Home Networking help!

[onedjone]

I didn't know where to put this or even where to go to ask this, so maybe one of you could help me or at least point me in the correct direction, as this is a very easy questions I am sure.

Okay here is the layout.

I have a computer in my living room connected to the internet with an ethernet cable (Coming out of my wireless router, but it is indeed hardwired and not wireless, as I would like to keep this one this way).

Then I have my wireless router broadcasting to my other PC in my room. This PC as I just said gets it's internet connection from the same router as the computer in my living room, only this pc accesses the internet wirelessly where the one in my living room is hard wired through the router.

So my question is this, I just want to be able to put both computers on a simple network while keeping the hard wired ethernet cable connection on my living room computer and a wireless connection on my other computer (And also be able to share the printer on the computer in my living room, the one hooked up by ethernet cable, that it is hooked up to.

Here is where I am running into trouble.

I have run the Network setup on each computer, turning file and print sharing on on each, and have put them in the same workgroup, but I still can not access one computer from another; i.e. I can not connect to computer a from computer b and vice versa, however, I can connect to computer a from computer a by typing in it's on computer name.

What am I doing wrong here? I know it must be simple. Can someone please help me out or at least point me in the correct direction?

Any help is greatly appreciated!

Thanks in advance!

Mike.

[niko084]

I am not personally entirely sure you can do that at all. I know that my linksys and other Dlink routers will not even allow file share with wireless, its like they only act as a gateway in that direction.

[onedjone]

Well there is a set up wireless networking icon in Windows XP Pro that I see, but mainly I just would like to share the printer (And files if possible) on my computer in the living room (With the hard wired ethernet connection) with my computer in my other room connecting to the internet by wireless; and maybe just share those files/printer and not the ones on my wireless computer.

Does that make it a little bit more clear?

Sorry if it's hard to understand!

Mike.

[niko084]

No I understand what you are saying. What I'm saying is some routers don't allow you to create a network actually between wireless and hard wired computers. The only thing I could think of doing at that point would be to setup a VPN and let it loop back.

[onedjone]

I would hope it supports it. It's a $150 Belkin N1 Wireless router. But who knows, maybe it doesn't.

Just wondering what I would have to do in Windows to get everything to work properly. That would allow me to see if the router did support this right?

Thanks for your replies!

Mike.

[niko084]

I have never used a Belkin router... So I cannot say, but trust me thats not expensive for a router. I have Cisco's that are over $800 a pop, and thats still not expensive.

But I would look in the book, or try to call their tech support to see if they will allow it. But in everything I have seen they don't allow it to be done. Minus wireless hubs and switches which are built simply for networking not internet sharing.

Another viable option would be to use a wireless print server?

[onedjone]

Originally Posted by niko084

I have never used a Belkin router... So I cannot say, but trust me thats not expensive for a router. I have Cisco's that are over $800 a pop, and thats still not expensive.

But I would look in the book, or try to call their tech support to see if they will allow it. But in everything I have seen they don't allow it to be done. Minus wireless hubs and switches which are built simply for networking not internet sharing.

Another viable option would be to use a wireless print server?

For a home networking router that you buy for solely internet access, $150 certianly is a heap of money.

Anyway, what if I just set up both computers to access the router wirelessly?

Would that make things easier and perhaps allow me to share files/printers on both computers?

Just wondering.

Mike.

[niko084]

Originally Posted by onedjone

For a home networking router that you buy for solely internet access, $150 certianly is a heap of money.

Anyway, what if I just set up both computers to access the router wirelessly?

Would that make things easier and perhaps allow me to share files/printers on both computers?

Just wondering.

Mike.

That I'm not sure of, I have never tied more than 1 computer to wireless myself. And only do it with my notebook so I can sit on the couch or something while I work on some stuff. Worth a shot I guess.

I know $150 isn't cheap, but its wireless N thats what you are going to pay at least. New technology....

[onedjone]

K well I kinda got somewhere, set up is the same as in the first post, but now I can see my PC that is wireless from my hard wired pc and access both of the computers (The one that is hard wired that I am on now, and the wireless one in the other roo); however, I still can not connect to my hard wired pc from my wireless pc.

So my router obviously supports both wireless and hard wired networking since I can see and access both computers, just from my hard wired computer and not my wireless one (Which I need the most).

Any more help or ideas?

Mike.

[niko084]

Originally Posted by onedjone

K well I kinda got somewhere, set up is the same as in the first post, but now I can see my PC that is wireless from my hard wired pc and access both of the computers (The one that is hard wired that I am on now, and the wireless one in the other roo); however, I still can not connect to my hard wired pc from my wireless pc.

So my router obviously supports both wireless and hard wired networking since I can see and access both computers, just from my hard wired computer and not my wireless one (Which I need the most).

Any more help or ideas?

Mike.

You know come to think about it, I think I remember being able to access one way but not the other... Grr if my notebook was together right now I would play with it to find out. But I had to take it apart to replace the charger board...

Hopefully someone else will be able to help you out beyond what I can offer.

[onedjone]

Originally Posted by niko084

You know come to think about it, I think I remember being able to access one way but not the other... Grr if my notebook was together right now I would play with it to find out. But I had to take it apart to replace the charger board...

Hopefully someone else will be able to help you out beyond what I can offer.

Well thanks for your help! If you can think of anything that may help, please let me know; I'm sure I'll be here most of the night, until I can figure this out anyway.

Mike.

[onedjone]

K, just found a quick bit of info.

Something about needing an access point in order for wired and wireless computers to communicate.

Check over here real quick:

http://www.homenethelp.com/web/faq/w...p#access-point

With that in mind, my router does have an option in it's set up to use it as an access point, but I'm not really sure how to use this.

Could you help me at all in this area?

Thanks again!

Mike.

[niko084]

Originally Posted by onedjone

K, just found a quick bit of info.

Something about needing an access point in order for wired and wireless computers to communicate.

Check over here real quick:

http://www.homenethelp.com/web/faq/w...p#access-point

With that in mind, my router does have an option in it's set up to use it as an access point, but I'm not really sure how to use this.

Could you help me at all in this area?

Thanks again!

Mike.

Well that could get a little interesting. I have only setup access points for area wifi isp services. But I would guess it should be pretty simple and forward to set it up, it will probably have a few options if you click to setup as an access point, or configure as either way. Give it a shot, if it fails or something stops working you can always use the reset button.

[onedjone]

K, I have absolutely no idea how I did this, but everything, including printing, file sharing, etc. from either computer and both computers is working 100%

And get this, I tried to call Belkin Tech support and as soon as I explained my problem, he said "Sir we do not support file sharing sorry" and he said he couldn't help me.

Idiots.

Anyway, I turned on the WAP and that just disabled everything so of course I had to reset my router.

Then when I got back to the defaults, I ran the Network Setup Wizards again on each computer and just tried to access each others computer names and it just happened to work, and printing works from both too.

Amazing... well at least it wasn't a COMPLETE waste of a night lol; I got accomplished what I wanted to.

But thanks for your help, I probably would have given up a lot earlier if no one replied!

And don't ask me how I did it, cuz I don't know lol, and I probably couldn't do it again if you paid me. Although if I needed to, I suppose I could go through all the steps, wizards, and permissions tweaking that I remember doing before/recently and that might work, but who knows.

Thanks again!

Mike.

[niko084]

Heh some times playing around is the way you get stuff to work, and sometimes you could never repeat it

Glad to hear its working.