Ad hoc wireless network - file sharing

I have 2 laptops with win xp home and norton internet security 2005 with
internal intel pro 2200 b/g wireless cards.

After a lot of googling was i able to get my ad hoc wireless network online
i.e. the other laptop and my laptop wireless lan icons in the system tray
show "connected".

But despite have shared folders on both laptops I am not able to see the
other laptop in the "network neighbourhood" or for that matter any of the
shared folders.

Will somebody please give me step by step instructions as to how to enable
file sharing
P.S. Step by step means 'really step by step'... I'm a little slow at this.
--
I Must; I Can & Therefore I WILL!

Rex wrote:

> I have 2 laptops with win xp home and norton internet security 2005
> with internal intel pro 2200 b/g wireless cards.
>
> After a lot of googling was i able to get my ad hoc wireless network
> online i.e. the other laptop and my laptop wireless lan icons in the
> system tray show "connected".
>
> But despite have shared folders on both laptops I am not able to see
> the other laptop in the "network neighbourhood" or for that matter any
> of the shared folders.
>
> Will somebody please give me step by step instructions as to how to
> enable file sharing
> P.S. Step by step means 'really step by step'... I'm a little slow at
> this.

If you can get online with both computers, then you know the network is
operating correctly. You just need to set up your Local Area Network
(lan) sharing.

Run the Network Setup Wizard on both computers, making sure you enable
File & Printer Sharing. Reboot each machine. Now go to the Control
Panel and open the Windows Firewall applet (I'm assuming you have
Service Pack 2 on both machines) and disable it.

Now open Norton Internet Security and configure the firewall to allow
your lan traffic as trusted. I can't tell you exactly where to look for
this, but it should be fairly obvious or you can read NIS's Help file.
In third-party firewalls like that, I usually set the lan's IP range as
trusted. Mine looks like 192.168.1.0-192.168.1.254. Substitute your
correct subnet.

Now create shares on each computer. XP Home will not allow you to share
users' home directories (My Documents) or the Program Files directory,
but you can share folders inside those directories. Or just put items
you want to share in the Shared Documents folder.

It can take up to 15 minutes for Network Places to populate with the
shares you've made.

Here are some links that may also help:

http://winhlp.com/wxnet.htm - Small Network Troubleshooter by Hans-Georg
Michna
http://www.practicallynetworked.com/...ilesharing.htm (Home)
http://www.bcmaven.com/networking/faq.htm
http://www.bcmaven.com/networking/myths.htm

Malke
--
Elephant Boy Computers
www.elephantboycomputers.com
"Don't Panic!"
MS-MVP Windows - Shell/User

First I want to thank you malke for helping me out. But I still seem to be a
little stuck; Can you please help me out here too?

I dont have an internet connection available at any of the laptops so I cant
try to check whether the network really works or not; but the wireless lan
icon in the system tray does indicate connected and the other laptop detects
my network and also indicates connected.

Both the laptops have also been configured to be in the same workgroup. But
despite all this neither of the 2 laptops show anything in their network
neighbourhoods (absolutely blank).

On starting the network setup wizard I get a error message which says that
some of the networking hardware might not be connected and shows only the
ethernet cable connection with absolutely no reference to the wireless
network! What do I do now?

--
I Must; I Can & Therefore I WILL!


"Malke" wrote:

> Rex wrote:
>
> > I have 2 laptops with win xp home and norton internet security 2005
> > with internal intel pro 2200 b/g wireless cards.
> >
> > After a lot of googling was i able to get my ad hoc wireless network
> > online i.e. the other laptop and my laptop wireless lan icons in the
> > system tray show "connected".
> >
> > But despite have shared folders on both laptops I am not able to see
> > the other laptop in the "network neighbourhood" or for that matter any
> > of the shared folders.
> >
> > Will somebody please give me step by step instructions as to how to
> > enable file sharing
> > P.S. Step by step means 'really step by step'... I'm a little slow at
> > this.
>
> If you can get online with both computers, then you know the network is
> operating correctly. You just need to set up your Local Area Network
> (lan) sharing.
>
> Run the Network Setup Wizard on both computers, making sure you enable
> File & Printer Sharing. Reboot each machine. Now go to the Control
> Panel and open the Windows Firewall applet (I'm assuming you have
> Service Pack 2 on both machines) and disable it.
>
> Now open Norton Internet Security and configure the firewall to allow
> your lan traffic as trusted. I can't tell you exactly where to look for
> this, but it should be fairly obvious or you can read NIS's Help file.
> In third-party firewalls like that, I usually set the lan's IP range as
> trusted. Mine looks like 192.168.1.0-192.168.1.254. Substitute your
> correct subnet.
>
> Now create shares on each computer. XP Home will not allow you to share
> users' home directories (My Documents) or the Program Files directory,
> but you can share folders inside those directories. Or just put items
> you want to share in the Shared Documents folder.
>
> It can take up to 15 minutes for Network Places to populate with the
> shares you've made.
>
> Here are some links that may also help:
>
> http://winhlp.com/wxnet.htm - Small Network Troubleshooter by Hans-Georg
> Michna
> http://www.practicallynetworked.com/...ilesharing.htm (Home)
> http://www.bcmaven.com/networking/faq.htm
> http://www.bcmaven.com/networking/myths.htm
>
> Malke
> --
> Elephant Boy Computers
> www.elephantboycomputers.com
> "Don't Panic!"
> MS-MVP Windows - Shell/User
>

Rex wrote:

> First I want to thank you malke for helping me out. But I still seem to be a
> little stuck; Can you please help me out here too?
>
> I dont have an internet connection available at any of the laptops so I cant
> try to check whether the network really works or not; but the wireless lan
> icon in the system tray does indicate connected and the other laptop detects
> my network and also indicates connected.
>
> Both the laptops have also been configured to be in the same workgroup. But
> despite all this neither of the 2 laptops show anything in their network
> neighbourhoods (absolutely blank).
>
> On starting the network setup wizard I get a error message which says that
> some of the networking hardware might not be connected and shows only the
> ethernet cable connection with absolutely no reference to the wireless
> network! What do I do now?
>
> --
> I Must; I Can & Therefore I WILL!
>
> "Malke" wrote:
>
> > Rex wrote:
> >
> > > I have 2 laptops with win xp home and norton internet security 2005
> > > with internal intel pro 2200 b/g wireless cards.
> > >
> > > After a lot of googling was i able to get my ad hoc wireless network
> > > online i.e. the other laptop and my laptop wireless lan icons in the
> > > system tray show "connected".
> > >
> > > But despite have shared folders on both laptops I am not able to see
> > > the other laptop in the "network neighbourhood" or for that matter any
> > > of the shared folders.
> > >
> > > Will somebody please give me step by step instructions as to how to
> > > enable file sharing
> > > P.S. Step by step means 'really step by step'... I'm a little slow at
> > > this.
> >
> > If you can get online with both computers, then you know the network is
> > operating correctly. You just need to set up your Local Area Network
> > (lan) sharing.
> >
> > Run the Network Setup Wizard on both computers, making sure you enable
> > File & Printer Sharing. Reboot each machine. Now go to the Control
> > Panel and open the Windows Firewall applet (I'm assuming you have
> > Service Pack 2 on both machines) and disable it.
> >
> > Now open Norton Internet Security and configure the firewall to allow
> > your lan traffic as trusted. I can't tell you exactly where to look for
> > this, but it should be fairly obvious or you can read NIS's Help file.
> > In third-party firewalls like that, I usually set the lan's IP range as
> > trusted. Mine looks like 192.168.1.0-192.168.1.254. Substitute your
> > correct subnet.
> >
> > Now create shares on each computer. XP Home will not allow you to share
> > users' home directories (My Documents) or the Program Files directory,
> > but you can share folders inside those directories. Or just put items
> > you want to share in the Shared Documents folder.
> >
> > It can take up to 15 minutes for Network Places to populate with the
> > shares you've made.
> >
> > Here are some links that may also help:
> >
> > http://winhlp.com/wxnet.htm - Small Network Troubleshooter by Hans-Georg
> > Michna
> > http://www.practicallynetworked.com/...ilesharing.htm (Home)
> > http://www.bcmaven.com/networking/faq.htm
> > http://www.bcmaven.com/networking/myths.htm
> >
> > Malke
> > --
> > Elephant Boy Computers
> > www.elephantboycomputers.com
> > "Don't Panic!"
> > MS-MVP Windows - Shell/User
> >

As far as I can tell, the "connected" status reported by WinXP is pretty much
meaningless for ad hoc networks. That is, in my experience, the icon reports
"connected" even though it's the only one turned on.

The network SSID is more important than the workgroup name. Also ensure that
both laptops are on the same wireless channel. If neither laptop is connected
to the Internet, I would disable Norton Internet Security (if, in fact, these
laptops will never be connected to the Internet, I'd uninstall NIS). Assuming
that you have WinXP sp2, also ensure that the Windows Firewall is turned off.
And finally, first set up things with no encryption security.

Once you get things working, you can add back layers of security, starting with
encryption and then turning on either the Windows firewall or NIS.

This is a pretty good guide to setting up an ad hoc network with Win XP
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/u...02april08.mspx

(the one bit of advice from Barb Bowman that I would definitely NOT follow,
however, is the suggestion to obtain updated drivers from Microsoft update.
Don't do it. You'll be sorry.)

Rex wrote:

> First I want to thank you malke for helping me out. But I still seem to be a
> little stuck; Can you please help me out here too?
>
> I dont have an internet connection available at any of the laptops so I cant
> try to check whether the network really works or not; but the wireless lan
> icon in the system tray does indicate connected and the other laptop detects
> my network and also indicates connected.
>
> Both the laptops have also been configured to be in the same workgroup. But
> despite all this neither of the 2 laptops show anything in their network
> neighbourhoods (absolutely blank).
>
> On starting the network setup wizard I get a error message which says that
> some of the networking hardware might not be connected and shows only the
> ethernet cable connection with absolutely no reference to the wireless
> network! What do I do now?
>
> --
> I Must; I Can & Therefore I WILL!
>
> "Malke" wrote:
>
> > Rex wrote:
> >
> > > I have 2 laptops with win xp home and norton internet security 2005
> > > with internal intel pro 2200 b/g wireless cards.
> > >
> > > After a lot of googling was i able to get my ad hoc wireless network
> > > online i.e. the other laptop and my laptop wireless lan icons in the
> > > system tray show "connected".
> > >
> > > But despite have shared folders on both laptops I am not able to see
> > > the other laptop in the "network neighbourhood" or for that matter any
> > > of the shared folders.
> > >
> > > Will somebody please give me step by step instructions as to how to
> > > enable file sharing
> > > P.S. Step by step means 'really step by step'... I'm a little slow at
> > > this.
> >
> > If you can get online with both computers, then you know the network is
> > operating correctly. You just need to set up your Local Area Network
> > (lan) sharing.
> >
> > Run the Network Setup Wizard on both computers, making sure you enable
> > File & Printer Sharing. Reboot each machine. Now go to the Control
> > Panel and open the Windows Firewall applet (I'm assuming you have
> > Service Pack 2 on both machines) and disable it.
> >
> > Now open Norton Internet Security and configure the firewall to allow
> > your lan traffic as trusted. I can't tell you exactly where to look for
> > this, but it should be fairly obvious or you can read NIS's Help file.
> > In third-party firewalls like that, I usually set the lan's IP range as
> > trusted. Mine looks like 192.168.1.0-192.168.1.254. Substitute your
> > correct subnet.
> >
> > Now create shares on each computer. XP Home will not allow you to share
> > users' home directories (My Documents) or the Program Files directory,
> > but you can share folders inside those directories. Or just put items
> > you want to share in the Shared Documents folder.
> >
> > It can take up to 15 minutes for Network Places to populate with the
> > shares you've made.
> >
> > Here are some links that may also help:
> >
> > http://winhlp.com/wxnet.htm - Small Network Troubleshooter by Hans-Georg
> > Michna
> > http://www.practicallynetworked.com/...ilesharing.htm (Home)
> > http://www.bcmaven.com/networking/faq.htm
> > http://www.bcmaven.com/networking/myths.htm
> >
> > Malke
> > --
> > Elephant Boy Computers
> > www.elephantboycomputers.com
> > "Don't Panic!"
> > MS-MVP Windows - Shell/User
> >

Once you think you have both laptops configured properly, on each laptop, click
Start -> Run, type "cmd" (without quotes) and press Enter.
In the command window that opens, type ipconfig
One of the lines that will be displayed is "IP Address" This will be of the
form 169.254.x.y. Write it down.
Go to the other laptop and do the same thing. Write the IP address of the
second laptop down also.

In the same command window on laptop 2, type: ping "laptop1 IP address"
As an example, if the IP Address for laptop 1 was 169.254.45.69 then from laptop
2 type
ping 169.254.45.69
You should get back four lines showing reply from laptop1 with time < 10 ms. If
you do, then you have indeed successfully connected your ad hoc network. For
completeness, you might want to try the same ping test from a command window on
laptop 1.

If the results from the ping show "Request timed out," then there is something
wrong with your setup. Post back, including as much detail as you can and
someone will try to help.

Lem wrote:

>
> Once you think you have both laptops configured properly, on each
> laptop, click Start -> Run, type "cmd" (without quotes) and press
> Enter. In the command window that opens, type ipconfig
> One of the lines that will be displayed is "IP Address" This will be
> of the
> form 169.254.x.y. Write it down.
> Go to the other laptop and do the same thing. Write the IP address of
> the second laptop down also.
>
> In the same command window on laptop 2, type: ping "laptop1 IP
> address" As an example, if the IP Address for laptop 1 was
> 169.254.45.69 then from laptop 2 type
> ping 169.254.45.69
> You should get back four lines showing reply from laptop1 with time <
> 10 ms. If
> you do, then you have indeed successfully connected your ad hoc
> network. For completeness, you might want to try the same ping test
> from a command window on laptop 1.

Thanks for picking this one up, Lem. I really know squat about ad hoc
wireless networking and I would have sent the OP to Barb Bowman's site,
too. I thought from his original post that he did have his network
going OK.

Just as an aside to Rex, getting a consumer wireless router like a
Linksys, Netgear, etc. and not doing ad hoc really makes life easier.
If you have a setup where you can do this, I'd highly suggest just
getting a router and doing a "normal" networking setup.

Otherwise, I leave you to Lem, who has far more expertise with ad hoc
networking than I do.

Malke
--
Elephant Boy Computers
www.elephantboycomputers.com
"Don't Panic!"
MS-MVP Windows - Shell/User

Thanks a lot guys for all your help; am going to try all that u advised and i
have a feeling that this time its gonna work.

By the way Malke, I'm not really in favour of buying a router as the 2
laptops are pretty close and money is a little tight at this end.... see?

--
I Must; I Can & Therefore I WILL!


"Malke" wrote:

> Lem wrote:
>
> >
> > Once you think you have both laptops configured properly, on each
> > laptop, click Start -> Run, type "cmd" (without quotes) and press
> > Enter. In the command window that opens, type ipconfig
> > One of the lines that will be displayed is "IP Address" This will be
> > of the
> > form 169.254.x.y. Write it down.
> > Go to the other laptop and do the same thing. Write the IP address of
> > the second laptop down also.
> >
> > In the same command window on laptop 2, type: ping "laptop1 IP
> > address" As an example, if the IP Address for laptop 1 was
> > 169.254.45.69 then from laptop 2 type
> > ping 169.254.45.69
> > You should get back four lines showing reply from laptop1 with time <
> > 10 ms. If
> > you do, then you have indeed successfully connected your ad hoc
> > network. For completeness, you might want to try the same ping test
> > from a command window on laptop 1.
>
> Thanks for picking this one up, Lem. I really know squat about ad hoc
> wireless networking and I would have sent the OP to Barb Bowman's site,
> too. I thought from his original post that he did have his network
> going OK.
>
> Just as an aside to Rex, getting a consumer wireless router like a
> Linksys, Netgear, etc. and not doing ad hoc really makes life easier.
> If you have a setup where you can do this, I'd highly suggest just
> getting a router and doing a "normal" networking setup.
>
> Otherwise, I leave you to Lem, who has far more expertise with ad hoc
> networking than I do.
>
> Malke
> --
> Elephant Boy Computers
> www.elephantboycomputers.com
> "Don't Panic!"
> MS-MVP Windows - Shell/User
>