O/T? - Problem setting up LAN on 2 PCs

Hi there, I'm not sure if this is the right place to post this so tell me if I'm in the wrong place!

Having a bit of trouble setting up a LAN netowrk of 2 PCs:

1's a Dell P3 866Mhz, 320 RAM, WinME
The other's a Toshiba P1 200Mhz MMX, 48 RAM, Win98

They both have the exact same network cards (bought the other day) installed without a problem and have the correct cable going across (crossover cable I think it's called). The issue is that although they'll recognise that each other are there (the diff PCs come up as diff icons in Network Neighbourhood), they won't talk to each other (Can't access/see each other). I tried to ping each other using their respective IPs (found using ipconfig) with no success. They can ping themselves no probs which I think shows the cards are working! The lights on the back of the cards work & flash the odd time but are constantly on. Here's the wierd part:

I tried to play Command & Conquer Tiberian Sun with them & they see each other's names (individual/multiplayer names); the faster one (Dell) can send messages to the Toshiba and the Toshiba receives them ok. When the Tosh tries to send one back, the Dell never gets it. If I create a game with the Dell, it shows up on the Toshiba, but when the Toshiba tries to join, nothing happens. When the Toshiba Hosts a game, it disappears off the list of players on the Dell & won't come up as a game, unlike when the Dell does the same! I'm ssoooooooooooooooo confused!!!
What's going on & can someone please help! It's been wrecking my head for days now! Even tried different OSs & other games & still doesn't work!

Thanks for any help in advance!

JP

not the right place to post this...but - however- i don't care about.

plz tell us
how do you connect the pcs to each other.(?)
is there any firewallsoftware installed?
are you using dhcp?
is there a swiitch?
or a router?

problems like "can't see the pc ,but the other can see me .." are mostly reported from WinXP systems connecting to w2k or win98.

your gamesoft can reach the other pc , so he should be able to ping it!
i would be confused on this, too.
(if it would be mine)

i'll try to help... but i do not know about C&C...

I'm willing to bet that its a firewall problem.

if you hae a firewall try disabling it, or creating rules to allow traffic on your LAN IP.

Try this and see if this is part of the problem. It's the first thin I found but I'll look some more lemee know if this helps.
http://eatech.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/e...Z2U9MQ**&p_li=

How is it possible to "see" the computer but not be able to ping it? From what I remember, the syntax of the ping command would be like:
c:\>ping 192.168.1.102
on the first computer and
c:\>ping 192.168.1.101
on the second
With IP CPU1=192.168.1.101 and IP CPU2=192.168.1.102
Make sure that each machine has a different IP address and are part of the same subnet (the first three octets are the same on each machine). You could just set each machine's ip to be static (those addresses above would work very well).

There is a chance (albeit a small one) that the win98 (or ME) machine might not have the TCP/IP protocol installed. But if either machine can access the internet then you must have tcp/ip installed.

I think you need the "client for microsoft networks" installed for the computers to "see" each other using the network neighborhood (I *think*).

I have had some experience playing RA2 (command and conquer) over a network. First is to make sure both computers have the IPX/SPX protocol enabled. Then under network settings (in game) you have to choose the correct network device (there is normally a drop down menu with 3 different selections on my machines, it was always the last selection in the menu). But I haven't played Tiberian Sun on a network or over the internet to know how it is set up.

Anyway, I hope this can spur some creative thoughts to fix the problem. I haven't used 98 since I got 2k and I never used ME.

@ Stranger: The PCs are connected by Crossover cable. I've tried 3 cables and the result's the same. No switch or router, just straight one to one. Not using DHCP (whatever that is).

The IPs are now:
Dell: 169.254.124.3
Tosh: 169.254.124.4

Was told having the first 3 numbers right would make a difference, it hasn't so far. Subnets are the same @ 255.255.0.0

@ cheyenne1212: Firewall's off whenever I try to ping or do any communication between them so I don't think it's that.

@ Muerto: I've tried everything it says there with no success. I've even tried using different PCI slots & reinstalling the hardware drivers, protocols etc each time but nothing changes.

At the moment, the Dell can 'see' itself & the Toshiba, can access itself but can't access the Toshiba. The Toshiba can't see anything in Network Neighbourhood. Both PCs have the same Protocols etc installed & are set up in the same way (aside from IP address - see above).

@ annihilator_god: I'm using the correct ping command & there's only 1 network card that appears in the drop down menu.

Anyone else as confused as I am? =) Cheers for the feeback so far folks!

JP

What kind of firewall you using though?

Some firewalls still stay running even though you click on them and say diable.

Zone Alarm is especially bad at that.


/edit just now looked at the IP's that you have, and that 169.x.x.x is what windows uses when it cannot find a DHCP server to get a IP from.

Did you assign those manually?

If not try assigning it like this

computer 1 : 192.168.1.1 Subent Mask of 255.255.255.0
COmputer 2 : 192.168.1.2 Subnet Mask of 255.255.255.0

Then make sure both are in same workgroup.

Well, that IP is the local IP try getting the global IP address, correct me if I'm wrong though.

Quote:

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No switch or router, just straight one to one. Not using DHCP (whatever that is).

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I've never setup a LAN but aren't you suppose to have a router to set it up?

EDIT: Isn't there suppose to be a gateway computer? (IP end in .0)

No you don't have to have a switch/hub/router on a network to create a network. They way he has it set up is a peer 2 peer network.

I think where he went wrong was with his IP's. If I'm correct, he probably forgot to assign IP's to the computer and let windows try to get a IP from a DCHP (which it couldn't) and therefor cannot see eachother.

And both those IP's are private IP's that he has.

/edit the gateway computer is what he would go through to get onto the net with. He would specify the gateways computer address in the gateway IP address box in the network configs. A network does not have to have one if its not needing to get out on the net.

Isn't that what he is trying to do? Get on the net?

Possibly.

Not to sure, but if he is, he will need to specify his gateway (computer on the net), and he weill need to asign Static IP's to the machines since he has no DHCP server. Also more than likely he will need to put in DNS servers of his ISP to surf the net. Usually you don't hae to, but most of the time I have to do that even if I have a switch set up.

It should be because to connect to the server you need to get on the net..

P.S

Quote:

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Posts: 3333

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looks funny :p

@ cheyenne1212: Both are in the same workgroup (MSHOME - default)
lol! Yes, using Zonealarm, but turned it off completely so I think that should do it..?? (As in "Shutdown ZoneAlarm")

The new IPs are 192.168.0.1 & 192.168.0.2

Something strange though, I accidentally set them both to 192.168.0.2 & the WinME (Dell) said that there was a "conflict for IP address 192.168.0.2 with hardware address 00:50:22:E3:93:99" if that helps. I then set them to what's above, still no progress.

@ Raion: As far as I'm aware it's the local IP I need. I've been told you don't need a router as long as you've a crossover cable & when there's only 2 PCs involved. Once it hits 3, then different cables & a router & things get even more complcated! <=(

JP

Press CTRL + ALT + DEL and you should still see Zone Alarm running in th background.

Trust me, its not actually gone, its still there. If you don't see it in the background try uninstalling it, but I promise you lots of people have network problems like this because they have Zone Alarm and thought the did that shutdown thing, but ZA stays running.

The reason you had a conflict, was because every machine on the network must have a unique IP on the netowok, so once you assigned both machines with the same IP, it detected that and couln't use that IP.

You have 255.255.255.0 as a subnet mask right? on both Pc's?

Want them to be able to play a game between them, serial's too slow for what we need.

@ Che1212: Yes, both on same subnet mask, 255.255.255.0

I believe the Zone Alarm firewall's taskname isn't Zone alarm, I believe they change it to prevent hackers from shutting it down easily (I had Zone Alarm and tried shutting it down that way but then again I had pro..)

Up to you, but try uninstalling ZA, thats whats causing you to have problems. Trust me.

Or just go through your task list looking for something that looks liek ZA.

ZlClient according to this; it disappeared a second ago when I shut it out of the taskbar.

I'll try unistalling it though, I'll try ANYTHING coz it's been wrecking my head for long enough!

Try pinging you other IP now, i.e if your on the 192.168.0.1 machie ping the 0.2 machine.


So you know longer see anything in the taskbar that resembles Zone Alarm?

Just did. "Request Timed Out" as usual

If you dont' mind doing it, try uninstalling ZA rebooting then trying the ping command agin.

You don't have any other firewall software installed do you?

Nothing but Zonealarm, I'll try doing that now. Back in a few....

No joy I'm afraid! Zonealarm wasn't the problem from what I could tell. I thought if I got rid of WinME (which I've been wanting to do for ages...!) it might help..? :confused: :confused: :confused:

hmmmmmmm.....

Only the one firewall on the one computer right?

You are using a crossover cable?

TCP/IP installed?

Yes to all those.

try deleting your TCP/IP protocols then reinstalling them. like deleting your network adapters then rebooting and letting them reinstall.

I've done that already, numerous times! If you think it'll help I'll do it again now?

hmmm..

let me look around a bit and I'll post back, thats strange though, if you have them on the IP's I gave you, the subnet mask, and firewall disabled, and using a crossover cable.

give me a few and I'll get back to you.

Cool. Thanks very much!

you have NETBEUI installed?
Also Client for Microsoft Networks?

Those won't affect pings.
Things to try:
- Ensure the cards are both seated properly and you have link active lights on both machines.
- Ensure the cable you are using is functioning (get a second cable, if it doesn't work, that rules out the cable).
- Ensure there are no IRQ conflicts for your network card.
- Make sure there is nothing between the boxes near the cable that could cause interference -- mainly make sure it isn't running along a wall parallel to a power line. This generally isn't an issue for most people, but it is possible.

If none of the above work, run the following commands in a dos prompt and copy and paste the output here:
ipconfig /all
route -n
Or pm it to me or someone else here if you don't feel comfortable disclosing the configuration of your boxes.

I'm just trying to think what it might be.

It still sounds like a firewall problem or something.

I mean he has lights on the back of the NIC's so they are active.
he said he can see them in Network Neighborhood, but just can't get to them.


hmmmm..........

PMed the two of you with those details.

JP

Are you over looking something simple? Look and make sure the installed protocols are the same on both machines. There should be 3 (client for Microsoft networks, file and printer sharing and tcp/ip) Then visualy compare all the advanced tcp/ip settings and make sure everything is the same except the ip address. If they are all the same and the cable is a cross over cable. There is a difference between a regular cat5 cable and a crossover cable you have to have the right cable.

I would think that the computers wouldn't see each other if he didn't have the right cable.

Have done all that, just reinstalled the cards, protocols, clients etc & tried it; no go. To be honest, I'm starting to think it's WinME that's doing this..! :mad: Debating a hard-drive format...!

Could be, but its probably somethings simple and stupid.

I'll try finding out which PC is causing the hassle on wednesday with a laptop; I'll post whatever I find here then.

JP

IT WORKS!!!! :D It turns out it was the PC with WinME causing the trouble, found out using the laptop & just wiped the HD & started over. It now works fine, files can e exchanged & games played! Thanks a million to everyone who helped, espec "cheyenne1212" & "chsh"! Thanks folks!

JP

sometimes thats what it takes.

Glad you got it working.