hooking 2 computers together

redhawk44

redhawk44

Member
I have a new computer and I really don't want to get rid of the old one because it has programs on it that I do not have on the new one.

Also, I would like to use it for storage of data and pictures and such like.

Could any of you guys (or gals) explain what it takes to do this?
Thanks for any help.
 
This sounds like you want to set up a home network. This is relatively simple. The first few things to consider are:

1 - Do you want to be able to access the internet from both machines?
2 - Do you have a network router or switch handy?
3 - What OS(s) are you running on either machine?
 
you can set up a simple network to share files and folders without a router thats also quite easy
could be handy if you haven't got a router
 
No I don't want to access the internet from both machines.

I have windows XP on the old one and Vista on the new one and all I want to do is be able to access files and programs from the old one and use it for storage of data that would be readily available.

I do have a router and I already have 2 computers accessing the internet although these 2 are not connected to each other.

This setup would be hooking up the old one to one of the two, not hooking all 3 together.
 
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So you already have a home network? Just plug the XP machine into the router and enable sharing on the folders you want to get stuff from. Any other computer that's connected to the router will be able to access it.
 
redhawk44 said:
This setup would be hooking up the old one to one of the two, not hooking all 3 together.
Click to expand...

Ah... Why not? It would be trivial to do so. Then you just make sure to set up account permissions on your shared resources to prevent the others from accessing it.

If you only want to network two computers together, the simplest way would be to plug them directly in to each other - provided you have two NICs on your new Vista machine. Then set up your XP machine and the secondary ethernet port on your Vista machine with static IP addresses. These IPs need to be on the same subnet as each other but different than your main network so your Vista Machine doesn't get confused.

For example:

Vista NIC 1 - Gets IP via DHCP from your router (or static if you swing that way)
IP = 192.168.1.42
Subnet = 255.255.255.0
Gateway (your router) = 192.168.1.1

Vista NIC 2 - Manually set the static IP so this machine can talk to the other XP box.
IP = 192.168.2.1 (or any other variant of the private IP space so long as it isn't 192.168.1.x)
Subnet = 255.255.255.0
Gateway (itself) = 192.168.2.1

XP NIC - Manually set the IP so this machine can talk to the Vista box it is hardwired to.
IP = 192.168.2.2 (must be in the same subnet as the Vista NIC 2 it is connected to)
Subnet = 255.255.255.0
Gateway (Vista NIC 2) = 192.168.2.1

I hope that makes sense to you. Let me know if you have any questions.
 
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