Connect to our Dimension

Question

We recently purchased an Inspiron 5100 (laptop) to go with our Dimension 8100 (desktop).

Even before we got the laptop running we had hooked up our cable service (internet) to a cable modem and integrated this with a wireless router (Belkin).

The desktop (dimension) worked with the internet right out of the box and we had similar success with the laptop as soon as that was turned on. The desktop is hard wired to the router; the laptop is wireless.

We thought the next step would be to establish a means of using this network to communicate between the two computers. We wanted to use the printer on the desktop as a 'network' printer for the laptop and we do have the need to move files back and forth. Right now sneaker net is driving us to distraction and we can not achieve this goal.

The desktop is and will remain Windows 2000 Professional at the latest Service Pack. The laptop is Windows XP home and is fully updated as of last Wednesday.

Please tell us if this goal is achievable and if so how we can go about making this a reality.

volcano11 · Answer

Try the tutorials at the following site: www.homenethelp.com Post back if you are still having trouble. Steve

joelp-D500 · Answer

What I do to accomplish this is to share a folder/drive out from one computer and 'Map network drive' on the other. Couple of things come to mind... Under the network properties, make sure you have file and printer sharing enabled. Then under system properties, have both systems part of the same workgroup. Not sure if this is the best way, but it works for me.

Peg036 · Answer

This is not haappening for us and we have tried -- bottom line is 'Map Network Drive' does not find a path even though we 'think' we have done everything on this web site and have set the 'workgroup' to the same name. We even shared a folder on each computer.

volcano11 · Answer

Does it not work in either direction?  Have you disabled all firewalls, including Windows XP's built in firewall?  Have you enabled the Guest account on the Windows 2K computer? Steve

Peg036 · Answer

I did all recommended -- no difference

Found out there was a firmware update available for the Belkin router -- did that

Now I was able to see BRISOFT (Dell Dimension) from the BRIFINANCE (Dell Inspiron) but it told me there was security issues signing on. This is not so -- the "Connect using a Different User Name" was filled in with "BRISOFT\tooheys" (from BRIFINANCE). Note none of these User Names have passwords. "BRISOFT\tooheys" is an administrator on BRISOFT

Networking, Internet, & Bluetooth

Connect to our Dimension

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