Cabling and router 1

[tmandu]

I have a linksys 4 port router connected to my cable modem. I have three users on it at home. We can all access the internet with no problem (dynamic ip addressising for the workstations). My question is two fold - is there away we can use the router to network our pcs so we can play a game between ourselves and not have to make up special cables and pull the other cables off. I have one WIn 95, one win 98 and one winME computer. The game does allow you to play between different players at home and on ther internet.

2.) we can't get the game to work over the internet (connect my first home pc to my second homepc) either because of the router and the fact that its hiding the true ip address I guess behind "firewall" of router. I can use DMZ and open one ip up to both directions but this did not work.

Thanks

 

[wybnormal]

You should be able to play the grames locally without any changes. The router has the switch built in for the 4 ports and is smart enough to know when you are talking to a local address ( 192.168.1.x)

All you need to do is either configure Netbios names so you can set up based on peer to peer or use the IP that the router has given the workstation. A quick and dirty way to set up each harddrive as "shared" and you should be able to see each other in network neighborhood.

AS far as the game not working across the wire, it can be a combo of things ranging from the ports being blocked to you need to specify a certain port to forwarded to a certain IP address. It may or may not be under your control depending on the ISP.

Mike S
"Diplomacy; the art of saying 'nice doggie' till you can find a rock" Wynn Catlin

 

[tmandu]

Thanks wybnormal.
There are two options to setting up the game.
1.On the internet against other players.
2. on a lan.
If I try to set it up on the lan one player serves as the host and one joins the game.We connect for a second then drop out.

I have dynamic ip addressing from my cable isp.
I also have DHCP set up on router - I think this might be a mistake as linksys says use only one. WHich I dont really understand. LEts say for instance player a(me) connects to mechwarrior 4 and is tells the game he is looking for player b(my sons).Player A does connect and gives the IP
for player b. But it again drops out. I have tried to use the DMZ but it doesnt work.

How would I configure netbios names and if I share drives - does it still need ip information???

SO confusing !


Thanks - I might get back to you after trying some of your suggestions tonight .

 

[wybnormal]

Do yourself a huge favor and turn off the DHCP for the LAN side. Just make sure to read the directions!!! You need to key in the 192.168.1.1 address for the LAN port on the router or you lose it all and have to push the silly button on the back and start over I found this out the hard way ;-)

Before the final cutover to static Ips.. make to copy down the info from each box by using WINIPCFG /ALL and get the IP address, mask, default gateway and DNS settings. You will have to key it in manually. Not a big deal.. it's all under network neighborhood properties, TCP properties.

ALso while you are there, install Netb which will setup the peer to peer. I suspect what is giving you grief is that IP wants to resolve any name to an IP address. This what DNS does for you but your DNS is for the internet and NOT for your home network. Mechwarrior is probably looking for a name rather then just the IP address. DNS has no idea who you are. If you have a local WINS server, I would be it would work fine as WINS would resolve the local PC name to an IP address. NB bypasses that since it was designed for a peer to peer network without any DNS, WINS and so on.

WHen you set up file and print shares, most of the NB stack is installed.

Mike S
"Diplomacy; the art of saying 'nice doggie' till you can find a rock" Wynn Catlin

 

[tmandu]

Thanks - I will try tonight and let you know .Appreciate it.
Tom

 

[tmandu]

Again, I haven't tried your solution ( got home to late) but I was reading info on crosover cables. If I made a crossover cable out of cat5-rj45 and plugged then into the two pcs without doing anything else, not setting up peer to peer networks, not sharing ,not having a server/workstation, just plugging them in. Would it work like a null modem cable ?

(the reason I am asking is for now its just for this game for my sons bparty and I hate to go through all the trials and tribulations of setting up homenetwork and then having internet access gone.) THanks -the machines are a win95 and a win98.

Tom

 

[tmandu]

With reference to making a crossover cable.

whoops forgot something -- what does open mean on the crossover cable chart from MORELOS say PIN 4 ____OPEN.
Does that mean pin 4 wire stays to PIN 4 all the way through , or

no wire to pin 4 at all?? pin 4 dead ?

Thanks

 

[wybnormal]

You still need something for the crossover to work.. some type of protocol.. IP, Netbios, IPX.. something. IPX and Netbios do not need anything "extra" to resolve the names so you would say net use mypc. They know what mypc is. IP wants an IP number.. or something other way to resolve the name of mypc to a number like 192.168.1.2

orange/white to greenwhite
orange to green
green/white to orange/white
blue to blue
blue/white to blue/white
green to orange
brown/white to brown/white
brown to brown

Orange/white being pin 1 if looking at the RJ45 gold pins up and cable entrance facing you.
|------------------|
| | | | | | | | | |
| | | | | | | | | |
| | | | | | | | | |
| |

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8


I think got the artwork right ;-)

If not, use this ref:

http://www.cisco.com/univercd/cc/td/doc/product/10_100hb/1538m_mh/icg/specs_cb.htm#xtocid66273

Mike S


"Diplomacy; the art of saying 'nice doggie' till you can find a rock" Wynn Catlin

 

[tmandu]

Thanks - my colors on my cable are a little different but after seeing the site you pointed to - I think I got it.

Ok, so let me get this straight...I have network cards installed and tcpip is running. Isn't it always running, since I installed it ?

OK, SO i plug in the crossover cable to each network card.

THen I would issue the command on first pc
(lets assume this - the pc i'm on has the name aaa777 (is that also the computer name from Control Panel---> Network____>Identification___Computer name ?????)

(the other computer is called (bbb888))

NET USE aaa777

This establishes communication between computer aaa777 and computer bbb888.

Then I launch my game and it should find computer bbb888.

What if it asks for an ip address either mine or compuer bbb888. ? (do these computers still have ip addresses after i pull the cables that went to the router?)

if i do a winipcfg on it before could/should I obtain the ip number or is the number being assigned from somewhere else??




Thanks - I appreciate your patience and understanding.

 

[wybnormal]

It will find PC aaa777 ( or whatever) If you are using file/print sharing OR you have enabled IPX ( which in turn runs Netbios over IPX) A pure IP config will not be able to use just the name. It wants a number.. no names allowed

IP runs all the time as would any other protocol.

If we get this configured right, you can get to the pc via network neighborhood and not have to use the C:>net use command.

MIke S
"Diplomacy; the art of saying 'nice doggie' till you can find a rock" Wynn Catlin

 

[tmandu]

Thanks, so (for my quick mininetwork) I could pull the cables off of the pc's from the router. Then I would still be able to winipcfg each and obtain addresses,then I could net use 192.168.1.xxx and they would be communicating - right ? I didn't see a parameter for ip address in NET USE but will it interpret it from the computer name ?
so then i just use the computer name and enable IPX ?
If I do enable IPX will it disturb my internet router connection later ?

Sorry but For tonight I just want the quickest way to do this.

Thanks again - Tom

 

[tmandu]

By the way what does OPEN mean-- does that mean disconnect
the wire or let it run through all the way as it was.

Thanks again - Tom

 

[wybnormal]

I'm guessing that "open" means dont use it but that is not CAT5 standard. All wires are punched in CAT5 even though they are not "used". The reality is that they are used but not for signalling. THey are used to surpress noise on the 4 wires that hold the signal.

The router could care less about IPX traffic so it would ignore it.

Use WINIPCFG before you pull the cables..

No.. net use will NOT interpret the name and get the IP. That is what DNS and WINS does.. which is what I think it causing you problems. It will work if you turn on file/print share on both boxes.

Mike S
"Diplomacy; the art of saying 'nice doggie' till you can find a rock" Wynn Catlin

 

[tmandu]

Thanks - just to review - here is what im going to do tonight

turn on file/print sharing on both.
enable ipx over netbios on both if not already
winipcfg each and get ip numbers
pull my orig cables that lead to router from each pc
connect crossover cable to network cards
net use pcaaa777 (first computer)
computers should now be a talking to each other.
Load game on computer aaa777
.
.
connect to bbb888
(if it asks for ip of pc bbb888 - i have it from winipcfg)

How does that sound and thanks !

Tom

 

[wybnormal]

I'll keep my fingers crossed for you

Let us know how it goes!!!

Mike S
"Diplomacy; the art of saying 'nice doggie' till you can find a rock" Wynn Catlin

 

[tmandu]

Well, here is my story and I'm sticking to it.

I am able to see both systems from network neighborhood.
I have shared both drives, they are accessible.
I have pinged and tracrt each and they communicate.

we load game and they connect and quickly disconnect.
So it can not sustain a connection. I am doing this all with original cables to router, dhcp turned off on router and a static ip assigned to the 2 computers.

Any thoughts ??
Tom

 

[wybnormal]

Did you try it without the router? just with the crossover cable like we discussed? I'm puzzled 'cause it sounds like you have everything in place as it should be.

Mike S
"Diplomacy; the art of saying 'nice doggie' till you can find a rock" Wynn Catlin

 

[tmandu]

Yes - I tried it without the router with the crossover cable, then I tried it with a "regular" cable.

The puzzling thing is that I can get on one computer and access files and vice versa. ???? So i know the LAN is ok.

I probably should try it again with the crossover cable and the sharing set up -- (i cant remember through all the different scenarios -- if I tried that one. ) Also I don't think you are familiar with Mech 4 but they allow you to connec via LAN, give differnet speeds, use ip addressing, the whole works. I have tried IP addressing where we look for the "host" computers ip and "BAM" it conencts for a second and drops out . I have tried searching the MS site for this game but all they talk about is internet connection sharing, and playing through the NAT . ITS at

http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/Q240/4/29.asp

(DIRECT X ports required to play on network,

In a nutshell though it says the followoing TCP and UDP ports must be open on the firewall

client host
INITIAL TCP CONNECTION 47624 outbound 47624 inbound


THANKS !

 

[wybnormal]

You know.. I have vauge memories of having to put port numbers in a protocol file so windows knew what they were about. Those numbers are outside of the normal range of ports so you may need to edit the file and insert them. Like I said.. these are vauge and I would have to look it up myself as I dont remember if was an NT thing only or it applied to all windoze boxes ( excuse the slip)

Mike S "Diplomacy; the art of saying 'nice doggie' till you can find a rock" Wynn Catlin

 

[Howi]

First get your 2 computers talking to each other, can you see/transfer files inboth directions? (just use a back to back [crossed] network cable.
If everthing is alright here then you can try the game in network mode - but don't forget to RTFM regards what the game expects to see as regards network.
Plus game needs installing on both PC's - one PC usually set up to be controller (master), the other PC then joins
the game set up by the master.