host PC as their gateway address.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

XP PCs connecting to each other - XP (and NT/2K) PCs demand to know who wants to connect. You have 3 options in a peer network depending on how you want to approach things. #1 is the most secure. #2 is equally secure from outside stuff but wide open inside. #3 is wide open inside and maybe a little too open from outside.

General A) all 3 PCs must be logging on with a username and a password. Gotta be using both. Autologon is fine if it fits your needs but gotta be username&password.

General B) all 3 PCs must have the same workgroup name. 15 characters or less is best and only alpha-numeric characters. No blank spaces and no oddball symbols.

1. Place each username & password into the local users section of each PC. Case sensitive so exact match is required.

2. Log on to each PC using the exact same username & password.

3. Enable the Guest account (disabled by default on XP-Pro and enabled by default on XP-Home) and any logon will be accepted. But again, there has to be some username and some password used on each PC. And since the other PCs will be connecting via a crippled account, there will be things they can't do. And I don't think you can totally uncripple the Guest account.

 

Thanks for the reply!
I think I was with you up until this point...

>The client PCs should use the IP address of the internal (hub connected) NIC of the host PC as their gateway address.

Is this something I enter or does XP take care of that for me?
I remember having to manually enter 10.0.0.2 and 10.0.0.3 for the computers in 98 so they would see each other.

I think I have the Remote Desktop issue solved after reading one simple word in yuor reply...PASSWORD. Neither system had a password as there is only one user, me. As soon as I entered one and tried again I connected just fine!

Thanks again.

 

There are probably some automatic ways to get the gateway address in. If the router/switch is providing DHCP for instance to auto-assign IP addresses to your computers, it can also assign the gateway address. But the DHCP piece will have to know that address.

With a very small network, I find it easier to do the whole thing manually. But either way, there will have to be a gateway address on all client PCs if you want them to see the internet.