Networking in XP

**karenb** · 02-08-2005, 08:58 PM

Hello again. Some friends that I am helping out need 2 computers networked. One is running XP Home and one is Running xp Professional. One computer (home) is less than 1 year old, the other (pro) is fresh out of the box. After much trouble I managed to get the computers to see each other, but cannot get them to share an internet connection. (They are using a wireless router.) They called in an "Expert" who tried for over 8 hours and cannot get it working. His conclusion is that home and professional cannot be networked. Is this true? My suspicion is that the wireless router may be not working properly, since I got them to recognize each others hard drives. He has already sent them out to buy a new copy of xp professional, so I didn't want to bring up the router without having some ground to stand on. Who's on the right track here?

**genesis** · 02-08-2005, 09:55 PM

Xp pro and home can certainly be networked but that's not the question here, the question is they are not sharing one DSL/Cable Modem via the wireless router. If they can see each other, normally things should've worked automatically. It seems like the router may not be giving access to the other computer.

Normally on most home based routers you can reset them and they will go to default settings, usually resolves this kind of problem if something specific is configured that's not allowing the other computer to access the internet. For example, MAC Address restriction may be applied to the router so the router will only give access to one MAC address, I.E., one computer. So first thing I'd do, since I don't know anything about that specific router and it's config, reset the router and let it go on default settings.

**karenb** · 02-08-2005, 10:33 PM

I did.
I can ping the router from both machines and can ping each machine from the other.
I switched ports on the router with no change.
At least I can verify that the purchase of another xp pro disc was unnecessary. But I think I will let the other guy handle this one.

Originally posted by genesis@Feb 8 2005, 03:55 PM
Xp pro and home can certainly be networked but that's not the question here, the question is they are not sharing one DSL/Cable Modem via the wireless router. If they can see each other, normally things should've worked automatically. It seems like the router may not be giving access to the other computer.

Normally on most home based routers you can reset them and they will go to default settings, usually resolves this kind of problem if something specific is configured that's not allowing the other computer to access the internet. For example, MAC Address restriction may be applied to the router so the router will only give access to one MAC address, I.E., one computer. So first thing I'd do, since I don't know anything about that specific router and it's config, reset the router and let it go on default settings.

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