Wireless network, Bluetooth, and Home Networking

[turbo]

Can anyone help me with an easy to follow and understand WinXP
how-to-connect-it site..
What I want is to setup a (wired) home network with this PC to a notebook
PC, together with a wireless network between the same computers ( so I can
transfer camera images etc) and a bluetooth network that will allow the PC ,
and the Notebook to talk to a blackberry.
There are sites I've tried to follow, and Ive run the internet connection
sharing wizard. I've managed to get the (wired) network to work so I can
access the files on the PC from the Notebook, but the Notebook cannot see
the internet at all.. As soon as I start following other set up sites, I
either loose the internet connection to the PC, or loose the network
connection PC to Notebook.. Hair is rapidly being torn out!!! Thanks for the
help in advance.

 

[Shenan Stanley]

Can anyone help me with an easy to follow and understand WinXP
how-to-connect-it site..
What I want is to setup a (wired) home network with this PC to a
notebook PC, together with a wireless network between the same
computers ( so I can transfer camera images etc) and a bluetooth
network that will allow the PC , and the Notebook to talk to a
blackberry. There are sites I've tried to follow, and Ive run the internet
connection sharing wizard. I've managed to get the (wired) network
to work so I can access the files on the PC from the Notebook, but
the Notebook cannot see the internet at all.. As soon as I start
following other set up sites, I either loose the internet
connection to the PC, or loose the network connection PC to
Notebook.. Hair is rapidly being torn out!!! Thanks for the help in
advance.

What type of Internet do you have?

Assuming you have high-speed (DSL or Cable Modem or something of that sort):
Your easiest bet is to purchase a wireless router - with at least four wired
ports. Connect the WAN connection of the router to the high-speed modem
internet connection (may have to power off the modem for 5-10 minutes and
power it back on after making the connection to reset any remmebered MAC
address.) Connect a network cable from the router to the laptop. Connect
another network cable from the router to the desktop PC. Make sure both the
laptop and desktop PC are set to obtain IP addresses via DHCP and not a
static address.

For the wireless, you will need wireless adapters in both of your machines
to do wireless on both. Your laptop *may* have one, and your desktop PC -
although less likely it came that way - may also have one. If they do not -
you'll have to buy more hardware first if you want both to be wireless
(although why you would want that if Wired is okay for one or both -
unsure.)

Are both Windows XP?
- Windows XP what at what service pack level?
- Simple File Sharing on or off on both?

 

[turbo]

What type of Internet do you have?

Assuming you have high-speed (DSL or Cable Modem or something of that
sort):
Your easiest bet is to purchase a wireless router - with at least four
wired ports. Connect the WAN connection of the router to the high-speed
modem internet connection (may have to power off the modem for 5-10
minutes and power it back on after making the connection to reset any
remmebered MAC address.) Connect a network cable from the router to the
laptop. Connect another network cable from the router to the desktop PC.
Make sure both the laptop and desktop PC are set to obtain IP addresses
via DHCP and not a static address.

For the wireless, you will need wireless adapters in both of your machines
to do wireless on both. Your laptop *may* have one, and your desktop PC -
although less likely it came that way - may also have one. If they do
not - you'll have to buy more hardware first if you want both to be
wireless (although why you would want that if Wired is okay for one or
both - unsure.)

Are both Windows XP?
- Windows XP what at what service pack level?
- Simple File Sharing on or off on both?

OK , here we go, first the technical , Notebook is XP Home Ed version 2002
service pack 3 ( preinstalled - ie I have no disc, only recovery discs etc-
which affect some things I can do)
PC is exactly the same except its service pack 2 ( as it was installed-
again its pre-installed)
Internet is 20MBits/sec fibre optic cable via modem and connected via RJ45
( RJ54? cant remember) cable. A second NIC card is installed and I am using
that to connect to a 'wired' ( not wireless) self powered TRUST Network kit
with 5 connections.
Both PC's are wireless adaptor fitted , both have the latest version of
Bluesoliel software for Bluetooth , and both have external USB plugin
adaptors ( of the same make and type) .
Now the answers:- both wireless and wired would be convenient for
different purposes. I use the notebook for email via WIfi when out and
about, sometimes sending the 'odd' image via email, but more likely I want
to transfer a lot of data ( its a 13.1Megapix camera shooting RAW +JPG , so
its 20MB typical per image) when I get back home. . When I don't need huge
quantities of data transfer - like a quick software update or something,
wireless would be convenient, and as the hardware is there , it would be
nice to configure it , but NOT essential.
I don't have a Wireless router, but if thats what it takes , I'll get one,
but I remember with win98 Ed2 I used to be able to Internet Connection share
with ME by just running the Internet Connection sharing wizard and creating
a disc to put in the other PC's....( maybe one was WinXP and I generated the
disc on there , my memory doesn't go back that far.
I have checked on this PC , which has the Internet connection via the RJ45
lead to modem, and the 'allow other network users to share this connection
is ticked' and I've tried to run a diagnostic from the Notebook when LAN
connected . Studying the log doesn't reveal anything as all it says is
everything is unreachable. Yet I can access the files on the main PC from
the notebook and viceversa..( which would allow me to move the camera images
to the main PC and its 1.5TB spare storage and DVDrecorder ( which is not
available on the notebook, that is just a 200GB Hard Drive.)

Oh for a plug and go setup system!!!

Thanks for the help, and if you have any more suggestions I would appreciate
them.
ps the wired network shows its correctly configured and working at
100MBit/sec- and works fine..

If its any help with the networking , I have another home PC with win Vista,
as a backup in case something expires!! I could push that into use if its
easier......

 

[Shenan Stanley]

Can anyone help me with an easy to follow and understand WinXP
how-to-connect-it site..
What I want is to setup a (wired) home network with this PC to a
notebook PC, together with a wireless network between the same
computers ( so I can transfer camera images etc) and a bluetooth
network that will allow the PC , and the Notebook to talk to a
blackberry. There are sites I've tried to follow, and Ive run the internet
connection sharing wizard. I've managed to get the (wired) network
to work so I can access the files on the PC from the Notebook, but
the Notebook cannot see the internet at all.. As soon as I start
following other set up sites, I either loose the internet
connection to the PC, or loose the network connection PC to
Notebook.. Hair is rapidly being torn out!!! Thanks for the help in
advance.

What type of Internet do you have?

Assuming you have high-speed (DSL or Cable Modem or something of
that sort): Your easiest bet is to purchase a wireless router -
with at least four wired ports. Connect the WAN connection of the
router to the high-speed modem internet connection (may have to
power off the modem for 5-10 minutes and power it back on after
making the connection to reset any remmebered MAC address.) Connect a
network cable from the router to the laptop. Connect
another network cable from the router to the desktop PC. Make sure
both the laptop and desktop PC are set to obtain IP addresses via
DHCP and not a static address.
For the wireless, you will need wireless adapters in both of your
machines to do wireless on both. Your laptop *may* have one, and
your desktop PC - although less likely it came that way - may also
have one. If they do not - you'll have to buy more hardware first
if you want both to be wireless (although why you would want that
if Wired is okay for one or both - unsure.)

Are both Windows XP?
- Windows XP what at what service pack level?
- Simple File Sharing on or off on both?

OK , here we go, first the technical , Notebook is XP Home Ed
version 2002 service pack 3 ( preinstalled - ie I have no disc,
only recovery discs etc- which affect some things I can do)
PC is exactly the same except its service pack 2 ( as it was
installed- again its pre-installed)
Internet is 20MBits/sec fibre optic cable via modem and connected
via RJ45 ( RJ54? cant remember) cable. A second NIC card is
installed and I am using that to connect to a 'wired' ( not
wireless) self powered TRUST Network kit with 5 connections.
Both PC's are wireless adaptor fitted , both have the latest
version of Bluesoliel software for Bluetooth , and both have
external USB plugin adaptors ( of the same make and type) .
Now the answers:- both wireless and wired would be convenient for
different purposes. I use the notebook for email via WIfi when out
and about, sometimes sending the 'odd' image via email, but more
likely I want to transfer a lot of data ( its a 13.1Megapix camera
shooting RAW +JPG , so its 20MB typical per image) when I get back
home. . When I don't need huge quantities of data transfer - like a
quick software update or something, wireless would be convenient,
and as the hardware is there , it would be nice to configure it ,
but NOT essential. I don't have a Wireless router, but if thats what it
takes , I'll
get one, but I remember with win98 Ed2 I used to be able to
Internet Connection share with ME by just running the Internet
Connection sharing wizard and creating a disc to put in the other
PC's....( maybe one was WinXP and I generated the disc on there ,
my memory doesn't go back that far. I have checked on this PC , which has
the Internet connection via
the RJ45 lead to modem, and the 'allow other network users to share
this connection is ticked' and I've tried to run a diagnostic from
the Notebook when LAN connected . Studying the log doesn't reveal
anything as all it says is everything is unreachable. Yet I can
access the files on the main PC from the notebook and viceversa..(
which would allow me to move the camera images to the main PC and
its 1.5TB spare storage and DVDrecorder ( which is not available on
the notebook, that is just a 200GB Hard Drive.)
Oh for a plug and go setup system!!!

Thanks for the help, and if you have any more suggestions I would
appreciate them.
ps the wired network shows its correctly configured and working at
100MBit/sec- and works fine..

If its any help with the networking , I have another home PC with
win Vista, as a backup in case something expires!! I could push
that into use if its easier......

Wireless router... $40-$200 (if you went high-end - no reason given your
setups) would save you a lot of grief.

Yes - you can share your internet connection using your computer. The
question becomes 'why?'... You gain little but the grief of setting it up
and making it work if you are a non-technical person (if you are a technical
person - you probably would still get a router *grin*.)

If you were to get a wireless router with four ethernet ports - you could
also get a network hard drive and use one of the four ports for that
(250MB - 2TB accessible from any computer on your network for less than
$400 - plug-n-play... Cannot be beat IMHO) and one for your desktop and on
occassion, if you need faster than wireless connectivity, use a wire for
your laptop.

Something like this:
http://netgear.com/Products/RoutersandGateways/SuperGWirelessRouters/WGT624.aspx

Would probably work out well for you ($70 US or under.)

You connect the router to your high-speed internet and work with your ISP to
ensure it allows that mac address (the router's) to connect. Once the
router has the external IP address - connecting the rest of your machines to
the router (using the built-in DHCP server and NAT device) is pretty trivial
and provides a nice layer of protection between you and the internet. It
does what you are attempting to do with dual-nics, but better, easier,
faster. ;-)

In fact - with the router - although it only has four ports built-in (the
purchase of a switch to attach to one of those four ports could expand the
number of wired ports inexpensively) - you could have up to 250+ devices
wired/wirelessly connected to your Internet at any given time. Also - the
internal communications happens on a private network (192.168.x.x) - so it
is as fast as the network allows.

There's also gigabit options out there. Wireless-N as well. For most home
use - Wireless-G and 100Mbit should be fine. ;-)

 

[turbo]

Wireless router... $40-$200 (if you went high-end - no reason given your
setups) would save you a lot of grief.

Yes - you can share your internet connection using your computer. The
question becomes 'why?'... You gain little but the grief of setting it up
and making it work if you are a non-technical person (if you are a
technical person - you probably would still get a router *grin*.)

If you were to get a wireless router with four ethernet ports - you could
also get a network hard drive and use one of the four ports for that
(250MB - 2TB accessible from any computer on your network for less than
$400 - plug-n-play... Cannot be beat IMHO) and one for your desktop and on
occassion, if you need faster than wireless connectivity, use a wire for
your laptop.

Something like this:
http://netgear.com/Products/RoutersandGateways/SuperGWirelessRouters/WGT624.aspx

Would probably work out well for you ($70 US or under.)

You connect the router to your high-speed internet and work with your ISP
to ensure it allows that mac address (the router's) to connect. Once the
router has the external IP address - connecting the rest of your machines
to the router (using the built-in DHCP server and NAT device) is pretty
trivial and provides a nice layer of protection between you and the
internet. It does what you are attempting to do with dual-nics, but
better, easier, faster. ;-)

In fact - with the router - although it only has four ports built-in (the
purchase of a switch to attach to one of those four ports could expand the
number of wired ports inexpensively) - you could have up to 250+ devices
wired/wirelessly connected to your Internet at any given time. Also - the
internal communications happens on a private network (192.168.x.x) - so it
is as fast as the network allows.

There's also gigabit options out there. Wireless-N as well. For most
home use - Wireless-G and 100Mbit should be fine. ;-)

Thank you very much for the advice, at least I still have some hair left
now. I shall take your advice, and will be investigating the equipment you
have mentioned. Not sure if its available in UK , but I shall use the specs
for it as a guideline to visit a computer fair this weekend....Thanks again.