can't understand why network isn't working....

[wuzza]

hi,
In our home we have two computers connecting to the internet through a LAN Router. I dunno if I'm explaining that well, but we have one internet cable, it goes into this router, and two or three or four can come out, and they are all supposedly 100% fast.

Anyway, the guy who sold it to us told us that we could network our computers through this router, and to just use the wizard in XP. I'm running professional and the other computer has home edition. We followed the wizard exactly, and shared folders were created, but they don't work....

The main thing is that we want to share big files....I work on 3d animations and then want to send them to the other computer which is connected to a digital projector to watch in the other room. it's a hassle burning them to disk every time, apart from the waiting.

If there is no easy solution to the problem above, is there any way to meet in cyberspace with another computer and just send files? To me it seems very simple, but i have no idea where to go or how to create a connection. I would perfer not to have to buy software, though I will if that is the only way. Also someone else suggested MSN or Kazaa but having tried both they are too unreliable, and slow.

Any help greatly appreciated

Eoin

 

[JackMDS]

What you are trying to do is called File Sharing. I.e. the computers can talk one to the other and share files.

Since the Wizard did not do it (It is not your fault, the Wiz basically Sux) you will have to learn how to configure the computers manually.

Instruction to do so can be found in the following.

Important For the purpose of the initial setting, disable all software Firewall (including WinXP native ICF); disable any active Virus scan or any other utility that might intercept Network Traffic.

If you are not concern about internal security WinXP (both XP Home, and Pro) has a fast simple method of sharing, no user permissions and no passwords.

Link: Windows XP Simple File Sharing

WinXP Pro has an additional more secure (password, and user protected) method:

Link: Windows XP Professional File Sharing.

Link: XP File Sharing Trouble

 

[wuzza]

thanks for that link. I think (not sure) that the first time we used the wizard, it enabled the firewall and that was what was stopping us. it is now working fine, although when copying files over, both computers are on "go-slow" that is to be expected I suppose.

One other thing; how do we go from this to playing games against each other? I assume that's slightly more complicated.....

 

[amdskip]

Games are pretty simple actually. You just have to select a lan game generally. Sometimes one of the computers will have to be the "server" of the game and you can still play a game on the computer serving if that makes sense.