Subcultural engagement for the 21st Century...
Barbelith is a new kind of community (find out more)...
You can login or register.

Underground > Conversation >

Networking computers - help?

Page: (1)2

20:04 / 19.10.04

Loomis and I have our groovy study all set up -- dark red walls, two desks, huge bookshelves, handsome man lying on the couch with a cigarette and a book. Perfect.
But while I've got internet access on this computer (as of tonight, via cable), he hasn't. They're both running XP. I know I've got a network card and we think he has too.
What's the best way to link them?

ONLY NICE THINGS

20:10 / 19.10.04

Peer-to-peer network, using RJ45 cable or wireless networking? Do you have an ethernet cable handy?

TBH, I'd probably spend the extra tenner and get an old 4-port Ethernet hub, which should make it a bit easier to do...

20:15 / 19.10.04

where would I get said hub? Is that an Ebay price, or a standard one?
I don't have an ethernet cable but could easily get one.

20:22 / 19.10.04

To selfishly hijack Ariadne's thread for my own purposes, we're thinking ahead to our own "groovy study" (when we eventually move into the new place). We're thinking of getting a wireless set-up, largely because we both like the idea of using a laptop out on the roof terrace.

Questions:

1) How reliable is a wireless Internet connection?

2) Does having two computers online simultaneously slow things down?

3) What sort of security precautions are needed?

BarbeGeekPatrolGo!

20:27 / 19.10.04

Oi, you, gerrout of my study. I know you're just trying to sneak onto the couch with Loomis.
But good questions, all. The back green will have to do as our roof terrace.

20:35 / 19.10.04

1) Reliable, certainly over short distances.

2) Yes, if they're both up/downloading stuff at the same time, but otherwise not really, not if you're just both looking at web pages or chatting.

3) Set up encryption. Usually pretty straightforward to do, it's all in the manual and it's mostly just a case of picking a password and entering it on the router and any computers connected to it. That should be it, though your router should also have a firewall built in - this will probably be set up already, you can tinker with it yourself if you want but I find mine a bit confusing really and there's not much point.

20:37 / 19.10.04

Any idea how much a wireless router will cost?

20:42 / 19.10.04

*puts on 'Let Me Kiss You'; sidles up to couch*

Well, hel-lo, young Loomis...

All this new-fangled wireless stuff sounds fairly straightforward, Fridge, at least the way you put it. Does it make any difference if the computers are different types? We've been using an XP laptop for the last two, three years, but I really want to go Mac.

20:49 / 19.10.04

Once you've tried Mac you don't go back baby...

20:56 / 19.10.04

No, it doesn't. I ran an iBook and an PC laptop off the same wireless router for a while, one in each room, until the PC conked out for unconnected reasons.

The only difference is that wireless support is built into the OS on the Mac so it's really, really easy to set up. But the protocol is the same.

21:00 / 19.10.04

Ariadne - at a guess, about £50-£70. They're a bit cheaper if you have cable because the cablemodem outputs RJ45 ethernet; for ADSL, £100 gets you router-wireless-modem.

Here you go. £62.39 inc delivery from Amazon.

Ganesh - really, it doesn't. XP and Mac behave very nicely over wireless, and very happily on the same network. You just set up your router correctly and everything else is magic.

21:08 / 19.10.04

Ariadne, if you just want to share files you'll only need a hub and two ethernet cables, one per computer. You may also be able to achieve the same effect by connecting bot coputeres via a pass-through cable, but I'm not sure on that one. If you want to share an internet connection you'll need a router.

Ganesh, I've set up Mac/XP networks before. Sharing files directly can be a little difficult but not terribly so. Sharing a router is as easy as turning both computers on, in most cases.

Important: If you get a router, pay the little extra to get one with a firewall.

Firewalls are good.

21:17 / 19.10.04

Sharing files directly can be a little difficult but not terribly so

Yeah, I had trouble with that. The Mac was fine, running samba happily, but XP just wasn't having it.

22:52 / 19.10.04

Tchoh! She works 20 metres away and hasn't asked someone who is so _clearly_ a geek to help. I ask you.
Tell you what A&L, I'll pop round with a bunch of RJ45s and a hub for ya if you buy me some beer next weekend and let me sniff yer paint fumes. I feel a Gathering post coming on....

The Return Of Rothkoid

23:06 / 19.10.04

Serendipitously, I'm arranging my own Cool Study (wherein Creation Of That Novel will continue) and have to set up some computers today... it seems you can never quite escape Barbelith Synchronicity...

00:42 / 20.10.04

fridge- to get the Mac and the Windows box communicating I set an account up in the Accounts Preference, and checked the "login from Windows" button. Then I turned "Personal File Sharing" on in the "Sharing" pref and checked the "Windows Sharing" button.

Then I set a folder on my desktop called "dropbox" to be shared.

Sounds simple enough but it took an hour to figurte out.

Still have no idea how to something like that with XP though, and I'm not sure I can be bothered. Any geeks out there with XP sharing experiences are invited to set me right though.

00:55 / 20.10.04

I seem to remember doing things from the Mac side was very easy, but doing anything from XP was a pain in the fucking arse.

Still, the old beast has died now and is going to end up polluting the environment in a landfill somewhere when I move.

02:21 / 20.10.04

There are a number of recycling programs for old computers out there- I used to volunteer for one here in the Bay Area. We refurbished old 'puters for the lowly and impovershed. It was great fun- I got to boss around some ILM folks who came to volunteer, I got to scrounge for goodies... but I degress. Somebody out there wants to give your dead 'puter a second life. Let them. Don't just toss the poor thing.

02:53 / 20.10.04

but doing anything from XP was a pain in the fucking arse.

I can't believe how ridiculous to use XP is, I tried it for a bit and then went back to WindowsMe because it wouldn't load disk/drivers and was taking the piss, I couldn't install half of my stuff without searching for a driver on the net, THEN the actual disk drives wouldn't work.

Also, how do Windows people who know a bit about computers live without MS-DOS? It seems stupid to me, and have Microsoft taken it away simply because it gives more power/control to the OS and takes power/control away from the user? (also, so that it makes it even harder for the beginner to be able to fix things and/or learn how to fix their PC, and reducing their chances of learning how stupid some of the elements of Windows operating systems really are, then fucking Windows off for Linux etc.)

No MS-DOS seems like a stupid move that probably pissed a lot of people off.

08:54 / 20.10.04

Cube, that would be amazingly helpful - will email you right now!

09:25 / 20.10.04

Frosty: you'd be surprised. There's still the CMD commandprompt in XP, it's just no longer DOS. Just like in NT. And Windows 2000. And it works fine for batch filing, basic batch operations, and fidgiting about with rename when F2 just won't do.

TBH, Win2k and XP are probably the best iteration of the MS operating systems, and very comprehensive to manage through the GUI if you know what you're doing. "Knowing a bit about computers" doesn't mean whinging when DOS goes away; it means learning how to do things a new way. You need to stay up to date, and perhaps learn a bit more about XP. There are LOTS of ways to fix things that don't involve DOS, and lots of things that the beginner can do (far more useful) that don't involve DOS.

XP is good, and far, far, FAR better than the piece of trash that is Me that you continue to use, Jack. Learn to like it, and stop trying to use it like it was 1995.

(I say this having spent too long doing tech support and as a happy OSX user).

09:47 / 20.10.04

Thanks Paleface, maybe I should get off WinMe but like I said the disk drives mess up and some of the drivers for the old, old stuff that I use for this don't load and I have to go on the net for them, which is annoying. I'm using an old AMD K6 500mhz chip and have 193megs of RAM too which makes it run slow AND the sound won't load at all either, AND the last time I installed it I had to unplug my USB modem EVERY time I turned the PC on just to get onto the internet.

So it seems like more of a case of this computer being old and frail.....I'll maybe install it again sometime and see if works any better, but like I just showed you, it's pretty much a pain in the arse when I'm using this old machine. If I get a new PC at any point though I'll probably use XP because it'll be able to handle it better, and some new programs for it.

+ the graphics card is naff, I can't even play flash on this PC most of the time and the little graphics thing in media player (ambient water effects etc.) runs about 10 times slower than it should do. (it only just moves.)

-threadrotter 2004 leaves thread, sorry Adriane-

10:00 / 20.10.04

*puts on 'Let Me Kiss You'; sidles up to couch*

Well, hel-lo, young Loomis...

The other day I found an email in my inbox. From: Morrissey. Subject: Let Me Kiss You. Just as I was about to pen my farewell note to Ariadne, I opened the email and found that it was from a Morrissey website announcing the new single. Maybe I should just stay off the internet altogether.

10:17 / 20.10.04

Opening spam on my computer .. I see. Soon we'll have a quiff virus running rampant.

12:09 / 20.10.04

Ariadne not Adriane!

12:11 / 20.10.04

Rocky is that you?

12:17 / 20.10.04

Rocky is that you?

...........?

12:30 / 20.10.04

Haven't you seen Rocky?! You know the bit at the end ...?

Come on, it won Best Picture! Bah!

The Return Of Rothkoid

01:00 / 21.10.04

Meat-puncher!

02:36 / 21.10.04

I think I saw them all, the only bits I remember are parts of the one with Dolph Lungdren in and Rocky doing that training scene where he finishes on the steps.

09:56 / 21.10.04

Ariadne -

I suspect you could do it with one coaxial cable (about 10 quid) and then use the built in ICS (internet connection sharing) on XP. Never done it but I think this article confirms it (too lazy to read it through).

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/networking/expert/davies_july30.mspx

12:23 / 21.10.04

OOh, nooo... don't mess with coax. A single crossover RJ45 should do.

15:28 / 21.10.04

Isn't a cross-over RJ45 another term for coaxial cable?

15:42 / 21.10.04

No. Coax is what 10Base2 runs on, and looks a lot like a tv aerial cable. It requires T-pieces and terminators. It's messy in extremis.

Crossover is just standard CAT-5 with a two of the wires reversed at one end (to connect send to receive and vice versa, pretty much).

21:31 / 21.10.04

Yeah. That is what I meant crossover cable. Coaxial - shutup David.

Page: (1)2