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How to connect a LAN client using PWS

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by nrgeti 1 view

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I am running Lantastic which is a peer-to-peer network and Microsoft's Personal Web Server (PWS). I have not been able to access one PC which is acting as a host from any of my other PCs which are acting as clients.

All my PCs are connected through a LinkSys Router/Hub. I can transfer files just fine through Lantastic but when I try putting in the URL of the host using the IE browser, the screen returns an error that the host is unavailable.

I tried tech support at Microsoft but they did not come up with a solution.

3 replies

by michael2

Put the ip address of your PWS box in IE instead of the URL. If you connect then you have name resolution problems. Easiest cheapest fix is to use a 'lmhosts' file. This maps netbios name to ip's. You can also use 'hosts' to map ip to fully qualified network name. This is found in c:windows\ There is one there called lmhosts.sam and hosts.sam These are well commented template files. When you are ready to create your own do not use .sam extension. If you are editing in Notepad use quotes aroundthe file name or notepad will add the .txt extension. If your Network is too large to keep editing static files you will have to go with a WINS and/or DNS server.

by nrgeti

The problem was not where to put the IP address in the HOSTS file since I already knew about that. What I really wanted to know was how to get the LAN IP address of my host PC.

After I submitted my question I started reading the manual again for LinkSys and found out how it assigns LAN IP addresses. I tried this address and it worked. Amazing. Then I did what you suggested and set up an entry in the HOSTS file to get a text string for the URL. It now works beautifully.

If I could only getthis thing to accept call from the Internet and be my own host provider on the WAN, I would be happy. My guess is this cannot be done and I have to go through a real hosting service.

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