Re: Networking 2 Laptops With Crossover Cable

HTFiddler <htfiddler@xxxxxxxxx> wrote in
news:2bf4cad4-f620-4f77-accc-7ed23f9de0fe@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
:

The bane of connecting my laptops with a yellow crossover cable is
always that first 5 minutes. Seems like no matter how many times
I reboot, plug and unplug the cable, run ipconfig release/renew,
turn off and on Windows Firewall, etc. etc., it's to no avail
......... and then by some stroke of magic the Computer Browsers
wake up and do their thing and the connection finally works,
usually around 5 minutes into the whole trip.

Isn't there an easier way? Both machines are running Windows XP
Professional. Isn't there some magic command I can give these
puppies and get them to talk to each other without all the hassles
and the wait?

Thx in advance for any suggestions.

Here's a summary of what is happening...

1) When you first connect the two computers and they both notice that
there is a new connection, they both attempt to acquire an IP address
from a DHCP server. There is no DHCP server, but it takes them a
while to realize this. Once they realize this, you usually get a
window pop-up that says something like "There is little or no
connectivity". At this point in time (and if so configured), they
assign themselves an IP address of 169.254.x.x using Automatic
Private IP Addressing (APIPA).

2) When they both have an IP address, then they need to discover each
other using Windows Networking. This can take a while as they have
to elect a browse master and discover each other -- and MS Networking
is not fast in this regard. It takes even longer or fails if a
firewall on one of the machines gets in the way.

You can eliminate delay 1) by assigning fixed IP addresses. But by
the time you do this manually on both machines, the DHCP time-out
could easily have occurred... and then you probably will have to un-
do the change so that you can connect to a network later on.

Once you get to step 2) and get the little or no connectivity, you
can find the IP address they've assigned each other:
o right-click on the network connection -> Status -> "Support" tab
o or "ipconfig" from a command prompt window
and you can connect immediately to the other machine using its IP
address by Start->Run-> then entering the 169.254.x.x IP address of
the other machine in the form "\\169.254.123.123" (or whatever). It
should then connect, bypassing the master browser functions.

You might also want to consult:

'How to use automatic TCP/IP addressing without a DHCP server"
<http://support.microsoft.com/kb/220874>

BTW: You can determine which machine is the master browser by issuing
the following commad to each computer:
nbtstat -a computername
or
nbtstat -A computerIPAddress

and look for the computer that returns the line that contains
"__MSBROWSE__"

HTH,
John
.

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