Networking 3 pc's with no server 1

[ODBCERRORKING]

I have three pc's id like to try to network just for file and print cababilities in a tiny office.i have istalled my three 100 nic cards and loaded the drivers everything was cool.checked cat 5 cable for conductivity to the hub.i am running win 98 for all os and using the netbui protocal and file & print sharing for microsoft networks.when i go network neiborhood nothing was there.also when i right click to try to share a file there is no sharing option. does anyone have any sugestions or tell me that im a rokie and i should't even get in this field.

 

[Empeethree]

Make sure your workgroup is set the same for all three machines. Check the file and print sharing. If you still cant see the machines, remove all the protocols and adaptors and reconfigure the network. I have seen problems with dial-up adaptor and nic's conflicting.

hope this helps
Rob

 

[digitaldreamer]

I would recommend giving each machine the same workgroup name and assign each machine a seperate ip address Ex. 192.168.1.100 and 192.168.1.101 Etc,,,

 

[ODBCERRORKING]

do i need to give each machine an ip address? if so do i need to get these ip adress from somwhere? or can i assign them myself.if that is the case i will need to use tcp\ip instead of netbui correct? i though when connecting a peer to peer network all i will need is file & print sharing enabled and the the netbui protocal. this sucks!

 

[paulwood]

Yes it will work with just NetBEUI, for basic networking. For each machine make sure you have at least file sharing enabled, then you have to actually share files or directories on each machine, otherwise they will not show up on the network. Make sure that under Network properties on the identification tab you have the same workgroup name. That's about it really.

The only reason you would want to run TCP/IP in your situation was if you wanted to share an internet connection via modem, DSL, etc. The numbers suggested previously are reserved IP addresses, which are not used on the Internet, and so can be used without permission on private networks.

Good Luck!

 

[alanjung]

I'd recommend starting out with TCP/IP, as I'm sure you'll eventually want to add internet capabilities. As for selecting the IP address, you can use the 192.168.x.x range, as these are private and non-routing. In other words, if one of your computers has the IP address 192.168.0.1, someone outside your physical network cannot type in 192.168.0.1 and get to your computer. Only computers on your physical network will see computers with these IP addresses (it has to do with how TCP/IP works with routing, blah blah blah).

If you have only three computers, use something like 192.168.0.1, .2, .3, etc. and use 255.255.255.0 for the subnet. Once you set up the IP addresses, make sure you can ping each computer (go to command line and type 'ping 192.168.0.1'). If every computer can ping every other computer they are physically connected and once the workgroups and the like are set up properly, you'll be in business.

I'd avoid NetBios, to me it's always been a pain in the side (plus I understand TCP/IP much better).