PC Pals Forum

Technical Help & Discussion => Broadband, Networking, PC Security, Internet & ISPs => Topic started by: Natalie on February 12, 2004, 19:05

Title: help get my other pc on the net
Post by: Natalie on February 12, 2004, 19:05
:-\ please help iam trying to get my sons pc connected, i have a laptopxp which is connected via a access point to my set top box, with a wireless pc card, however my sons pc is windows me and i have connected that one via a USB net adapter. It is showing there is a connection with 100% link and 100% signal however i still cant sign onto the net. PLEASE HELP
Title: Re:help get my other pc on the net
Post by: Simon on February 12, 2004, 19:24
Hi Natalie, and  (https://www.pc-pals.com/smf/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.apax34.dsl.pipex.com%2Fsmileys%2Fwelcome.gif&hash=05644ab4fbfa7c9585f756e9a79aab0a53d0e346)

Don't panic!  ;D  I'm sure one of our techies will be able to help you soon.   :)
Title: Re:help get my other pc on the net
Post by: Clive on February 12, 2004, 19:45
Hi Natalie.  Someone will help you sort out your problem very soon.  There are two very competant techies around at the moment and I've alerted another one for you as well.  I can assure you that you are not being ignored.
Title: Re:help get my other pc on the net
Post by: Sandra on February 12, 2004, 20:30
Hi Natalie, can the laptop and the PC see each other in VIEW WORKGROUP COMPUTERS ?
Title: Re:help get my other pc on the net
Post by: Natalie on February 14, 2004, 13:30
do u mean r they in the same  room,
Title: Re:help get my other pc on the net
Post by: Sandra on February 14, 2004, 13:44
No I dont Natalie.
If you go to Start/My Network Places then select View Workgroup Computers on your XP PC, does it show both computers in there ?
If it doesnt then the network is definately not set up correctly  :(
If it does show them both then its a case of finding out the settings to enable it to work properly  :)
Title: Re:help get my other pc on the net
Post by: Natalie on February 14, 2004, 13:49
no it only shows the xp laptop not the desktop
Title: Re:help get my other pc on the net
Post by: Sandra on February 14, 2004, 14:00
Ok, can you explain a little more about the method that you are using to connect the pcs together with please ?
You say its a usb network adaptor, is that usb to usb or usb from one pc to an ethernet cable adaptor then ethernet cable to the other pc?
Title: Re:help get my other pc on the net
Post by: Natalie on February 14, 2004, 14:13
i have a access point conected to the digi tv and a wireless pc card in the laptop, then i bought a usb network adapter to go in the desktop which is upstairs in my sons bedroom
Title: Re:help get my other pc on the net
Post by: Sandra on February 14, 2004, 14:18
Its this usb network adaptor that I would like some information on Natalie, can you tell me the make and model then I can find out a little more about how its supposed to work ?
Title: Re:help get my other pc on the net
Post by: Natalie on February 14, 2004, 14:24
its belkin usb network adapter model no F5D6050.
Title: Re:help get my other pc on the net
Post by: Sandra on February 14, 2004, 14:30
Ok, give me a few minutes to see if I can find some information about it Natalie and I will get back to you.
I have one of those but not sure if its the same model number so we may be in with a good chance of sorting it out  :)
Title: Re:help get my other pc on the net
Post by: Natalie on February 14, 2004, 14:35
Excellent, thanks for your help, cause im at the end of my tether with it
Title: Re:help get my other pc on the net
Post by: Sandra on February 14, 2004, 14:42
Ok its a bit different to mine but I think it works the same way  :)
If anyone is seeing this and can offer any input, this is Natalies device :

http://www.lanshop.co.uk/f5d6050.htm

Have you run the installation CD on your sons PC Natalie ?
Usually You have to have the usb cable disconnected when you install the software then connect the cable when it asks you to do so  :)
Title: Re:help get my other pc on the net
Post by: Natalie on February 14, 2004, 14:45
yes i have done that and it is showing fully connected however when trying to connect it shows as the web page being unavailable
Title: Re:help get my other pc on the net
Post by: Sandra on February 14, 2004, 14:50
Do you know which firewall you are using on your sons PC ?
Title: Re:help get my other pc on the net
Post by: Natalie on February 14, 2004, 14:51
no i haent a clue, how do i find out that?
Title: Re:help get my other pc on the net
Post by: Sandra on February 14, 2004, 16:35
This is the Belkin site for Natalies USB Adaptor :

http://tinyurl.com/2h898

Link edited to reduce length[/color]
Title: Re:help get my other pc on the net
Post by: Sandra on February 14, 2004, 17:32
After reading the manual for your adaptor, it appears that it doesnt need the SOHO part setting up as long as the TCP/IP is set correctly.
So I would re run the networking wizard on your XP laptop again, ensuring that you set it up as connecting to a wireless access point, and save to a floppy and then run that on your ME pc.
Hopefully that should sort it out  :)
Title: Re:help get my other pc on the net
Post by: Sandra on February 16, 2004, 16:49
Houston we have a problem  :(
I have been trying to help Natalie out, on messenger, without success so far.
Part of the problem, in fact I think it is the problem, is that she hasnt got a floppy on her laptop on which she has run the networking wizard on and it wont let her write the settings to a cd or her hard drive, only to a floppy  :(
I would have thought that it would only do that if it needed a bootable floppy to be made  ???
Does any one know a way around this, and why it wont allow the wizard settings to be saved to a cd ?
How do we set the ME pc up manually as there doesnt seem to be an option for that  ???


Title: Re:help get my other pc on the net
Post by: lobo on February 16, 2004, 18:17
Hi Sandra
To set up the ME system right click on Internet Explorer select connections and setup to get the new connection wizard on screen, tick connect to the internet then set up my connection manualy a nd select connect to broadband (always onthats if its on broadband)click finish.
That should enable the internet connection

Brian ::)
Title: Re:help get my other pc on the net
Post by: Sandra on February 17, 2004, 01:15
Apparently that didnt work either  :(
I am sure if we could find someway of getting the settings from the XP network wizard onto the other pc somehow then it would work ok.
Anyone know how to get it to write them to a cd  ???
Title: Re:help get my other pc on the net
Post by: Simon on February 17, 2004, 10:47
Have you tried using the File and Settings Transfer Wizard, Sandra?
Title: Re:help get my other pc on the net
Post by: lobo on February 17, 2004, 11:33

yes i have done that and it is showing fully connected however when trying to connect it shows as the web page being unavailable


If it cant connect to internet then its the tcp/ip settings that need setting, check also  that file sharing is enabled

Brian ;D
Title: Re:help get my other pc on the net
Post by: Sandra on February 17, 2004, 11:45


If it cant connect to internet then its the tcp/ip settings that need setting

Brian ;D


I thought of that Brian  but where are the settings in ME for it, she doesnt appear to have network neighbourhood icon on her desktop  ???
Also becuase of the security implications of using Wi Fi, it has SSID for the encryption, which is set at 128 and I think it has the same number as the laptop.
Should this be so or should it assign a different number like an ethernet connection assigns a different IP to each PC  ???
Title: Re:help get my other PC on the net
Post by: lobo on February 17, 2004, 12:26
@Sandra
The icon normally appears automatically when a networking card is installed, i suspect the PC doesn't recognize the USB as a network card. I will have a look tonight to see if I can find a solution

Brian
 ::)
Title: Re:help get my other pc on the net
Post by: Sandra on February 17, 2004, 13:49
Thanks Brian, as this has got me stumped at the moment  :(
Has anyone got an idea of how to transfer the XP network wizards settings from the laptop ?
I was wondering if the laptop may see a USB Flash Drive as a useable drive but it probably wont as it doesnt seem to give her the option to save to any drive other than a floppy   ???
Does anyone know of a wireless to ethernet adaptor at a reasonable price ?
Maybe that and an ethernet card in the PC would make it easier  ???
Title: Re:help get my other pc on the net
Post by: Sandra on February 17, 2004, 14:51
I wonder if Natalie would be better off seeing if she could exchange the Belkin USB wireless adaptor for a wireless PCI card like this one :

http://www.ebuyer.com/customer/products/index.html?rb=21486825&action=c2hvd19wcm9kdWN0X292ZXJ2aWV3&product_uid=45622 (http://www.ebuyer.com/customer/products/index.html?rb=21486825&action=c2hvd19wcm9kdWN0X292ZXJ2aWV3&product_uid=45622)

Thats if she feels ok opening the pc up to fit a card in  :)
Title: Re:help get my other pc on the net
Post by: Sandra on February 22, 2004, 17:53
Natalie has exchanged the USB adaptor for a PCI card and is getting a good signal but still has the same problem of being unable to display pages or see the other PC  :(
In Detect Network Settings it says its an Unknown Protocol.
I still cant work out how to to set it up as she still hasnt got a Network Neighbourhood icon on her desktop  ???
Title: Re:help get my other pc on the net
Post by: greenking on February 23, 2004, 19:22
I've found this  :-\


Quote
Some types/configurations of USB adapter don't work well with WL. For example the Belkin one doesn't work reliably under Windows XP and even under eg Win98 seems to have occasional problems when displaying eg the WL Bulletin, though otherwise it's fine. So part of the answer might be to try a different make of USB adapter and/or to check that you're using the latest available driver.


http://www.weathermatrix.net/bbs/vantageproboard/messages/992.html

You have looked for new drivers for it i take it
Title: Re:help get my other pc on the net
Post by: Sandra on February 23, 2004, 20:25
She has exchanged the USB adaptor for a PCI wireless card now GK and we are still having a problem  ???
Title: Re:help get my other pc on the net
Post by: Adept on February 24, 2004, 20:33
Hi Sandra, sorry I'm late ::)

Have you checked that the IP addresses are in the same netblock and that the netmask is the same on both PCs?

e.g.

PC1
IP:  192.168.0.1
Netmask: 255.255.255.0

PC2
IP:  192.168.0.2
Netmask: 255.255.255.0

Title: Re:help get my other pc on the net
Post by: Sandra on February 24, 2004, 20:38
Desktop PC seems to be in the 169 range and can see the laptop, but at the moment I havent been able to get Natalie to tell me the laptops one but it must be same as it can see some files even though the laptop cant see the desktop  ???
Its a bit beyond me at the moment due to it not having ethernet on either and me not remembering where stuff is on ME  :(
Title: Re:help get my other pc on the net
Post by: Adept on February 25, 2004, 07:17
The 169 range is used by Microsoft when Windows cannot access a DHCP controller to get an proper address. Maybe this is where the problem lies.

First thing I would do is get rid of the auto assigned IP addresses on all PCs and allocate nice same static IP addresses as per my example above.

You can then to ping tests from a command prompt to each IP address to check if it is live.

e.g.

On PC1:
ping 192.168.0.2

On PC2:
ping 192.168.0.1

Both should yield result similar to:-
Pinging 192.168.0.x with 32 bytes of data:

Reply from 192.168.0.x: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.0.x: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.0.x: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.0.x: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=64

Ping statistics for 192.168.0.x:
    Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
    Minimum = 0ms, Maximum = 0ms, Average = 0ms

(replace 192.168.0.x with the IP being pinged)
Title: Re:help get my other pc on the net
Post by: Sandra on February 25, 2004, 14:58
Thanks Adept, I must admit the 169 IP threw me a little as I didnt expect that  :(

I have found this article which Bat 69 mentioned on an old post in Pals and should be helpful as it even uses the same WAP as Natalie is using  :)

http://www.bitbenderforums.com/vb22/showthread.php?s=&threadid=53737

If you can work through this Natalie and let us know if it works afterwards or not  :)