Help needed on new shared Internet/printer setup (W2K)

[kef999]

Situation is a 2-machine peer-to-peer setup, using Belkin PCI network card F5D5000 in each. I've renamed the two machines, allocated a workgroup name and set the printer on computer no.1 as shared. No.1 is set to get its IP address automatically, as does no.2.

I've managed to manually set up a networked printer connection on computer no.2 and have actually managed to print from 2 to 1. However, I always have to establish the TCP/IP connection between the two PCs manually, by opening Network and Dial Up connections and double-clicking the Local Area Connection.

I can, after a fashion, dial up the Internet from computer no.2 but I can't get any webpage through to it, even with my firewalls temporarily disabled.

I've followed all the recommendations I found in Windows Help for configuring for shared printing and Internet connection but clearly I need to know of other minor but important configuration settings.

Can anyone point me to a comprehensive detailed guide to doing this sort of thing, or can advise me personally? The manual that comes with each Belkin card is not relevant to Win2K at all.

The driver for each card installed automatically from Win2K on my machines and obviously all the configuration settings can be done manually within Win2K but it's knowing which ones to set up, and how, that counts.

[7ate9]

My only concern is the "obtain ip address automatically" setting you have. Where is it getting this ip address from? Are these machines connected to some kind of hub/router? And how do you connect to the internet? You did mention you dialup, but I just want to be certian.

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[kef999]

It's a simple peer-to-peer connection, so no hub, just an Ethernet crossover cable connecting the two PCI cards.

Computer no.1, which has a dial-up modem connected, is acting like a DHCP, so it can grab an IP address from the Internet. Likewise, computer no.2 will get an address from computer no.1 by its similar "automatically obtain an address" setting in TCP/IP properties. In peer-to-peer setups, you're not really recommended to use fixed IP addresses.

I've in fact now succeeded, through experimentation, to get c2 to access the Internet via c1, at least the browser side of it. When I open Outlook Express on c2, however, I can't send or receive any messages; most of the Toolbar is greyed out.

In the case of both printer sharing and Internet sharing, c1 is in effect acting as a proxy for c2, it seems to me.

I'm almost there. Clearly, there are a few more settings that need setting up.

Originally, I had my Internet account on both machines but I had to delete the account on c2 and then envoke a connection wizard to set it up for connecting to c1's modem via a LAN connection instead. I presume this was correct, as it then worked.

Nearly there, nearly there. Just need some further help from someone. I still can't make the two machines automatically set up the TCP/IP connection between them when I want to print or access the Net from c2. Instead, I have to open Network & Dial-Up Connections and double-click Local Area Connection, repeating that on each computer.

[kef999]

Hmm. I've discovered why the two machines wouldn't connect automatically - in each case, the adaptor in Device Manager had become disabled. I've now put that right.

I'm still left with some 'funnies' - c2 sometimes dials out via c1 when it shouldn't. Possibly, some of those DNS, WINS, etc settings are wrong. Can anyone help?

My firewalls are proving irksome as well. The manual for the security advises to set up each machine as a trusted site but, when configuring that, it asks for a name or IP address for each and, since these are automatically assigned under TCP/IP, I don't know what they are. Again, can anyone help on this?

I still haven't discovered why it is that I can browse from c2 but I can't send or receive mail from c2, even though Outlook Express opens.

[mysterywolf]

if these basics help to clarify...

dhcp is dynamic host configuration protocol. ..ie the mechanism by which a dhcp server dishes out ip info for use by a dhcp client for one of its network devices....its an adapter that gets the ip not the pc! so if you have configured the network cards in your pcs to use dhcp that means that they look for a dhcp server to assign them an ip. two dhcp clients won't simply give each other the info. however with win2k, if a dhcp client fails to locate a dhcp server it will try to use a default ip.
other factors are
the isp may use dhcp to assign an ip to the dial-up adapter.
the default ip allocations might work to some extent.
other default protocols might allow lan activity other than tcp/ip.

[demark]

You say you are using "firewalls"?? Because you are accessing the internet via modem I assume you have a software firewall. Have you tried uninstalling it (or at least disabling it) as a source of conflict? And...as a practical matter...I would suggest thinking whether or not you need any sort of firewall for a dial-up connection. It's rare to be connected to the internet long enough to attract intruders, although I can understand wanting to know who is trying to call out from your system, which is one advantage for a software firewall. Anyways, I always disable my software firewall when trying to troubleshoot a cranky connection.