Network configuration

[ThePuzzleMaster]

So here's my dillema. I have 3 computers. 1 laptop and 2 desktops. The laptop can receive an internet signal through its wireless card. I also have a d-link dwl-524 router and a di-g122 wireless usb dongle.

I only need internet on the laptop and one of the dektops. I would like however, to share files between all three. Previously I'd had a direct connection between the laptop and the internet desktop and that worked fine, but the third computer was out of the loop.

So I was trying to route teh internet from the laptop to the router with a LAN cable, and then share that connection over the network to the internet desktop, which connected to the router with teh LAN cable. And then the third computer also connected via LAN cable. But I couldn't get the internet to share over the network like I could with the direct connection.

First of all, is this even possible?

I also have a second question. I'd changed the name of one of my computers that's on the network, and that resulted in all of the shared folders now existing twice on my network neighborhoods. One with the old name and one with the new name. I can't access the old ones, but I can't get them to disappear either! Is there some way to refresh the network list? I tried running a reset with netshell, but that didn't clear the entries...

Any help advice is greatly appreciated!

Thanks a bunch!

 

[nweaver]

the multiple entries mean browser lists (and the election process that is a nighmare). My suggestion? ignore network craphood. As for the first, you should just setup all 3 to the router. If you DON'T want internet on the third desktop, give it a static IP in the same range with no default gateway.

 

[ThePuzzleMaster]

If I just setup all 3 to the router how do I get the internet connection to transfer from the laptop to the desktop? There's no chance of getting a hard-wired connection to the modem. I'm currently at teh very edge of a network and the only way I even get a 1 Mb signal is with a range extender in the middle. So after the laptop gets the signal, I couldn't figure out how to get that to the desktop without being a direct connection with ICS between the two?

Also, is there a way to create an icon that will connect to the other computers directly? i.e. I click on the icon and it opens explorer with xxx.xxx.x.xxx as the "goto" address to open up the files on one of the other computers? I'm assuming that's how you're advising I connect to the other computers. This is just for convenience, but it makes sense to me if it is possible.

Thanks for the help.

 

[nweaver]

sorry, I got confused. Let me clarify this

Wireless signal from somewhere->Laptop WIFI card->????

what you should do is setup ICS (sharing) on the laptop, turn off DHCP on the router, plug the laptop's wired connection into a LAN port on the router, as well as the other 2 machines. If your laptop is getting a 192.168.0.X address on wireless, you might be hosed, as there is no way I know of to change ICS's defaults.

Another option, if you know the other end of the wireless doesn't restrict IP assignments, and assuming XP Pro is to select both adapters on the laptop and choose "Bridge".

 

[ThePuzzleMaster]

Ahhh yes. That makes sense. I'll give that a try later on today and report back with how it goes!

Signal does come from laptop wifi card. and ip address with internet signal is not 192.168.x.xxx based so I should be ok I hope!

Also, yes, XP Pro.
And as for the other end of the wireless not restricting ip assignments, I'm not necessarily sure what that is but the other end is an access point that assigns a range of about 20 ip addresses. I alwasy kind of wondered what "Bridge connections" did? I'll try the router one first. But that's a possible second option.

Thanks again!

 

[ThePuzzleMaster]

MAJOR progress! I've got the whole network situation working wonderfully! All the computers can see each other one! I even created instant links to each computer using "new" "shortcut" from the desktop, and then stuck 'em in my own "Network" folder for easy access! Wonderful! So thank you very much for this!

Now as for the internet situation, I can still get internet on the laptop no problem, but I'm not sure what gateway to assign to the LAN cable on the laptop or the LAN cable for the desktop? When I assign the laptop a gateway address then it tries to access the internet through teh LAN cable instead of the wifi and won't work.

The IP for the wifi card is 10.0.40.182 with a gateway of 10.0.40.1
The IP for the laptop LAN is 192.168.0.100
The IP for the desktop LAN is 192.168.0.101
What gateway should I be using for the laptop LAN and the desktop LAN? I tried quite a few combinations, but nothing seemed to work.

Do I need to assign a DNS server as well? Or no? There is one automatically chosen with the wifi connection on the laptop.

Thanks so much for the help so far. I'm so close!

And by using MaxiVista I can now use one mouse/keyboard on all three computers! It's fantastic!!!

 

[ThePuzzleMaster]

Does anyone know what gateways I should be assigning?

 

[imported_romank]

Technically if you have the laptop WiFi connection shared then you can assign the laptop LAN IP as the gateway on the computers connected to the router. On the laptop, the gateway should be what it is assigned (in your case, 10.0.40.1)

 

[ThePuzzleMaster]

Well, the problem is if I assign a gateway (at least all the ones I've tried so far) to the laptop LAN then it tries using the LAN to access the internet and does not use the wifi card (At least that's what I think is happening. But whatever IS happening, it is not able to access the internet once I add a gateway to the laptop LAN).

If I leave the laptop LAN with no gateway, then I get no internet on the desktop no matter what I set that gateway to.

 

[ThePuzzleMaster]

SCORE!!!!!!!

I figured it out! I don't know why I didn't think to do this to begin with... Anyways, all I did was set up the direct connection which had worked previously, and took note of the ipconfig selections. I had been thrown off by the dns suffix, but when I did ipconfig/all it showed the full dns.

So for anyone who may have this problem... My final settings work as follows:

Laptop WiFi IP:10.0.40.182
Laptop WiFi Gateway: 10.0.40.1
Laptop LAN IP: 192.168.0.1 (For ICS)
LaptopLAN Gateway: NONE!
Desktop LAN IP: 192.168.0.101
Desktop LAN Gateway: 192.168.0.1
Desktop LAN DNS: 192.168.0.1
ALL CONNECTIONS Subnet Mask: 255.255.255.0

Ahhhhhhh. Thaaaaaaaaank goodness that's over with. Now back to the loads of other problems!

Thanks to all for your help along the way.