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Im really, really mad: Networking on Windows.

Kingsly

Kingsly

macrumors 68040
Original poster
Aug 9, 2005
3,389
14
Either in front of a computer or behind a camera.
I just had my entire night wasted, courtesy of Microsoft. All I want to do is set up a fracking LAN between my bootcamp MBP and a Dell XPS400 to play some co op Splinter Cell!!!!!! Apparently, you need a college degree to do the same thing in windows that, in OSX, involves plugging in a blue ethernet cable. I have tried every network connection possible, and it still gives an error that there is "little or no connection"
I think that the computers are both assigning themselves a 0.0.0.0 IP, causing a problem. I entered a random manual IP, 172.16.1.36 and 172.16.1.37 with a subnet mask of 233.233.0.0 (I think, don't have it in front of me now...:eek: whatever the auto was)
Help?
 
Jeez are you kidding? Networking in Windows is superior to networking on a mac. I don't have time to walk through it right now, but I just thought I would point out that it is very easy. Sounds like hardware being fishy on one of your comps.
 
Kingsly said:
I just had my entire night wasted, courtesy of Microsoft. All I want to do is set up a fracking LAN between my bootcamp MBP and a Dell XPS400 to play some co op Splinter Cell!!!!!! Apparently, you need a college degree to do the same thing in windows that, in OSX, involves plugging in a blue ethernet cable. I have tried every network connection possible, and it still gives an error that there is "little or no connection"
I think that the computers are both assigning themselves a 0.0.0.0 IP, causing a problem. I entered a random manual IP, 172.16.1.36 and 172.16.1.37 with a subnet mask of 233.233.0.0 (I think, don't have it in front of me now...:eek: whatever the auto was)
Help?
Click to expand...

Just create an Ad Hoc network.

As far as I know, networking is superior on Windows. Not that it matters all that much.

My main issue with Mac OS X and networking is that while using SMB to connect to my mom's laptop, it prompts me for a password, a password the computer doesn't bloody need as there is no password. :mad:
 
x86 said:
Are you plugging each machine into a router?
Click to expand...
The ethernet cable is going directly between the computers. I have done this a million times in OSX.

benthewraith said:
Just create an Ad Hoc network.

As far as I know, networking is superior on Windows. Not that it matters all that much.
Click to expand...
Care to explain? I am going crazy here!!
 
I have tried to help another person in a similar situation as you before and it didn't work out. I think OS X will allow you to use a regular network cable, but in Windows you might need a cross-over cable to make this work. Either way, it would be much easier for you to just use a router.
 
Wow, thats the first I've heard that networking on windows is superior to OSX! :eek: I never thought that something based on UNIX would lose to windows lol :p

Anyways, as someone already mentioned you need a cross-over cable to do direct computer to computer connections on windows... Hmm, I always thought that subnet mask had to be something like 255.255.255.0?
 
darkcurse said:
Wow, thats the first I've heard that networking on windows is superior to OSX! :eek: I never thought that something based on UNIX would lose to windows lol :p

Anyways, as someone already mentioned you need a cross-over cable to do direct computer to computer connections on windows... Hmm, I always thought that subnet mask had to be something like 255.255.255.0?
Click to expand...

I tried 255.255.255.0
Windows, in all its gory, told me it was invalid.
Today I will try an ad hoc wireless network... assuming I get the Dell to see its own wireless card (I see it in the netgear driver CP, but not in network connections window)
Anyone know how much I can get a crossover cable and/or router for?
Im frustrated, as yesterday morning I was at a garage sale and they had a working router for $5.00!! :eek: :( :mad:
 
Kingsly said:
I just had my entire night wasted, courtesy of Microsoft. All I want to do is set up a fracking LAN between my bootcamp MBP and a Dell XPS400 to play some co op Splinter Cell!!!!!! Apparently, you need a college degree to do the same thing in windows that, in OSX, involves plugging in a blue ethernet cable. I have tried every network connection possible, and it still gives an error that there is "little or no connection"
I think that the computers are both assigning themselves a 0.0.0.0 IP, causing a problem. I entered a random manual IP, 172.16.1.36 and 172.16.1.37 with a subnet mask of 233.233.0.0 (I think, don't have it in front of me now...:eek: whatever the auto was)
Help?
Click to expand...

If you have dhcp set on the windows laptop, it will assign it's self one of the reserved addresses from the 169.254.0.0 block. Microsoft does this automatically to simplify networking client machines in case there is not a dhcp server on the network. It sounds like you are trying to manually configure the address on the network interface.

How are you trying to connect the machines? direct attached? If so, you need a CROSSOVER cable for this. Configure using the ip addresses below and make sure the subnet mask are the same. See below.

If you are using a hub or switch, you just need to configure an ip address on each machine that belongs to the same subnet. Use a regular ethernet cable to plug each machine into the hub/switch.
If you want to use 172.16.1.37 and 172.16.1.36, just use a mask of 255.255.255.0. This is a class C subnet mask for the Class B address space you are trying to use.

Google for subnet masks.

Good luck!
 
belf8st said:
If you have dhcp set on the windows laptop, it will assign it's self one of the reserved addresses from the 169.254.0.0 block. Microsoft does this automatically to simplify networking client machines in case there is not a dhcp server on the network. It sounds like you are trying to manually configure the address on the network interface.

How are you trying to connect the machines? direct attached? If so, you need a CROSSOVER cable for this. Configure using the ip addresses below and make sure the subnet mask are the same. See below.

If you are using a hub or switch, you just need to configure an ip address on each machine that belongs to the same subnet. Use a regular ethernet cable to plug each machine into the hub/switch.
If you want to use 172.16.1.37 and 172.16.1.36, just use a mask of 255.255.255.0. This is a class C subnet mask for the Class B address space you are trying to use.

Google for subnet masks.

Good luck!
Click to expand...

Thanks, I am going to try a ad hoc network first. If that fails its off to Home Depot to get some cat-5 and RJ-45 connectors!
 
belf8st said:
If you have dhcp set on the windows laptop, it will assign it's self one of the reserved addresses from the 169.254.0.0 block. Microsoft does this automatically to simplify networking client machines in case there is not a dhcp server on the network.
Click to expand...

FWIW as you imply the 169.254.X.X addresses are not doled out by DHCP, but are self generated using APIPA which is a feature of zeroconf/rendezvous/bonjour whatever you want to call it this week.

belf8st said:
How are you trying to connect the machines? direct attached? If so, you need a CROSSOVER cable for this. Configure using the ip addresses below and make sure the subnet mask are the same. See below.
Click to expand...
The thing is that Macs are usually perfectly happy connected using a regular non-crossover cable and handle the corssover themselves. Perhaps this feature is broken when running Windows on Macs... I know I have directly wired my iBook to my PC using a straight cable...

B
 
wmmk said:
a crossover cable should be 2-4 dollars
Click to expand...

You shoudn't need a crossover cable, as all modern macs can auto detect which lines are rx and tx.
 
Unless, does that functionality work in Windows?

Subnet masks, make it 255.255.255.0

Make the IP addresses 192.168.1.(number) where number is starting at one going up to twenty with a different IP for each computer.

Make sure the windows firewall is switched off, just for testing. This always gets in the way when I network PCs.


As for networking being superiour in Windows, you try networking an OS 9 machine to a PC, then you'll see why Macs are FAR better at networking. A Mac (OS 10.2+) can do both PC and Mac talk, PCs only do PC networking. It's also a pain in the ass to configure...
 
Kingsly said:
The ethernet cable is going directly between the computers. I have done this a million times in OSX.
Click to expand...
Get a hub or a switch. OS X is smart enough to flip the send and receive bits in the network driver to emulate a crossover cable.

Windows doesn't do that for you. It expects you to know what you're doing.
 
ChrisBrightwell said:
Get a hub or a switch. OS X is smart enough to flip the send and receive bits in the network driver to emulate a crossover cable.

Windows doesn't do that for you. It expects you to know what you're doing.
Click to expand...

I think its a hardware feature, though you may have to have some support for it in the device driver. I've seen it on some switches and router too.
 
Congratulations! You have now earned a degree in MS Networking :p The thing that frustrates me the most is that my ad-hoc setup doesn't work all the time. As in, I can connect to some of my friends but not others. Even with every security masure turned off (that I know off anyway) and the exact same cables and settings, some PC's just don't want to talk to each other... Weird :confused:

Well, anyways can anyone on this forum tell me if there is any difference say in terms of transfer speed between using a normal network cable vs. crossover cables. I mean I know that you can plug in a crossover cable into a switch and it functions just like any other network cable. So is there any speed benefit then to use a normal cable under normal circumstances?
 
csubear said:
I think its a hardware feature, though you may have to have some support for it in the device driver. I've seen it on some switches and router too.
Click to expand...
I'm pretty sure it's a software thing, since the Windows driver doesn't support it.
 
darkcurse said:
Well, anyways can anyone on this forum tell me if there is any difference say in terms of transfer speed between using a normal network cable vs. crossover cables.
Click to expand...
There shouldn't be any, strictly speaking.

I mean I know that you can plug in a crossover cable into a switch and it functions just like any other network cable.
Click to expand...
I'd say that this is inaccurate or misleading at best.

So is there any speed benefit then to use a normal cable under normal circumstances?
Click to expand...
Normal cables are for connecting to routers and switches. Crossover cables are for connecting two machines directly (no switch).

The direct crossover link will be *marginally* faster, since you're taking a relay out of the link, but you'll most likely never notice the difference.

HOWEVER -- If you connect two gigabit Ethernet cards (such as a Power Mac and a gigabit PowerBook), you'll get full gigabit speed instead of slowing down to 100Mb to match the switch.
 
darkcurse said:
Congratulations! You have now earned a degree in MS Networking :p The thing that frustrates me the most is that my ad-hoc setup doesn't work all the time. As in, I can connect to some of my friends but not others. Even with every security masure turned off (that I know off anyway) and the exact same cables and settings, some PC's just don't want to talk to each other... Weird :confused:
Click to expand...
Thank you! Can I add that to my resumé?


I feel your pain.
 
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