Voila? You betcha!
I am happy to confirm that I now have access to my parents' PC's harddrive, and they can access mine. Goosemaster: THANK YOU!
Still, that doesn't mean I am completely satisfied. I'd still like to know if I'm able to set up a network using the TCP/IP protocol. The reason is that it appears to conflict with my Internet connection settings (more on that below, when I respond to JackMDs post), and I'm curious to figure it out. I don't think I'll need it for the purpose of sharing files and my printer, but I want to figure out what the heck I have been doing wrong.
Anyway... let's see. I hope some of y'all will read this sooner or later...
JackMDs: I've been to the pages you link to before, but I was unable to get it to work. More precisely, I noticed that I was unable to access the internet when I changed the settings from DHCP-assigned to static IP as mentioned here:
<< By default, TCP/IP is configured to "Obtain an IP address automatically." XP will first try to locate a DHCP server on the network, and if no DHCP server is found, it will use Auto-IP generation to generate an IP address.
If you select to use such automatically assigned IP addresses, you can open the Command Prompt and type IPCONFIG /ALL to find out which IP address was assigned to your system. Since the automatic IP address generation will cause a delay before the network becomes available, I prefer to define the IP address myself. Also, with more and more people getting broadband internet via DSL or cable modems, I prefer to configure the LAN myself to avoid conflicts with the network settings for the connection to the DSL or cable modem. >>
Unfortunately, when I change this in the LAN properties, I am denied access to the internet. (Internet Explorer will come up with a "page not found" error.) Because online access is more important to me than sharing files (if need be, I can still burn files to CD-RW and that way transfer them to my parents' computer), I never managed to set it up this way. Do you have any idea why this isn't working for me?
DuBobD: Both PCs are on the same workgroup (MSHOMENET) and subnet mask (255.255.255.0).
Jwyatt: File and printer sharing is turned on, so I know that's not the problem. The thing is that when I view the network connections (MY NETWORK PLACES on desktop, ENTIRE NETWORK, MICROSOFT WINDOWS NETWORK, MSHOMENET), I get the following error message:
"MSHOMENET is not accessible. You might not have permission to use this network resource. Contact the administrator of this server to find out if you have access permissions.
The list of servers for this workgroup is not currently available."
Any idea why, though? I know that I applied the same settings to each computer (which drive to share, etc.), so what am I doing wrong?
neovan: Sorry, but my firewall was never turned on. (I do have Norton Internet Security, however -- does that matter?)
Goosemaster: I'll shoot you a PM regarding payment... it's not exactly how I'd hoped to solve this, but that really doesn't matter.
Anyway... I also sent someone some info regarding my situation via e-mail. For those willing to help me out even further, here's the stuff I sent him that you might find useful to figure out the TCP/IP problem:
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My situation is as follows:
- PC in my room
- PC in the living room
- both connected to a LinkSys 4-port DSL router
I've no problem getting online with both, but I was told that I should assign a static IP instead of using DHCP. However, the minute I change this in the LinkSys setup page, I lose access to the Internet. So I would prefer to stick to DHCP, because getting online is more important to me than sharing files.
Anyway... here's some info about my PC:
Full Computer Name: PC-01
Workgroup: MSHOMENET
Network Connections - LAN Properties:
- Client for MS Networks -- selected)
- File and Printer Sharing -- selected)
- QoS Packet Scheduler -- selected
- Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) -- selected
TCP/IP Properties:
GENERAL
- Obtain an IP address automatically
- Obtain DNS server address automatically
ALTERNATE CONFIGURATION
- Automatic private IP address
Local Area Connection Status
INTERNET PROTOCOL TCP/IP
- Address type: Assigned by DHCP
- IP address: 192.168.1.102
- Subnet mask: 255.255.255.0
- Default Gateway: 192.168.1.1
Running "ipconfig /all" on this machine:
Windows IP Configuration
Host name .................... : PC-01
Primary DNS Suffix ........... :
Node type .................... : Unknown
IP Routing Enabled ........... : No
WINS Proxy Enabled ........... : No
Ethernet Adapter Local Area Connection
Connection-specific DNS Suffix :
Description .................. : Linksys LNE100TX (v5) Fast Ethernet Adapter
Physical Address ............. : 00-04-5A-44-02-54
DHCP Enabled ................. : Yes
Autoconfiguration Enabled .... : Yes
IP Address ................... : 192.168.1.102
Subnet Mask .................. : 255.255.255.0
Default Gateway .............. : 192.168.1.1
DHCP Server .................. : 192.168.1.1
DNS Servers .................. : 194.109.104.104 / 194.109.6.66
Lease obtained ............... : <date>
Lease expires ................ : <date>
For my parents' PC:
Full Computer Name: PC-02
Workgroup: MSHOMENET
Network Connections - LAN Properties:
- Client for MS Networks -- selected)
- File and Printer Sharing -- selected)
- QoS Packet Scheduler -- selected
- Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) -- selected
TCP/IP Properties:
GENERAL
- Obtain an IP address automatically
- Obtain DNS server address automatically
ALTERNATE CONFIGURATION
- Automatic private IP address
Local Area Connection Status
INTERNET PROTOCOL TCP/IP
- Address type: Assigned by DHCP
- IP address: 192.168.1.101
- Subnet mask: 255.255.255.0
- Default Gateway: 192.168.1.1
Running "ipconfig /all" on their machine:
Windows IP Configuration
Host name .................... : PC-02
Primary DNS Suffix ........... :
Node type .................... : Unknown
IP Routing Enabled ........... : No
WINS Proxy Enabled ........... : No
Ethernet Adapter Local Area Connection
Connection-specific DNS Suffix :
Description .................. : Linksys LNE100TX (v5) Fast Ethernet Adapter
Physical Address ............. : 00-04-5A-44-17-FD
DHCP Enabled ................. : Yes
Autoconfiguration Enabled .... : Yes
IP Address ................... : 192.168.1.101
Subnet Mask .................. : 255.255.255.0
Default Gateway .............. : 192.168.1.1
DHCP Server .................. : 192.168.1.1
DNS Servers .................. : 194.109.104.104 / 194.109.6.66
Lease obtained ............... : <date>
Lease expires ................ : <date>
Additionally, here's the info from my router setup page:
Host name: (none)
Domain name: (none)
LAN IP ADDRESS
Device IP address: 192.168.1.1
Subnet mask: 255.255.255.0
MAC Address: 00-04-5A-20-A6-97
WAN IP ADDRESS
* Specify an IP address
IP Address: 10.0.0.150
Subnet Mask: 255.255.255.0
Default Gateway Address: 10.0.0.138
DNS (Required):
1 - 0.0.0.0
2 - 0.0.0.0
3 - 0.0.0.0
LOGIN: PPTP
DHCP: Enable
Starting IP Address: 192.168.1.101
Number of DHCP Users: 2
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Sorry 'bout posting all this stuff, but I'm not happy knowing that something's not right. I wanna get to the bottom of this...