Problem networking Win XP Home Destop and Laptop

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Cat 6 is intended for a line rate that is higher than 100MBPS. it will
work fine with Fast Ethernet, but it's overkill. if you see a little
green LED 'on' at either NIC, you have a good connection, but
necessarily a 'recognized' connection.

so, you want a PC - PC connection, but you set one as 'direct connect'
and the other to look for a router, server, or gateway? i don't know
whether you can make that work. if this is meant as a temporary
connection, why not try something simpler -- set identical workgroups or
domains (if you have a domain server. use Workgroup otherwise.) open
'make new connection', in 'network type' choose 'accept incoming
connections'. follow instructions.

you don't need DHCP for a PC - PC connection. i don't see why you
manage to assign an address -and- enable DHCP, but setting that
aside for now...

'127.0.0.1' is "local loopback" for the machine where you ran the ping.
in effect, you verified that the machine can talk to itself. if you
want local DHCP, think about buying a Cable/DSL router with it built-in.
also, think about buying a Joe-cheapie, 4-port Ethernet hub -- you
can then connect 4 PCs to each other over your little home/whataveyou
network and you won't need to muck-around with cross-over cables, direct
connect setups, yadda, yadda.

Well, you're doing it right, but I am not sure why the wizard is
necessary when both machines are running up to date OS's. Everytime that
I've done that with XP on both machines-they eventually 'see' each other
just with the connection and a reboot or 2...I don't know what services
are running on either one-that may be hanging you up...
Crossover cable should be perfect for what you want to do-that's
specifically what it's for-between PCs only.
If you connect the 2, skip the wizard, and enable file/printer sharing
through the properties of each pc's network connection, do you get
connected to the internet through both? Even if it's a secondary
concern,if you get the internet through both-they're connected right.
It's also always nice to have the network connection icon at the
taskbar to quickly visualize when they see each other, if you don't do
that already...
If all else fails, you may have give the laptop a different static IP
of it's own(but stay in the domain-like 192.168.0.102 or something) and
see if the desktop can find it then. Don't forget that sometimes the
search utility helps-the one with the annoying little dog-to find a lost
computer on the network...








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I'm currently trying to network a desktop pc (Celeron 2.6GHz, 256 mb
RAM, VIA Rhine II Fast ethernet adapter onboard) with a new laptop
(Celeron 1.3 GHz, 240 Mb ram, Realtek RTL8139/810x Family Fast Ethernet
NIC onboard). Both the desktop and the laptop are running XP Home with
Service Pack 2 and are fully updated with MS updates.

I have them connected with Cat 6 crossover cable (Supposedly backwards
compatible with Cat 5). I have run the Network setup wizard telling the
desktop that "This computer Connect directly to the net...other computer
connect through this one." I have enabled File and print sharing. On
the laptop I have it set that "This computer connects through a
residential gateway or another computer on this network." File and
Printer sharing is also enabled.

On the task bar on both machines show a connected network at 100 Mbs and
in the properties I have an IP of 192.168.0.1 (Subnet mask
255.255.255.0, default gateway is blank, Address type is manually
configured) on the desktop machine and and IP of 192.168.0.158 (subnet
mask 255.255.255.0, Default gateway 192.168.0.1, address type is
Assigned by DHCP) on the laptop.

I can ping the laptop IP, 127.0.0.1 and the Desktop IP from the desktop
machine but I can only ping 127.0.0.1 and the laptops IP from the laptop.

Shared folders have been set up but when using network places I can only
get to workgroup level. I cannot see the individual computers.

Any help would be appreciated.

Router would be nice but out of budget Basically just to move files
although internet sharing would be nice... if I could just get the two
to talk nicely to each other I would settle for that!!

I had this problem when I set up my network and I found out it was my
firewall. If you have SP2, the Windows firewall may be on. HTH

Dave