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Just bought a 2nd PC and am looking to network them. They are both XP--1 pro, 1 home.I have comcast w/RCA cable modem connected to a Netgear router.Both PC's are plugged into the router and can access the internet at the same time.I want to be able to share files between them & still be secure. If I use a crossover cable, what do I connect it to? Do I need to change the way the hardware is connected? I tried searching this forum, but my question seems to be much simpler than most problems that more experienced users run into. Thanks in advance!

I have been trying forever to do the same thing, except wireless-ly at my house (2 laptops and one desktop).
I figure I might just have to have a network nerd come and do it for me.
I thought I was reasonably smart when it came to computers (took an A+ Certification class at my school, various stuff) but I am dumb as a blonde when it comes to networks.

If both your PCs are plugged into your router, that's all you need to do as far as hardware goes. What you need to do is set up a peer-to-peer network. In XP, you can do this by going to "my network places" and click "Set up a home or small office network" (I doubt that quote is entirely correct, but it's something like that). Make sure to name the networks the same thing. For instance, I use WORKGROUP. Once both your computers are in the same workgroup, you can start sharing files and folders (right click, hit properties, then the sharing tab, and click "share this folder on the network") as well as mapping network drives and the like.
Please post if you have any other questions beyond this, as I'm sure someone can answer them if I can't.

Hope this is what you were looking for.

Tried that already, & get an error message--list of servers for this workgroup is not available. workgroup is the same name on both PC's and computer names are correct.

Well that's strange. That being said, you got me. What you've done should have worked. I wonder why it would be looking for a server if you set up a workgroup? You may just want to try going back through the process again and renaming your workgroup? Other than that, I haven't the foggiest clue what could be the problem.

I'm a big fan of ditching DHCP and assigning all the machines specific IP's, for example,

#1: 192.168.0.5
#2 192.168.0.15

Router: 192.168.0.1

Make sure that each computer/router is set to

Gateway: 192.168.0.1
DNS: 192.168.0.1
Subnet: 255.255.255.0

Workgroup name : pick one, and make sure that they are the same, all upper or lower case.


Make sure tha both computers are set up to share files/printers under "network"

..and that your logon is: windows logon or client for Ms networks.

Try that..

-SF

For any computer that is running Windows XP, make sure you disable the Internet Firewall. It won't work if you don't disable this.

I'm not sure if this will solve your problem, but I have seen peer to peer networking not work unless you set up shares(sharing) on both computers.

Other things you may need to do is setup the accounts that are used on both computers (so that each login account/password can be used on both pcs).

I have seen it take forever to detect other pc's on the network, and solved that by running netbeui (available on older MS os's but not xp it seems) and/or netbios.

You also will want to check your firewall settings. (i.e. if you are using zonealarm, or something similar, you will want to setup the local ip addresses as trusted so that they will see each other on the network)

Hope that helps solve your problem.

Thanks for all the suggestions, but I was able to figure out what I had done wrong.In an attempt to conserve RAM I had disabled some required services. Set them back to their default settings and the network works.

Congrats! Good thinkin there.

You are a genious. You just fixed my networking problem as well.