how to set up pc to pc network?

Glaucus · 15 Apr 2017 at 20:11

trying to connect 2 pcs, all the guides jus say manually enter the settings, ive done that and no luck.
and yes its a crossover cable or at least sold as such not sure how to check it.

so the second pc is set up identically except ip address is 192.168.1.2 subnet is same, default gateway is set to pc1 192.68.1.1 and dns is set to pc1 again 192.168.1.1

also tried leaving gateway and dns blank, same result.

what am i doing wrong?

Orcvader · 15 Apr 2017 at 20:32

What exactly are you trying to achieve? Are they both on the same workgroup? Any reason for doing this instead of both connected to the same router/switch?

Glaucus · 15 Apr 2017 at 20:34

Orcvader said:
What exactly are you trying to achieve? Are they both on the same workgroup? Any reason for doing this instead of both connected to the same router/switch?

want a more reliable steam home stream, rather than using the wifi and as they're a few feet away from each other easier than using the router., which is other end of the house .

workgroup no idea, but you need a connection first before setting that up don't you.

Zefan · 15 Apr 2017 at 20:45

You should definitely add them to the same workgroup or domain. If they're both windows, just set it to automatically configure. Windows uses a APIPA (Automatic Private IP Addressing) when automatic is set and no DHCP server is found. It will get your IP settings sorted without further configuration. Are these systems connected to another network as well or just to each other?

Glaucus · 15 Apr 2017 at 20:47

Zefan said:
You should definitely add them to the same workgroup or domain. If they're both windows, just set it to automatically configure. Windows uses a APIPA (Automatic Private IP Addressing) when automatic is set and no DHCP server is found. It will get your IP settings sorted without further configuration. Are these systems connected to another network as well or just to each other?

one is connected to wifi as well. leaving it to automatic doesn't do anything.

they both go unidentified network, and if i do ipconfig theyre on different networks.

one is 169.254.22.202 and the other 169.254.34.53

Edit well that is odd, I bridged the WiFi to ethernet connection on the PC with both and that actually sorted everything out for a few seconds, then bsod. Once it rebooted it connected and worked as it should, then within a few seconds bsod again. Had to go to work, so will have to try again tomorrow.

Orcvader · 15 Apr 2017 at 23:59

Assuming the cable really is crossover, it should be working fine. You can check the workgroup by right clicking the start button -> system, and you can change it by clicking system info on the right and it will take you to the control panel version of system properties.

Does the cable look like this on both ends?:

Basically the green and orange cables should be swapped over.

bremen1874 · 16 Apr 2017 at 00:11

You'd need a pair of really old PCs to require a crossover cable, although it won't hurt anthing.

Anything with Gigabit will be auto-MDIX, and most 100Mbit adapters will be as well. As long as one end has auto-MDIX you're sorted.

Django x2 · 16 Apr 2017 at 10:59

Firstly, cross over cables in networking haven't been needed since, well God, I can't remember. All modern PCs and Laptops / Routers auto sense so don't worry about the cable.

Secondly, you have to have a gateway set on both machines otherwise how is it going to know where to route the traffic.

My steps would be:
Disable WiFi on both (I assume you don't need the internet on either of them of this is never going to work)
Connect LAN cable to both
Set machine one as 192.168.1.1, 255.255.255.0, 192.168.1.1 and DNS as 127.0.0.1
Set machine two as 192.168.1.2, 255.255.255.0, 192.168.1.1 and DNS as 192.168.1.1

DNS here is pointless though as machine one isn't serving DNS.

If you do need the internet, bridge the WiFi and NIC on machine one, see what IP it's getting and set machine two up to suit.

Don't forget, firewalls block ping naturally now so you'll need to drop the firewalls on both to prove it works, then turn them on and relax the relevant ports.

El Pew · 16 Apr 2017 at 11:25

It might also be the internal Windows routing. You might need to do a 'route add' command for your crossover network, something like this:

http://www.fixedbyvonnie.com/2014/12/add-static-route-windows-routing-table/

So you could try the command 'route add 192.168.1.0 mask 255.255.255.0 192.168.1.1 -p'

Otherwise Windows will try and connect to your 192.168.1.2/24 device by going through the default gateway, which is presumably your router, which will have no idea where the 192.168.1.2/24 address is - hence the failure.

Honestly, do yourself a favour and do everything via the router. If you have connection issues, try to troubleshoot those instead of messing about with crossover cables.

Scotteh · 16 Apr 2017 at 11:34

El Pew said:
It might also be the internal Windows routing. You might need to do a 'route add' command for your crossover network, something like this:

http://www.fixedbyvonnie.com/2014/12/add-static-route-windows-routing-table/

So you could try the command 'route add 192.168.1.0 mask 255.255.255.0 192.168.1.1 -p'

Otherwise Windows will try and connect to your 192.168.1.2/24 device by going through the default gateway, which is presumably your router, which will have no idea where the 192.168.1.2/24 address is - hence the failure.

Honestly, do yourself a favour and do everything via the router. If you have connection issues, try to troubleshoot those instead of messing about with crossover cables.

If the network is configured as shown in the OP then you don't need to go near any routes as it'll add an active route based of the interface (i.e. 192.168.1.0/24 network will route through 192.168.1.1 interface)

Any configured interface will automatically populate the routing table so will never go near the route of last resort, assuming it's configured properly.

Scotteh · 16 Apr 2017 at 11:40

Django x2 said:
Firstly, cross over cables in networking haven't been needed since, well God, I can't remember. All modern PCs and Laptops / Routers auto sense so don't worry about the cable.

Secondly, you have to have a gateway set on both machines otherwise how is it going to know where to route the traffic.

My steps would be:
Disable WiFi on both (I assume you don't need the internet on either of them of this is never going to work)
Connect LAN cable to both
Set machine one as 192.168.1.1, 255.255.255.0, 192.168.1.1 and DNS as 127.0.0.1
Set machine two as 192.168.1.2, 255.255.255.0, 192.168.1.1 and DNS as 192.168.1.1

DNS here is pointless though as machine one isn't serving DNS.

If you do need the internet, bridge the WiFi and NIC on machine one, see what IP it's getting and set machine two up to suit.

Don't forget, firewalls block ping naturally now so you'll need to drop the firewalls on both to prove it works, then turn them on and relax the relevant ports.

Assuming you're putting 192.168.1.1 as the default gateway?

Any reason why? It would be better to leave it empty as it's never going to need to route outside of this /24 network, this will surely impact the real default gateway (if it'll even let you set it, I'm sure windows will complain about 2 default gateways?).

Orcvader · 16 Apr 2017 at 12:25

It might be just easier to get a gigabit switch, stick it in between the two devices as well as the router so Steam will still have access to the internet.

El Pew · 16 Apr 2017 at 12:59

Scotteh said:
If the network is configured as shown in the OP then you don't need to go near any routes as it'll add an active route based of the interface (i.e. 192.168.1.0/24 network will route through 192.168.1.1 interface)

Any configured interface will automatically populate the routing table so will never go near the route of last resort, assuming it's configured properly.

In theory yeah, but I've come across a lot of situations where the automatic adding of the route just didn't work when Windows had multiple network cards to deal with.

Glaucus · 16 Apr 2017 at 13:27

all i did was read some guides and they said you needed a crossover, oh well as long as it makes no difference.

anyway tried all the suggestions and none of them work.

going through the main router isnt an option, that would require running 10s of meters of cables down to the lounge, then all the way back up.

the only one which works is when i have everything enabled and i bridge the wifi and ethernet connection, this for some reason then configures the ethernet connection properly and everything starts work, albeit briefly before the pc BSODs and then when it reboots it'll reconnect work properly for a few seconds then bsod again. To end bsod i have to use the reset network option in windows.

any other suggestions, or should i fork out a few more £ and just get two cables and a dirt cheap switch and try that.

Rannoch · 16 Apr 2017 at 13:29

If you get a switch make sure it's a Gigabit and not 10/100

Destination · 16 Apr 2017 at 19:26

Are you creating two networks?
One between the PCS
and then each with a second internet network to connect to the router through wifi?

Django x2 · 16 Apr 2017 at 19:44

yeah, something doesn't make sense here.

You've dropped the firewalls on both?
You don't need the internet at all (or do you)
Just get 2x Homeplugs for £29 and plug one in by the router and the other in by the PC (should all else fail).

Deleted member 77746 · 16 Apr 2017 at 20:02

Assuming you only want to connect it directly ensure there's no other network interface enabled and only the Wired Network. Set IPs leave Gateway and DNS blank and disable the firewall.

Doesn't get much harder or complicated than that.

Glaucus · 17 Apr 2017 at 19:25

mrbell1984 said:
Assuming you only want to connect it directly ensure there's no other network interface enabled and only the Wired Network. Set IPs leave Gateway and DNS blank and disable the firewall.

Doesn't get much harder or complicated than that.

ive tried this though and it doesn't work, i cant ping each other and remains as unidentified network. ideally i want one with internet, but i have tried setting it up with everything apart from the Ethernet port disabled in device manager.

as i said teh only time it works is when i bridge the Ethernet and wifi connection on one of teh machines, but then within a few seconds it bsods.
suppose the other option is fresh windows install and see if that's my issue.

and dont want to go wall plug, that seriously diminish throughput from my experience, plus it would be cheaper just to buy a switch and 2 cables.

Django x2 · 17 Apr 2017 at 19:42

Glaucus said:
ive tried this though and it doesn't work, i cant ping each other and remains as unidentified network. ideally i want one with internet, but i have tried setting it up with everything apart from the Ethernet port disabled in device manager.

as i said teh only time it works is when i bridge the Ethernet and wifi connection on one of teh machines, but then within a few seconds it bsods.
suppose the other option is fresh windows install and see if that's my issue.

and dont want to go wall plug, that seriously diminish throughput from my experience, plus it would be cheaper just to buy a switch and 2 cables.

My wall plugs get 750mb/s +/-, that's barely any loss and no more than a typical switch / router.

Things I would try

Disable IPv6 on both NICs
Insert an entry into your hostfile (not really going to help but at least explicitly tells the machine where to route.