Networking HELP!!

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November 23rd, 2003, 05:02 PM

barton260

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Networking HELP!!

Okay I'll try not to make this a long drawn out speach. 1st thing I dont know alot about networking. I want a simple network for gaming purposes. I have a new P4 desktop with XP prof. and I have my Laptop which is a P3 running XP prof. I basically need to know what to do to setup a network that will work with gaming. I have tried the direct cable connection deal and it doesnt work I can get windows to connect to the opposite machince fine but when it comes to the game it doesnt see it at all. Then I added the IPX protocol and I could see the other comp in the game but when I tried to play the game the other computer could not join the game. It would say game full or game not found - depending on the game. Also if you were just in a lobby to chat, they were connected to an extent you could see each other on both screens but if I typed on the host you could see it on the guest screen but if you typed on the guest it wouldnt come up on the host screen. So if someone could tell me how to correct the problem I currently have that would be great. Or if someone could tell me what stuff I need to get to make this work it would be greatly appreciated. Thanks, Josh

November 23rd, 2003, 09:12 PM

ctrlaltdel

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Josh, First, get a hub or a router. This will save you alot of aggrevation in the longrun.

Second, make sure you assign IP addresses to each machine. This will affect your internet connectivity so beware. (this is why I recommend a router)

once you ahve given each machine an IP (such as IP 192.168.1.100 and 192.168.1.101 with a subnet of 255.255.255.0) you need to be sure each machine can ping each other. you would do this by opening a command prompt (start, run type "cmd" (without he quotes) and press enter) At the prompt you need to ping the opposite machine (say its 192.168.1.100) So type (no quotes) "ping 192.168.1.100" you will get somthing that looks similar to this if you can see the machine:

Code:

C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator>ping 192.168.1.1

Pinging 192.168.1.1 with 32 bytes of data:

Reply from 192.168.1.1: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=250
Reply from 192.168.1.1: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=250
Reply from 192.168.1.1: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=250
Reply from 192.168.1.1: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=250

Ping statistics for 192.168.1.1:
    Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
    Minimum = 0ms, Maximum = 0ms, Average = 0ms

This is telling you that you can see the second machine. Try the reverse and see if the second machine can see the first machine.

If it fails.. It will look similar to this:

Code:

C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator>ping 192.168.1.100

Pinging 192.168.1.100 with 32 bytes of data:

Request timed out.
Request timed out.
Request timed out.
Request timed out.

Ping statistics for 192.168.1.100:
    Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 0, Lost = 4 (100% loss),

C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator>

Hope this gives you some sort of direction.

Beware that if you are not behind a router and connect to a WAN (lets say some sort of broadband connection such as cable or dsl) if you are not running a second NIC card you may have problems with putting in a custom IP address. This is because your ISP will assign you one either static or dynamic and if you disrupt that information, you will also disrupt your Internet access (unless of course you are running two nic cards in one machine)

Good Luck!

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