Couple of networking questions

Amp34 · 16 Dec 2006 at 23:28

I have just got back from uni for christmas and am sorting out our home network. We have just recieved a BT Home Hub and are connecting 2 pc (via ethernet) and 1 intel centrino laptop via wireless.

Queston 1: Setting up Wireless

I know very little about setting up a wireless connection so need some help. There are a couple of settings that I dont know what to change to, they are:

Radius I.P.: can this be 192.168.1.(anything) just as long as both the hub and the laptop have the same one (such as 192.168.1.5) :confused:

Radius Port: I am assuming leave this the same? (its on a port in the 1200's) and just copy over that port to the laptop I want to connect wirelessly?

And then the key, there doesnt seem to be an automatic generate button so I assume just input a random set of letters/numbers etc? Does it have to be a minimum/maximum length?

Then what encryption version? I know WPA is stronger than WEP but do all wireless card support this? If the laptop supports WPA should I use the PSK version?

And before someone says have a look in the instruction book, there pretty much is no book!

And the second question, One of the PC's is running vista and the other XP, how can I let the XP pc and the laptop see, browse and use files from the vista machine? I have already allowed sharing and set the folders I want to share to "everyone" in the sharing box on the vista machine but still cant find the vista machine on XP's network. Can someone point me in the direction of a tutorial so I can set this up?

Thanks

tolien · 17 Dec 2006 at 00:02

Amp34 said:
Radius I.P.: can this be 192.168.1.(anything) just as long as both the hub and the laptop have the same one (such as 192.168.1.5)

Radius Port: I am assuming leave this the same? (its on a port in the 1200's) and just copy over that port to the laptop I want to connect wirelessly?

The IP needs to be the IP for a RADIUS server. In other words, leave those options blank (or at their defaults).

And then the key, there doesnt seem to be an automatic generate button so I assume just input a random set of letters/numbers etc? Does it have to be a minimum/maximum length?

Pretty much. WPA-PSK has a maximum of 42 characters IIRC.

Then what encryption version? I know WPA is stronger than WEP but do all wireless card support this?

Any card that's less than about 3 years old should do fine. Ideally you want WPA2.

As for file sharing tutorials, I'd check firewalls and being able to ping the machines from each other. It should Just Work.

Amp34 · 17 Dec 2006 at 13:08

Thanks tolien.

Since when has everything just worked?

Ill have a look at the firewall options and see if that is the problem.

Amp34 · 20 Dec 2006 at 13:45

Ok I still can't get the two computers to see each other! They can ping each other all day but cant see each other whatsoever. They are in the same workgroup, both have filesharing turned on and they both are definitly connected to each other. Is there some setting in the homehub router that I need to set to connect each other (both connected via ethernet to the router)?

Any ideas please!

dunc · 20 Dec 2006 at 13:52

I have had this problem with workgroups on WinXP machines before. Usually if you share a folder on one machine, and the use 'net use' to connect to the shared folder it will work.

Dunc

Curiosityx · 20 Dec 2006 at 14:59

WPA-PSK can support a key length of upto 64 characters but id recommend keeping it too between 8 and 12 characters.

Its more than secure for a home network as it would take ~ 1000 Pc's a year to crack 8 characters so you can only imagine how long a 64 Characters key would take plus is generates un-neccesary overhead.

Ps: Is the router assigning each Pc an IP address via DHCP or have you set them statically?

Amp34 · 20 Dec 2006 at 15:58

It first assigned them by DHCP but I set them to static to see if that made a difference, which it hasn't. the IP's are 192.168.1.105 and 192.168.1.65. As I said I have managed to ping each machine so they can definitly communicate but they just dont seem to be able to see each other.

Curiosityx · 20 Dec 2006 at 16:42

Are you using the settings below.

First Client:

IP Address: 192.168.1.105
Subnet Mask: 255.255.255.0
Default Gateway: "IP Address of your router"
DNS Server: "IP Address of your router"
Wins Server: "IP Address of your router"

Second Client

IP Address: 192.168.1.65
Subnet Mask: 255.255.255.0
Default Gateway: "IP Address of your router"
DNS Server: "IP Address of your router"
Wins Server: "IP Address of your router"

Amp34 · 20 Dec 2006 at 23:32

This is whatit shows on my vista machine:

There doesnt seem to be anything in the win. server position.

I'll check the other one tomorrow.

Curiosityx · 21 Dec 2006 at 00:56

You cant see other machines within the workgroup because NetBios over Tcp/IP is disabled and as you arnt running a DNS server its the only method of looking up hostnames on the local network.

Problem solved.

Amp34 · 21 Dec 2006 at 02:34

Ah ok thanks, so how do I enable netbios?

Amp34 · 23 Dec 2006 at 17:41

So I am assuming the change needs to be done somewhere here, I have tried setting the netbios to 'enabled' and that didnt work, then det the IPs to dynamic and set by the router and left it on the 'default' setting. Neither seen to work or bring up an address in the WINS server position. :mad:

Any ideas please.