Unable to connect to each other

entropy

My friend and i used a crossover to hook up our comps. he could download from me, but i couldn't from him. and the times we were both able to ping each other were sporadic. all the games (zero hour, pandora tomorrow, CoD, etc) either couldn't find a game after i'd created one or wouldn't even let him get into the lan area because it said it was having problems communicating with the lan. it wsan't a firewall cuz he disabled it. also, i had sp1 installed and he didn't, don't know if that would cause some problems. any ideas?

Straight_Man

entr0py wrote:

My friend and i used a crossover to hook up our comps. he could download from me, but i couldn't from him. and the times we were both able to ping each other were sporadic. all the games (zero hour, pandora tomorrow, CoD, etc) either couldn't find a game after i'd created one or wouldn't even let him get into the lan area because it said it was having problems communicating with the lan. it wsan't a firewall cuz he disabled it. also, i had sp1 installed and he didn't, don't know if that would cause some problems. any ideas?

Could be this:

Look and see if he had a direct connection type connect and you had a LAN connect (or vice versa). To XP, this is not a LAN connect per se, in sense of making a LAN connection into a workgroup or domain. Direct connect does not use workgroups, and Firewall might also be blocking your or his connection end.

Second major possible is that the subnet structure is varying between the two boxes. I am betting both, and given firewalling, possibly all three.

Foruth issue that would affect this is sharing not set up right. Fifth, using games that are intended for server-centric use are also possibly not reliably doable with a direct connect.

John D.

entropy

well, i didn't know xp could do a direct connect .. unless you mean in the games, and we both did lan. as for sharing, i don't know how it couldn't be set up right, you just hit share for the folders. the games we tried were all lan and internet capable, so that isn't it, either. subnet structure ... no idea what that means. all the firewalls were off. something else i remembered - we each booted into safe mode w/networking and found that if he was in safe mode and i was in either, we could ping all we wanted. as soon as he got into regular, it worked for a short while and died.

Straight_Man

Ok, it can do direct connects. Try this:

Set up shares, disable BOTH your LAN connects, then try rebooting both boxes, one AFTER the other-- let one box establish bridge at its end, then restart Windows on other box that is still blind. See if you get what is called a Bridge connection for a data crossover via NICs, or a Direct Firewire connect if you use a Firewire data transfer cable, or a USB direct connect if you use a USB data transfer cable (technically, all three are of a generic type called a Bridge). XP Pro can do all three. I use Firewire here simply due to speed and the way I can bridge without haveing a LAN-aware connection. I only connect my two boxes when they are forced to be not online on the web.

Having uPNP enabled on both boxes will help to establish this, XP can use uPNP discovery to establish a bridge. If uPNP is disabled on one box, that box might be bridge-discovery blind, also.

John D.

entropy

alright, hate to drag up this thread, but my friend is coming over again in a couple days and we would like to uh, be able to actually play games. john, could you simplify that a bit? or if anyone else knows why it didn't work, please jump in. could it be me having sp1 and him not? what else could be causing this?

entropy

no one has any ideas?

Armo

u might not have permissions on his system to see his files, or he has nothing shared

if the network manager wont let u see it try

Start-> run
//(ip or computername)/(sharename)

like this

//infiltrator/D

entropy

well, our games couldn't even see each other ........

Armo

thats odd the cable might be bad then i mean it should work, and u say that even ping wasnt working all the time?

entropy

no, we had to get into safemode in order for ping to work ... and then it worked when it wanted to it seemed like. .. and it was incredibly frustrating

\\EDIT: he had to get into safemode, i didn't necessarily have to. but then he had another friend over the next weekend and it worked right off the bat for them ...

primesuspect

It's probably the cable.

topherice

I agree with Prime. Many times I've beat my head against the wall trying to figure out wtf I did wrong or forgot to do only to finally swap out a piece of hardware or cabling and resolve the problem. I would get a 'known good' cable and then see if your still able to reproduce the problem. If that doesn't work check out these three links and start over.

Microsoft Knowledge Base Article - 305621
HOW TO: Set Up a Direct Cable Connection Between Two Computers in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;305621&Product=winxp

Microsoft Knowledge Base Article - 310576
Cables That Are Compatible with Direct Cable Connection
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;310576&Product=winxp

Microsoft Knowledge Base Article - 293118
HOW TO: Use Files and Settings Transfer Wizard in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;293118&Product=winxp


Or just go buy a hub,switch,router they're dirt cheap these days.

entropy

same exact cable was used the next weekend ... and he could transfer files from me, but i couldn't get any from him and games wouldn't work

dodo

What are your TCP/IP and subnet settings? and he should get sp1 asap.

entropy

where would i find all those settings?

topherice

entr0py wrote:

where would i find all those settings?

Start> Run> cmd> ipconfig /all

entropy

what exactly are you looking for?

dodo

Actually look under network connections and choose properties on the connection. you should see a tcpip protocol. choose properties on that and set up your ip address to something like 192.168.0.100 and his to 192.168.0.101. then set the subnet mask to 255.255.225.0 on both. Also you should verify that you are on the same workgroup: system properties, computer name tab. change if necessary.

~dodo