PC to Mac Probs

[doorbreaker]

Hi,

I am trying to connect a laptop running XP Pro to an iMac running OS X. File sharing is enabled on my laptop.

When I take the ethernet cable from my windows LAN (which works fine) and plug it into the back of the iMac I get a "media state.....media disconnected" message when I type ipconfig at the command prompt.

I know my cable is fine and my card is fine, so why can't I get an IP address on my laptop?

Hope you can help

Chris Moore

 

[manarth]

Too possible reasons:
1. Make sure the network cable is crossover, not patch or straigh-thru. (Crossover is for direct PC-PC connection without a network device (i.e. switch) in between).
2. Your Windows LAN probably runs DHCP, whilst a Windows XP PC normally doesn't. You need to manually set the IP addresses.

<marc>

 

[doorbreaker]

I have previously used the cable to connect to an iBook without any problems. I did however recently upgrade from XP Home to XP Pro.

Could this have anything to do with it?

 

[doorbreaker]

I have manually set the IP address on the windows machine but as soon as I remove the cable i get the media state....media disconnected error. It loses the IP address.

Pretty weird.

:-(

 

[doorbreaker]

Hi,

I found by plugging the mac into the switch and leaving the laptop connected to the network - as opposed to a direct peer to peer connection it works fine.

Bye

 

[manarth]

Hi doorbreaker,
thanks for letting us know how you solved the problem - so many users just say "never mind, I've solved it..."!

FYI, the different LAN cables cater for different things:
[tt]
pc === pc crossover cable
pc === switch straight / patch cable
switch === switch crossover cable
[/tt]

I generally carry both a patch and a crossover cable in my laptop bag, just in case.

<marc>

 

[doorbreaker]

Hi,

Unfortunately, whilst I've managed to connect the iMac to the network this isn't what is needed eventually....you always find out these things after right??

I need to be able to connect directly from the iMac to the XP laptop. This is possible with an ethernet cable isn't it.

To restate the problem, as soon as my lan cable is unplugged from the lan, the ip address disappears. If I set it manually the same occurs.

When I plug it into the iMac it is as though it is plugged into nothing.

Thanks

Chris

 

[manarth]

Should be like this:
[tt]PC --crossoverCable-- Mac[/tt]
or
[tt]PC --patchCable-- switch --patchCable --Mac[/tt]

Set your PC IP manually to 192.168.2.10 and your Mac's IP to 192.168.2.11; both subnet mask 255.255.255.0.

Check their connected by opening up a command prompt on the windows pc and typing [tt]ping 192.168.2.11[/tt]

If the ping returns OK (don't forget, if the Mac's firewalled it may drop pings....and prevent filesharing) open (i believe it's called...) the finder and browser to smb://192.168.2.10/

You may need to login using a username and password which is valid on the xp machine.

I've had pain before trying to network PCs and Mac's - but then, I'm not that current on Macs.
Getting a successful ping is the first step - everything after that is (most likely) down to filesharing software.

<marc>