Networking help

[bard]

I have two computers that I would like to network together long enough to transfer some files from one to another. They both have ethernet cards and I can add a modem to the one machine that currently doesn't have one in it. I tried directly connecting the ethernet cards with the cable used for the the cable modem and couldn't get them to see each other. I bought a parallel to parallel cable to hook the two parallel ports up and I still can't get them to see each other. Granted the only parallel ports on these are the printer ports, but does it matter? I've rebooted, used all the network wizards, etc and I'm running out of options. Can someone please walk me through what it's going to take to get these bitches hooked up? One machine is running XP home and the other has Win 98. I would rather have cheap over speed.

Thanks!

[The Punisher]

buy a hub and put them on the same workgroup

[bard]

That doesn't sound cheap ;) They're only going to stay connected long enough to transfer a few files. I don't even care about internet access while they are connected. Is this the only way?

[bpenning]

Check your PM.

[93 Incon Cobra]

You could by a hub for like $15 or pull the harddrive from the 98 PC and put it in the XP machine as a secondary drive.

[01WhiteCobra]

To connect two computers directly without a hub, you need a cross over network cable which swaps the receive and transfer pins on the cable.

[bard]

Originally posted by 01WhiteCobra
To connect two computers directly without a hub, you need a cross over network cable which swaps the receive and transfer pins on the cable.

So that's why they didn't see each other. They were sending on the each others send line and listening to silence on the other.

[bard]

Originally posted by 93 Incon Cobra
You could by a hub for like $15 or pull the harddrive from the 98 PC and put it in the XP machine as a secondary drive.

That sounds simple enough. Any gotchas to worry about? Does it matter that they are formated differently (NTFS vs FAT)? The XP machine won't try to wipe out the Win 98 drive will it? Any kind of settings need to be made ahead of time or just plug it in and turn it on?

[93 Incon Cobra]

Win98 will be Fat16 or Fat32. XP recognizes both of them. I would take the drive out of the 98 PC.

The XP PC will probably have 2 data controller cables; one going to the HD and one going to the CDROM. To keep from having to change jumpers on the HD's, just unplug the power and data cables from the CDROM and plug them into the WIN98 HD. If there is only one cable going to both, you may have to set the jumper on the 98 drive to slave.

Don't worry about XP writing over the 98 drive or screwing anything up. Just boot it up and copy the files, then do everything in reverse to fix everything back.

[01WhiteCobra]

Follow Incon's advice and you should be fine.

I do this all the time, it seems, for whatever reason, my wife will burn out a computer once every 6 months. She must have some type of electro-magnetic field running about her.

I usually just slave her old hard drive and copy her data over. But Incon's method will save you from having to jack with the master/slave jumper.

[bard]

Thanks everyone!

[FastFord19]

from one computer directly to the other, buy a crossover cable. or make your own. Worked for me

[I Stang U]

I have or can make you a crossover cable if you need.. PM me and I will see what I can do for you...

[84460stang]

havent messed with crossover in a while, but he will have to also use netbui right?

[DarkWolf]

Naw, TCP/IP works fine. Netbui might be easier to set up between different OS's though (ie: XP and 98).

[FastFord19]

i agree with darkwolf

[84460stang]

ok. i just never got it to work without netbui. but oh well that was along time ago. like 2years :]

[AbecX]

NetBUI also sends out random tcp/ip packets across the network at misc intervals, we had a hub'd network with 40 computers on it once, yeah, it sucked, one packet broadcasting = mass chaos on a 40 computer hub'd network :mad: