I've been trying to help a friend setup a network at home. He says the laptop can see the desktop on the network, but not visa versa. And cannot do file sharing from either computer.
Here's the setup: Cable internet Dell desktop with NIC (not wireless) New laptop w/ wireless NIC Wireless router
Before he bought the laptop, he was using a USB to RJ-45 adaptor cuz he doesn't have a NIC installed in hte desktop for the purposes of connecting to his cable modem. As the basics of networking requires that ea. computer needs to have an IP address assigned, it dawned on me that his networking problem was an absence of a NIC! So i told him to go buy a NIC for his desktop and have windows automatically assign an IP address to it.
He did so, and he says the problem remains. He still cannot share files. At one point, he says he got a error message saying he needs a WEP key. What is that? I thought installing a NIC would do the trick but apparently not.
Does the problem lie in the fact he's trying to mix a wireless nic with a regular nic and using a wireless router??
If one of two computers on a network can see the other, then the physical connection is good. It sounds like a permissions or logon problem with the destop trying to access the laptop. Check the laptop to make sure permissions are set to allow the logged in Desktop user access to the desktop.
Wep is for encryption key. Can they both see the internet? What protocols are you using? This is a wireless router? The computer OS?
Go to both cards properties and uncheck enable 802xx authentication. Make sure you aren't using the key codes. This is just to simplify things.
Make sure the router is the Gateway. Just have Client for Microsoft Networks and TCP/IP as the protocols. Let the router take care of assigning the IPs for the computers. Check Netbios over TCP/IP. Both with the same Workgroup name.
Then go to the Advanced tab at the top of the Network Connections, dropdown to advanced settings. Bind TCP/IP to File and Printer Sharing for Microsoft Networks and Client for Microsoft Networks. This should be default unless you have been messing with the network wizard.
If there are any other protocols uninstall them. This will be all you need. Reboot both. If you go into optional networking components and your equipment is Upnp compliant check that in network components. When you check that and click on Network Places the router will show up there.
