File sharing over wireless network.

[ChuckBaker]

Hi everyone,

I just joined this forum and I am hoping someone can help me out here.

Here is my setup. I have a desktop computer connected to the net with a DSL modem and then I have a Linksys broadband wireless router and a laptop that is wifi cappable.

My desktop computer is running WinXP Pro and the laptop has WinXP Home.

I get connected to the net fine from both the desktop and wifi laptop. But now I am trying to network file and printer sharing and I am not have any luck.

I went through the network setup wizard on both computers and set up a network. But I can't see the shared files on the computers.

I see that there is a wireless network setup wizard but one the the steps is to make an encryption key but I don't want to do that. I don't care who access my network as long as I can control what drives, files, folders, and printers are bing shared.

Hope someone can help me.

 

[ninershark]

Is the workgroup name the same on both computers per example "MSHOME", you can name them anything as long as they are the same. And of course Microsoft File and printer sharing is added and enabled on both computers.

 

[gab00n]

Look at the SSID name in the router settings, if it is at the default it will probably be Linksys, all computers need to be connected to the same workgroup name(SSID). Also i would definitely turn on the Wep feature, it is not difficult to do, just choose a word and it will encrypt it. Then just enter it for the laptop and you will be much safer. Windows also *****es if you try connect to an unsecure wireless network. I am still trying to get my wireless network functioning correctly. The easiest way is to have one pc sharing the internet and the others going through him otherwise it is a nightmare trying to get the pc's to share files and printers. It takes a lot of time, i would recommend you read some literature on the subject and try and find some example projects. Also make sure that you give people read write access to the files or esle it will say that they don't have permission.

 

[uchiha]

your router works as a DHCP server. This gives every computer on your network an identity. as long as the workgroup name is the same, and both your computers are given ips, then there shouldn't be a problem with the file sharing.

 

[KUdave]

Can you ping each of the specific computers from the command prompt?

Example: ping 192.168.101
This will of course tell you first of all if the computers can communicate with each other.


I recently setup a network between 4 computers. Make sure you have the MS network client installed on each computer (or whatever its called) and also make sure you have netbios enabled. I had everything on my network set up perfectly.. but for some reason it wasn't working right.. I called Dell for help (it's a dell router) and they told me I had to enable netbios on each computer. If you'd like I can post with a little more detail.

Good luck.

 

[ChuckBaker]

Thanks guys

Thanks everyone for responding to my post. I haven't got it working yet.

I looked into some of your suggestions, I went throught the network connection wizard and made the workgroup name "linksys"

And I setup a drive to share.

My desk pc has an address of 192.168.101
and my wireless laptop has an address of 192.168.100

Couple of problems when I ping either computer the ping times out.

and second on the laptop when I look at my network places and try to see who is on the network I get an authorization error message. and nothing is sharing.

I don't know why I shouldn't be authorized. I have Admin access to both computers and the linksys wireless router.

So how do I enable the netbios?? and could my DSL modem be causing the problem? I have a netopia modem and I am hooked up with Centurytel DSL

Thanks again.

 

[ninershark]

I hate to be redundant Chuck, but I have used the wizard before and it just would not save the settings correctly, with that said, have you right clicked on my computer > properties > computer name > change and made sure it has "linksys" as workgroup on both computers. I know this sounds silly, but it's the simple things we tend to overlook, well at least me I have my computers set to not accept pings, so that may be your case too. Does you router show both computers?

 

[KUdave]

To correct my previous post I think it you were suppose to ping
192.168.1.106 (that's how it works for me.. however different routers.. different values.. you can find out what the ip of your computer is (the one your router assigns by looking here -- pictured below)

http://img163.exs.cx/img163/3605/ip3un.jpg


Also if the pings that you are doing to each computer are timing out.. then that means the computer are not communicating with each other properly therefore it would be impossible to fileshare/set up a network

http://img163.exs.cx/img163/150/ping3xc.jpg


I hope this screenshot helps also Chuck
http://img161.exs.cx/img161/1983/desk5mo.jpg

 

[ChuckBaker]

Thanks

Thanks for your reply. I have checked it out a little more.

I tried to look at your screen shots but I only got one to load. The one for ipconfig.

Here is what I got.

My DSL modem says that the IP address is 192.168.1.4
My linksys wireless router also gives that IP address.

When I do an ipconfig this is what I get:

Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection:

Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :
IP Address. . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.2.100
Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0
Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.2.1

At the present time my desktop computer is 192.168.2.100
and my laptop is at 192.168.2.101

and I have pinged all these numbers and they are now coming back fine.

Pinging 192.168.2.100 with 32 bytes of data:

Reply from 192.168.2.100: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=128
Reply from 192.168.2.100: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=128
Reply from 192.168.2.100: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=128
Reply from 192.168.2.100: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=128

Ping statistics for 192.168.2.100:
Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 0ms, Maximum = 0ms, Average = 0ms

F:\Documents and Settings\Chuck Baker>ping 192.168.1.4

Pinging 192.168.1.4 with 32 bytes of data:

Reply from 192.168.1.4: bytes=32 time=1ms TTL=150
Reply from 192.168.1.4: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=150
Reply from 192.168.1.4: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=150
Reply from 192.168.1.4: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=150

Ping statistics for 192.168.1.4:
Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 0ms, Maximum = 1ms, Average = 0ms

But I still can't see the shared drive that I setup on the desktop on my laptop.