1 server, 2 clients, all connected with crossover, how to talk?

[Confused]

We have a situation where there is one server, which is connected to the internet, and running our web/email servers, running Windows 2000 Server. The two client computers are running Windows XP Pro.

We have a 10mbps hub, which connects them all, but we are more and more regularly transferring larger and larger files from one client computer to the other.

We want to now add another network card to the Server, and use crossover cables to each client computer directly from the server. However, this is where the fun starts!

I can get pair of computers (client 1/server, client 2/server) talking, but can't get client 1 to talk to client 2, and be able to share files again.

Is there a way of doing this, as there must be some settings under Windows 2000 Server that allows both network cards to talk to each other and act as a hub/router or something? The way we're getting round this at the moment is by transferring the file to the server then to the other client, but this is getting really tedious to do, as it now involves interaction by both of us to copy a file.

I would really appreciate it if someone can help with this

Thanks in advance

Confused

 

[spidey07]

Get a switch and you'll be all set. Trying to do this with crossover cable would be counter productive network wise.

That way the server and both clients will be on the same IP network and you won't have any browsing issues. There are 8 port 10/100 switches out there for under 50 bucks.

 

[m2kewl]

what spidey said

 

[Baldy18]

It would be much easier to get a small 10/100 hub. Netgear makes a four port that you can pick up in the US for $40 I'm not sure how much that translates to pounds.

 

[Confused]

I knew that's what people were gonna say

Is there any way of doing it without a switch? Kind of for "learning" reasons, and to tide us over til i can go get a switch!

 

[EvilWobbles]

So how many network cards do you have in your server?

 

[muttley]

ditto

Some machines can only take 2 nic cards, if that.

If you need to change the nic cards to 10/100 and do it instantly not waiting for internet ordering you should find locally cards for $20

Cross-over cables cost money and the only place you might want to use one besides linking only 2 computers together is the use of gigabit cards that cost ~$50. The problem is that gigabit switches cost big $$$.

Another possibility is that you purchase instead of a switch, a router, thus enabling the other computers partial access to the internet for VPN as an example or other available options that would be such as hardware firewall.

muttley

 

[GISTechnician]

put two NICs in one of the XP machines and connect one to the server and one to the other client. Set up an ip address on one of the NICs and then highlight both connections, right click and select "bridge connections" and presto! This is very easy to do with XP. From my experience, you will however have to manually assign an ip address for the other XP machine as DHCP doesn't seem to work through a bridged connection. Just make sure that all your NICs are on the same subnet.

 

[Confused]

I already have all the cables needed.

In the server there are currently 2 NICs (one for each client, hopefully) and internet is via USB (cable modem)

Basically, there must be some way of doing this with the hardware i have, without having to buy ANYTHING.

I am also working with lots of files on the Server itself from my workstation. What would be nice, is to have my direct 200mbps (full duplex) connection from my machine to server, then as more computers are added, get a switch to connect to the others, that won't be using as much bandwidth as i am, but still be able to transfer files to all machines.

So, to put it simply (cos that confused even me what i wrote above ) how to do it without a switch, using the stuff i have already

Confused

 

[GISTechnician]

Take one of the cards out of your server and put in one of the XP machines like my first post says. That will do it for you.

 

[Confused]

Originally posted by: GISTechnician
put two NICs in one of the XP machines and connect one to the server and one to the other client. Set up an ip address on one of the NICs and then highlight both connections, right click and select "bridge connections" and presto! This is very easy to do with XP. From my experience, you will however have to manually assign an ip address for the other XP machine as DHCP doesn't seem to work through a bridged connection. Just make sure that all your NICs are on the same subnet.

Good idea, and one i thought of, however neither of the WinXP machines are always on, so there wouldn't always be a permanent connection to each machine from the server.

 

[GISTechnician]

Originally posted by: Confused

Originally posted by: GISTechnician
put two NICs in one of the XP machines and connect one to the server and one to the other client. Set up an ip address on one of the NICs and then highlight both connections, right click and select "bridge connections" and presto! This is very easy to do with XP. From my experience, you will however have to manually assign an ip address for the other XP machine as DHCP doesn't seem to work through a bridged connection. Just make sure that all your NICs are on the same subnet.

Good idea, and one i thought of, however neither of the WinXP machines are always on, so there wouldn't always be a permanent connection to each machine from the server.

Just leave one the of the XP machines one.

 

[muttley]

In direct answer to your question there are 2 ways.

One is to put a second nic card in the 2 non server computers and use crossover cable.

Two, on the server create a workgroup (ie SalAndPaul) and in the workgroup (SalAndPaul) make it consist of 2 or more users and then have them share folder file space on the server.

edit: or select which folder/s to share for that workgroup if there are additional files on the server also.

muttley.

 

[FoBoT]

you can put as many NIC's into the windows 2000 server as you want
then just setup routing (Microsoft Routing and Remote Access Service (RRAS))
ie turn your W2K server into a router(which makes it equivalent to an X port switch, X being the number of network cards you put into it)

 

[lobadobadingdong]

I guess some people like having things overcomplicated. Make it easy on yourself, just get a cheap switch or nice 10/100 hub.

 

[RemyCanad]

Originally posted by: lobadobadingdong
I guess some people like having things overcomplicated. Make it easy on yourself, just get a cheap switch or nice 10/100 hub.

He is getting a switch a some point. But he deosn't want one now.

You could always mount (not sure of the work for it under windows. But make a share on both of the computers a drive on the 2000 machine) both the drives of both machines on the Win2k machine. Then mount the mount of the drives. Get it? Now thats kinda the long way around and you would still have to go through the server...

 

[lobadobadingdong]

My apologies, I missed where he put that in there.

I'll give my 2 centavos. This isn't as easy as the XP bridge fix but it will do exactly what your asking it to do.

Server has 2 nics and connects to i-net through usb cable modem. set 1 nic ip to 10.0.0.100, and the other to 10.0.0.101. and set server to allow ip routing(I think it's ip fowarding in Win2k), this is how you fix the routing problem between the two nics on the win2k box.
Clients each have one nic set them accordingly 10.0.0.102&10.0.0.103 and confirm all systems are in the same workgroup(you may have it set as a domain since I see your using win2k Server) with different host identifiers(computer name)
All should have subnet mask 255.255.255.0 and clients should use a gateway that corrisponds to the nic they are connected to the server with.
create shared drives as you normally would.

you won't see all the hosts in network neighborhood. but you should be able to do a search by computer names, once you have that opened you can map network drives and if sharing printers you'll want to capture ports for the network printers, because they will be in a broken broadcast situation and won't be able to poll the network for the necissary services. Finally ping all the ip addresses listed above and you should get a fast responce from each, this can also be used to see what nic on the server a host is conneced to.

There is bridging software available, but I never use the stuff anymore since bridges are so cheap these days.

Also note Remy is a xnix guy, you only mount drives to a raid array in Microsucks land . It's not like mounting a cd everytime you want to access your cd-rom drive.