The Woes of Home Networking (WinME)

[VictorMoura]

Hey all. This is my first time here at the Anandtech Forums, and, admittedly, I am a complete computer newbie when compared to the lot of you ;-). With that said, I will present my computer hassle in as much tangible detail as I can, and I thank you in advance for your input. If you require more information, feel free to ask.

I have a PIII 733mhz Dell Computer (running on WinME) with 2 Linksys LNE100TX Fast Ethernet Adapter cards. One is connected to my ADSL Service Provider (Bell Highspeed Edition), and the other is connected to a Hub. This hub is connected to my brother's Linksys LNE100TX Fast Ethernet Adapter card on his IBM Aptiva 333mhz AMD K6-2 (running on Windows 98 2nd Edition). The problem is as follows:

--> I cannot be connected to my ADSL !AND! be connected to his computer at the same time.<--

When I try to access his comp via My Network Places, it says that &quot;Windows cannot find the computer or share name.&quot; HOWEVER, when I disconnect my ADSL and plug in the network cable into where the ADSL cable was, his computer can be accessed.

What do I do? Thanks again.

 

[guaraguao]

ok, first of all, little tip:

we don't give a crap what cpu/speed you're running. as long as you're faster than pentium, it doesn't really factor in. in the future, mention your network card/os, important stuff... otherwise it's really boring to read through your msg. 🙂

Your problem is that windoze is looking on the wrong adapter for file + print.

Your internet (dsl?) adapter should only be running tcp/ip, unless your isp is doing something funky.
The lan should be running tcp/ip, netbeui, &quot;client for microsoft networks.&quot;

What you want to do is assign a static ip address to the lan side card (ie, the one that's not plugged into the dsl), say 192.168.1.1 than you go over to the other computer and assign it 192.168.1.2 They should both be able to talk to each other now.

 

[VictorMoura]

Guaraguao,

Thank you for your advice and help thus far. I have removed and added the correct bindings, as you suggested. Now, how do I go about assigning a static IP address? Is there not a program that does that, like WinGate or something?

Thanks Again.

 

[guaraguao]

control panel > network > tcp/ip for the device. set one to ip &quot;192.168.1.z&quot; with netmask &quot;255.255.255.0&quot;, and the other correspondingly. make sure you don't use the same ip as another computer!

let me know if I need to elaborate.

 

[VictorMoura]

I effected the changes to the IP address, yet the problem persists.

Out of curiosity, I put the switched the two cables (from one card to another) and the network worked yet the ADSL connection didnt. I switched them back, and the ADSL works yet the network doesnt.

What do you think? Is ME having an identification crisis or something?

Thanks again.

 

[Tallgeese]

<< I effected the changes to the IP address, yet the problem persists. >>

What IP address, network mask, and gateway settings are you using on the following adapters?

Your machine's DSL NIC:
Your machine's Internal NIC (non-DSL):
Your brother's machine's NIC:

 

[VictorMoura]

My machine's DSL NIC: Obtain an IP Address Automatically/Obtain an IP Address Automatically/No Gateway Specified.
My machine's Internal NIC (non-DSL): 192.168.1.1/255.255.255.0/No Gateway Specified.
My brother's machine's NIC: 192.168.1.2/255.255.255.0/No Gateway Specified.

There you are. I hope that helps.

 

[Tallgeese]

<< My machine's DSL NIC: Obtain an IP Address Automatically/Obtain an IP Address Automatically/No Gateway Specified.
My machine's Internal NIC (non-DSL): 192.168.1.1/255.255.255.0/No Gateway Specified.
My brother's machine's NIC: 192.168.1.2/255.255.255.0/No Gateway Specified. >>

Those look correct. And I'm thinking the problem is not with your bro's machine at all.

Do you get link status on both the hub and the ADSL modem when each respective NIC is plugged in with EITHER of your cables? Do you get link status on each when both are plugged in at the same time?