Creating: AD HOC Network

[James Bond]

I've actually set up an ad hoc network before but I'm completely blanking right now.

The tutorials online are terrible, probably because M$ makes it so difficult to use ICS sometimes etc.

Anyway,
I don't need a literal 'internet' connection shared, I just need to transfer some files from one laptop to another using 802.11g.

What's the easiest way to set this up?

Thank you in advance,
Tyler

 

[ktwebb]

Assign each computer an IP on the same subnet. 192.168.0.1 , .2, .3 etc... with a /24 subnet mask (255.255.255.0) Give each computer a unique computer name (NetBIOS), and it's easier if you put them all in the same workgroup.

Typically Ad Hoc is used with wireless however you didn't mention it. If your using wireless cards you'll need to place the cards in Ad Hoc mode. You can do that via the NIC driver or XP's wireless utility. If going Ad Hoc each wireless card will need to use the same SSID and the same frequency, which needs to be at least checked manually to make sure all are on the same channel. Usually they will use channel 6 so you may not have to do anything but if they are on different channels you'll need to change them to match. After that it's typical windows networking.

If they are all wired it's normally just referred to as a workgroup and setting the IP's manually and doing the computer name should set you up. May have to run the initial XP wizard to enable LAN communication.