Damn Windows Networking!!

bodhi

bodhi

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OK, tried my crossover cable to network the two computers, XP Home and XP Pro. Nothing!! I know last time i posted about this i got some replies saying its basically hit or miss whether a windows network works, but im really keen to get this up and running.

The main thing i want to do right now is play my mate at Age of Empires II just to have something to do on boring nights in. Is there a way of playing this without having to get the whole windows networking thing up and running? Cause thats a total disaster!!

Yours frustratedly,

Bodhi!!
 
Have you ran the home networking wizards on both machines and rebooted?


Dont know much about the game so port numbers and stuff mayb a problem if your going thru a router
 
Not going through a router mate, just a straight crossover cable. Home networking has been run on both machines, but the wizards are different on home and professional, and it doesn't make it very obvious what you are meant to do. Surely in this day and age it should be pretty easy to stick a cable in the back and off you go. Whatever happened to Plug and Play??

Microsoft have made it Plug and Pray.
 
Ok could always try this -

Right click the LAN Connection (Control Panel - Network Connections) and click properties -

In the next window, there should be a little box in the middle that you can scroll in. Scroll down to TCP/IP Settings - and then click properties.

Click on Assign IP Address Manually -

PC 1 -
Make your ip - 192.168.0.1
Subnet - 255.255.255.0

PC 2

IP - 192.168.0.2
Subnet - 255.255.255.0
And the rest blank. Click ok to everything and give the pc about 30 secs for the IP to kick in. Might be worth disabling firewall first before continuing

On PC 1
Then Click Start -> Run and type cmd. Press ok

Should open a black box - type ping 192.168.0.2

If its saying Request Timed Out, Then definately disable the firewall. If this hasn't worked, you'll need to look into the hardware. You can test your N/W cards by typing in the black box: ping 127.0.0.1
All that does is a loop back test on the Network card.

Might be worth D/c from the internet when playing, especially if you disable the firewall as well.
 
;)

I second the above motion, also last time you did this did you use the same cable. Ive done this before then found out the cable was broken or mistaken it and got a straight through instead. Are the workgroups set up correctly?
 
Hey,

Thanks for the reply guys, i'll try it when i get home. Just do what you said and then if you can ping the other pc successfully it should let us play the game?

Just a quick question before i do this......i have wireless internet over here, the modem connects into the LAN port, which i will have to take out to plug the crossover cable into. If i start changing IP addresses etc, will this affect my internet connection? Cause that internet connection is VITAL to my well being!!! haha :-)

Bodhi
 
erm.... if your connecting the modem to your computer - is that still considered wireless? Before you change the settings of your IP Address - note down on that page what they are. Then once you finish gaming - you can just change the settings back. Do a couple of test runs first before you go offline just to make sure your comfortable with the operation as its alot harder to help someone off line. Obviously, if needed - print off the above message so that you can come back to that if you cannot remember how you got there.

As for the pinging - it depends what Service Pack you are using on Windows.

SP2 with its firewall (cant remember if SP1 has a firewall or not) blocks all pinging communications so it would probably be best for you to disable the firewall before you start trying to ping PC2.
 
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