Zero knowledge of networks - help please!

b3mor

b3mor

b3mor

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You'll have to excuse the appalling lack of knowledge demonstrated in this message, but I'm completely new to this. :D

I have a laptop running XP (x86) and a new desktop running 7 (x64). I want to have a copy of the data that is on the laptop on the desktop.

My first choice would be to use a cable because hopefully it is fairly quick (?). Is it a simple case of plugging in a network cable, telling the computers to talk to each other and hey presto it works?! I think I need a crossover cable rather than a patch cable (assuming this works, not sure if I need a router/hub/switch/something else in the mix somewhere! :o).

The other option is wireless. I have a Netgear DG834PN (I think it is this version); can I use this to transfer the files? The problem is I'm guessing it would be slow, and maybe not that reliable?

Other options?

Any advise would be very much appreciated! :)
 
Hmmm would that be easy to do through Windows or is it more complicated than that?

Is there any way to determine whether the laptop has auto-detection? It is an Acer Aspire, probably 4 or 5 years old now. And is there any disadvantage of getting a crossover cable vs a patch cable, as there doesn't seem to be much price difference.

Thanks for the help btw.
 
Well I've got as far as establishing that the network controller on the laptop is a Realtek RTL8139/810X Family Fast Ethernet NIC. The desktop motherboard is an ASUS M4A785TD V-EVO which has a RTL8112L Gigabit LAN.

If I get a cable I will definitely get a crossover cable then.

Regarding setting a static IP, if I log into the router control manager I can see the IP address of all the devices connected; is this all I need or does this change everytime each computer connects to the router as the router itself assigns each computer with an IP?

I had a look in control panel on the XP machine and there is a network setup wizard but not sure how easy that is to use? On Windows 7 it just tells me about Homegroup but I believe all machines have to be Windows 7 for that to work.
 
Don't you think connecting PC to PC is the best way? Unfortunately it isn't practical to connect to the router using cables, and I think the wireless connection will be too slow. To give you some idea there is probably about 70GB of data that I want to copy from the laptop to the desktop.

If I allow the folders on the laptop to be shared, doesn't that mean that every computer attached to the router will be able to access the data on the laptop?
 
Yeh I think PC to PC will be easiest for me as I don't want the files to be accessible to everyone who uses the router, and wireless will probably be slow anyway!

Thanks for the links, I've read through them and it all makes sense, except for one question that is below. I've got the cable on the way with some other bits so fingers crossed I can make it work!

Onto my question; from reading those links it seems that you make the static IP the one you use to connect to the internet; is that correct? I was expecting the internet connection to be left alone (i.e. dynamic and decided by the router) and the network connection to be made static, if that makes sense? Or can each computer only ever have one IP address at a time? That would make sense thinking about it.

Thank you for your help btw.
 
As expected I'm having trouble with this. :(

I've set up the static IP addresses for the internet connection; I didn't need to enter anything into the connection properties in the control panel, instead I assigned the wireless router to assign my two machines with static IP addresses, and left the TCP/IP option to 'automatically acquire IP address'.

I can enter a command prompt and ping between the two machines without any problem. This is where I'm stuck though; at the moment the computers are communicating through the wireless router, so how do I get them to communicate through the crossover cable connecting them? Do I need to assign a static IP address to the LAN connection, and if so should it be the same as the above or do I use a different IP address? I don't understand whether one computer can have more than one IP address. :o

Any words of wisdom would be very much appreciated. :)
 
You're probably right, but a USB hard disk costs £50 or so, a crossover cable cost me about £2. :p

Besides, I'm interested to learn, and I've got to start somewhere. ;)
 
Have you read my message of 11:54? :) I've got the crossover cable connected, setup a static IP address using the router, and can ping between the two computers using the wireless router. However I cannot get the computers to communicate via the crossover cable. What I don't understand is whether each computer can have more than one IP address? And whether to communicate via the crossover cable, I use the same IP addresses as I use for the wireless connection to the router.

For example:
My static IP set on the router is 192.168.0.4 for computer 1 and 192.168.0.5 for computer 2 and I can ping each other. The default gateway is 192.168.0.1 (the router IP address).

When I disable the wireless and try to ping again I get nothing. I assume I am still trying to ping the same IP address (as above), as this is the 'identifier' of each computer. I assume however that the default gateway is no longer 192.168.0.1 as I am not using the router, so should this be the IP address of the other machine or something else? Or am I barking up completely the wrong tree, and ought to give up now before I break something! :p
 
Haha I didn't think it would be simple, acheivable though!

I realise two computers cannot have the same IP address, however can one computer have two IP addresses, or only one? i.e. does it need one that the router uses (for connecting to the internet) and one for connecting to another computer, or should both IP addresses be the same? :confused:

I think all I need to do is fill out the settings in control panel for the network, so instead of 'automatically assign' or whatever it says (where the router assigns IP addresses via DHCP?), I need to set it up manually for the LAN. So, I know the IP address of the two machines, but don't know the subnet mask, and you say I don't need a default gateway. I assume there is no DNS either when you are directly connecting two computers, or am I wrong?
 
Does that not mean that I can enter my own, new IP address for each computer in the TCP/IP options for the LAN (say 192.168.0.10 and 192.168.0.11) and then ping each other? When I try this I just get 'Request timed out'. I'm obviously missing something quite simple (I hope!), is it anything to do with the subnet mask, default gateway or dns server?
 
Thanks. I assume it is necessary to switch off both the Windows Firewall (if on), and any third party firewall software? I did what you suggest earlier (regarding the IP addresses and subnet masks), so I hope this will solve the mystery!

By the way, obviously I don't want to go onto the internet without a firewall, however won't I get the same problems again when I re-enable the firewall?

Thank you for your help. :)
 
Sorry for taking so long to reply, been too busy to try this. Anyway, I tried what you suggested, and yes everything now works. I can ping both ways between the computers, and see the folder I shared on the XP machine on the 7 machine, and vice versa.

However to do this I had to disable the third party firewall, therefore I decided to disable the internet connection too. Is it easy to keep able to keep the connectivity whilst having the firewall enabled?

Likewise, what was the need for setting up a static IP address in the TCP/IP settings for the LAN? I don’t understand how the machines ‘know’ the IP address of the other machine, if that makes sense. I simply told them what there own IP addresses are (i.e. 192.168.0.4 and .5), but you don’t tell each machine the other computers IP address anywhere, so why is it important? I guess it is just like giving the computer a name? If it doesn't have an IP address it is nameless, therefore the other computer doesn't know who or what it is talking to? Apologies if that is a foolish question…

Likewise I set up static IP addresses for the wireless router (obviously different to the above), should I leave that or change it back to DHCP?
 
Hmmm this is odd I networked the computers together yesterday and I couldn't see the XP notebook on the 7 desktop until I re-enabled the Windows Firewall on the XP machine! I left the third party firewall on too and it still worked, not that I'm complaining ofc!

However, for some reason the internet doesn't work (using Firefox) on the XP notebook when the LAN is enabled, however no such problems on the 7 machine.

Any ideas please? :)
 
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