home networking issues...

[hatty324]

I am in my senior year of high school but afterwords I plan on being a computer networker (already have a college planned out for my degrees)....anyways...

I am trying to set up a home network (non internet) so that I can print using the printer attached to the other computer. I have been trying to get this to work for quite some time, but for some reason windows isn't willing to comply with my needs.

I currently have Comcast Broadband Cable being used on 3 computers (have the upgraded account so we get 3 individual ip addresses, or one for each computer). Here is how my connection works for the internet:

Comcast Cable Line -> Cable Modem -> Hub -> (splits to the 3 computers providing internet)

Here is what I'm trying to do with just 2 of the computers (same connect as above...but with this)

Linksys Cable/DSL Router -> Splits to the 2 Computers trying to be networked.

So the 2 computers I am trying to network offline have 2 ethernet cards each (1 for cable line, other for non-internet line).

Both computers are running Windows XP Home Edition. Once I have all the cables setup I go into My Computer -> My Network Places -> Setup Home or Small Office Network.

Once in the setup process, I have tried 2 different paths. One is by selecting other and then selecting "This network is not connect to the internet" (or whatever it is) and then complete the process, once on each computer. The network works fine after that, but for some weird reason I get internet on my computer, but no internet on the other computer. So I tried it again, but this time selecting other, and then selecting the first option (cuz that matches my layout) and I still cant get a network and internet to work at the same time....

Is there a different way I should have my network setup? What am I doing wrong? If more information is needed, please let me know what you need to know to help me.

 

[hatty324]

I did a little research within the past hour or so and from what it seems should I just completely ditch the hub and use the router I have? Just route the 3 computers using hte router so they have internet and my home network? Cuz it wouldn't matter if Comcast complained because we are paying the 5$ extra a month to have 3 computers instead of just 1.....

 

[HoLoCroN]

Lets see, how do we start this up..

First of all, you don't have to pay the additional fee for multiple computers if you have the linksys router, that will share the internet connection automatically without the need for additional ISP assigned IP addresses. (and it will save you a few bucks per month)

Second, is there a specific reason for having two NIC's?

Do you want the second set of computer blocked from internet access?


Let us know and we will be able to resolve this quicker.

 

[Mike from Texas]

I too am having similar problems. I have run the network setup wizard sucessfully on both machines, but cannot get either one to "see" the other one.

Mine is wired:
Cable modem ---->Router ---->PC#1
...................................---->PC#2


The broadband part works fine but I can't get the 2 computers to talk. Any suggestions?

Sorry to hijack your thread. I will start another if I need to.

 

[HoLoCroN]

No problem, same problem so both of you can benefit from the answers.

Internet works fine but no file sharing is possible.

Do you have any software firewalls enabled on the PC's? If so, make sure to configure them to allow the other computer as a member of its trusted zone.

This is step one, you can test this by pinging the other computer.
To ping the computer simply click on "Start" > "Run" and type CMD and hit enter.

You will see a black window pop up with a command prompt. Now just type PING computer name - and you should see a reply.

Check, out the screen shots.

Screen shot of successfull Ping results.

Failed Ping Results

 

[Mike from Texas]

I've almost got it up now. I can see one computer in the workgroup, but not the other. I can ping the address on both though. What's up with that?

 

[loop]

are all computers part of the same network

 

[Mike from Texas]

Thanks for the replies guys, I finally got it to work. It was my Norton Firewall that was stopping it.