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Two Questions from a Newbie

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by brian_coffey62

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1: Using two Nortel Networks 802.11b cards, one in desktop running Win98, and one in notebook running Win2kpro for a simple ad hoc home network. Sometimes when I fire up the two pcs everything works fine and they find each other immediately but other times they both give network out of range messages (usually only 4 or 5 feet apart). When this happens I have to switch the desktop to proprietary ad hoc and then back to ad hoc before they will find each other. Anybody got any ideas why this wouldbe?
2: Trying to share the desktop's internet connection with the laptop over the wlan, I have the internet connection set to dial an isp only when no network connection is present but when I start IE it detects proxy settings for a few seconds before opening the dial up connection box. Again any help/ideas would be most welcome.
As I said I am new to this site so if these questions should be in an other forum pplease let me know.

3 replies

by rapidad

Do you have netBEUI installed on both machines???
This usually resolves the first question, if you dont know how to add the protocol, tell me and I will generate a step by step instruction sheet for you.
Number two question is confusing (at least for this old fart). Are you running dsl/adsl/cable?
and then when ie starts it fails network and switches to dialup??
This could be related to the network you are running, an old hub (as opposed to a router/switch) needs netBEUI because it is preventing comm to the dhcp of your dsl.
Or if you dont have dsl, and are using only dialup, that is a whole new can of worms. Let me know

by brian_coffey62

Thanks Robert,
I appear to have Netbeui installed on the W98 machine (should it be client, host or service) but I can't find it under Win2K, I do see an option called Netbios but I presume that's not the same.
As regards the second question, my only internet connection is dial up through my 56k modem. I am hoping that when I start IE on the laptop that the desktop will dial my isp and provide the internet connection through the WLAN for the laptop. At the moment though, when I open IE it 'detects proxy settings' for a few seconds before opening the dial up box and trying to dial it's own connection locally.
BTW this is a VERY simple home network, just the two 802.11b cards communicating with no routers or APs.
Thanks for the help so far, I hope you can shed a little more light on this for me.

by data ninja

As far as the two units talking to each other, it may be a matter of who gets to the "home plate" first. That is to say that the negotiation process might be out of sync. It is best to start up the "host" unit first, then the "client", if this applies.
To get the laptop to use the desktop as its "gateway" to the internet, you'll have to know the IP address of the NIC on the desktop (at connection time) and have the laptop's "gateway" in the TCP/IP properties for the NIC on it set to that number. Then the laptop will first try to connect to the internet via the NICs then if the wLan is not available it will attempt to dial out.

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