Networking problems

Stalfos

Hi, i'm new to this forum and my problem about networking. I have heard several ways how to do it and wonder what is the best way to do it. I've heard about connecting my hard drives, buying network cards, etc..
I brought a USB file transfer wire and that transfered some things but not what i wanted to transfer, i want to transfer movies, music, games and applications. Can anyone provide me with info?

Chalk

what equipment do you have?
what pcs?
do they have network cards or even wireless cards?
do you have a hub or router?
what firewalls are you using?
what version of windows?


answering these questions will give us somewhere to start

wideband

Hi Stalfos

what you trying to connect is it 2 desktops......and how much you willing to spend....

Stalfos

Chalk wrote:

what equipment do you have?
what pcs?
do they have network cards or even wireless cards?
do you have a hub or router?
what firewalls are you using?
what version of windows?


answering these questions will give us somewhere to start

What do you mean equipment?
the pcs are a dell 8400 and a 5 year siemens desktops
no network or wireless cards
no router or hub
i am using windows xp and my old pc is windows 98

i would be willing to send about €50-€70

Keyzer

Easiest thing to do is to buy 2 network cards and a 4 port hub and 2 network cables, should get the lot for less than 80 euro.

setup is: pc - hub - pc...

Before I go any further, do you have any experience in networking or installing hardware components in pcs?

Stalfos

yeah, a little. l wouldnt be afaid to open a pc a thinker around, i have installed ram and graphic cards and add cd drives to pc's before

Keyzer

stalfos wrote:

yeah, a little. l wouldnt be afaid to open a pc a thinker around, i have installed ram and graphic cards and add cd drives to pc's before

Grand then...
If this "file transfer" is a once off then add one of the hard drives from one of the machines and mount it as a slave and transfer what you want.

For a mini network -
Install both network cards into both machines.
Hook up the network cables to the machines and then to the hub.
I assume you have a dial up connection or broadband, so dont mess with those connections. You need to create new connections on both machines, call them LAN Connection.
Then you need to configure both these connections for you network.
Use ip addresses like 192.168.1.2 and 192.168.1.3 for each machine.
Subnet mask will fill itself in.
Then you can either connect the usual way i.e start - search - computers , enter ip address and it should be found.
Or, the easy way, "acquire" a version of pc anywhere or vnc and file share that way.

Any questions?

One more question, do you have firewall software on both machines?
If so, you will need to tinker around with some settings.

SwampThing

Howdy.

As Chalk says; need a little more info.

The USB transfer should be sufficient for file transfers, especially if it's USB 2.0.

For 'proper' networking, you should be looking at a NIC (network interface card) in each PC and a hub,switch or router with a port for each PC. Or, if you've a PC/laptop with wireless, maybe that's a road to go down, but to get comparable transfer speeds to a wired network, it costs more.

Give us a little more to work with...

Jez, you guys are quick!

Stalfos

I cant connect my old hard drive to my new one because their different models so i'll have to network. i do have a firewall and i think it stopped me before with the USB file transfer wire.

As for networking, is it hard to create new connections(i'm on broadband) and then how do i configure connections for networking?

SwampThing

The broadband router will make this easier.

Instead of assigining IP addresses as Keyzer said, the router will automatically assign each PC an address - it's called DHCP.

Literally, just install the card in the PC, plug it into the router and Bob's yer uncle.

If there's only one network port in the router, get a wee hub and plug everything ito it, router and all. You'll have web access on all PC's as a bonus!

Keyzer

Not to be disrespectful to other peoples answers but the guy is gonna be kinda confused with all these different solutions and info...

Stalfos, do you have broadband router?

SwampThing

stalfos wrote:

... create new connections(i'm on broadband) and then how do i configure..

I take it he does have a BB router, Keyzer.

Keyzer

righto, didnt see that...

Stalfos

How does broadband make it easier?
and to SwampThing i do have a USB 2.0 but i wont copy files because of the my firewall, Why is it doing that?

Keyzer

stalfos wrote:

How does broadband make it easier?
and to SwampThing i do have a USB 2.0 but i wont copy files because of the my firewall, Why is it doing that?

Because my dear, some bb routers allow an ethernet and usb connection.
Therefore you can hook 2 machines up at the same time.
They will be assigned ip addresses by the router therefore you don't have to do any of the ip address stuff i mentioned earlier.

What kind of router do you have? Netopia?

Stalfos

Yeah, i have netopia. WOW didnt know you could use it that way, so cool

SwampThing

Keyzer wrote:

Because my dear, some bb routers allow an ethernet and usb connection.
Therefore you can hook 2 machines up at the same time.
They will be assigned ip addresses by the router therefore you don't have to do any of the ip address stuff i mentioned earlier.

Not what I had in mind, but possible. I was thinking more of a NIC per machine and a 4-port hub.

But, if the USB & ethernet work and you only want two pc's then go for it.

SwampThing

stalfos wrote:

How does broadband make it easier?
and to SwampThing i do have a USB 2.0 but i wont copy files because of the my firewall, Why is it doing that?

Are you using windows explorer to transfer files or another application?

Can you actually browse the files on the other machine and just not transfer them OR can you not see the files at all?

Stalfos

i can see them but only one or two zip files transfered, i want to transfer .avi and word docs type files. i know .exe wont transfer but any help would welcomed

StaggerLee

hahahaha