The "Network Setup Wizard" often causes people more problems than it solves. As you've discovered, it's possible (and not particularly difficult!) to set up File and Printer Sharing without it.
Your security setup (router/ZoneAlarm with a "trusted" zone only including your computers) should be adequate, except for issues related to wireless access to the network by "outsiders" connecting to the TM2300.
If you haven't already done so, there are a number of security steps you can take that will keep people from "borrowing" your wireless connection through your new Truemobile 2300. These include MAC address restriction, changing the default SSID, and encryption. These are all described in the
"Basic" andÂ
"Advanced" settings sections of the TM2300 manual.
Yeah, I have setup the wireless security features, so I guess I'm all set :)
Out of sheer curiosity, not having used the Network Setup Wizard, is my local 'network' -- which I guess is controlled from the router -- a NetBIOS-based network or a local TCP/IP network? I know DHCP is assigning local IP numbers, but is NetBIOS still at play, and if so, how come Computer Name and Workgroup aren't important?Just trying to understand exactly how my LAN has been configured?
The "workgroup" name is what makes network "browsing" work. If all the machines are in the same "workgroup", they should all show in the list of nearby computers on all machines. If not, then, as you found out, you can "discover" them manually. "workgroups" have nothing to do with account authentication (as you also discovered!). They're really just a convenient way of doing what's called "resource discovery" - finding other computers without knowing exactly what their name is, in this case.
When one machine running Windows File and Print Sharing wants to find another machine, the machine initiating the search sends out a broadcast message on the LAN asking if the name exists. The answer will be returned either by the machine being sought, or, through the "browsing" mechanism, by the machine that is currently the "browse master" for the workgroup in which the machine being sought is configured. In either case, the answer that's returned contains the IP address of the machine, so a TCP/IP connection can be made to it.
Since NetBIOS in all recent forms uses TCP/IP as a transport, it's fundamentally TCP/IP. You can see if NetBIOS over TCP is selected by looking at the "Properties" of one of your network adapters. Select TCP/IP, then Properties/Advanced/WINS. See if NetBIOS over TCP/IP is enabled. Likely it is, although systems running Windows 2000 or later don't require it. Interoperability with earlier OS's does, though, and there's no performance penalty associated with enabling it on all machines.
The computer and workgroup names are still important. For all the machines on your LAN to be able to "see" each other, the workgroup name needs to be the same. And the computer names need to be unique.
The router plays an entirely passive role in all this. It just makes sure packets get delivered to the right machines. There are two XP services that implement Windows File and Print Sharing - the "Server" and "Workstation" services.
I guess what threw me is that while experimenting, I was able to share a drive between two computers WITH DIFFERENT WORKGROUP NAMES that were both connected to my router. From everything I had understood, this was not possible, but I did it easily, which is what got me confused in the first part in terms of what I had to do to properly setup my network. One of the workgroups was named Mshome, and the other simply Workgroup. Not quite sure why it worked but it did.
jwatt
4.4K Posts
0
September 7th, 2004 21:00
The "Network Setup Wizard" often causes people more problems than it solves. As you've discovered, it's possible (and not particularly difficult!) to set up File and Printer Sharing without it.
Your security setup (router/ZoneAlarm with a "trusted" zone only including your computers) should be adequate, except for issues related to wireless access to the network by "outsiders" connecting to the TM2300.
If you haven't already done so, there are a number of security steps you can take that will keep people from "borrowing" your wireless connection through your new Truemobile 2300. These include MAC address restriction, changing the default SSID, and encryption. These are all described in the "Basic" and "Advanced" settings sections of the TM2300 manual.
Jim
Srgtroy
19 Posts
0
September 7th, 2004 22:00
Thanks a lot Jim!
Yeah, I have setup the wireless security features, so I guess I'm all set :)
Out of sheer curiosity, not having used the Network Setup Wizard, is my local 'network' -- which I guess is controlled from the router -- a NetBIOS-based network or a local TCP/IP network? I know DHCP is assigning local IP numbers, but is NetBIOS still at play, and if so, how come Computer Name and Workgroup aren't important?Just trying to understand exactly how my LAN has been configured?
Roy
jwatt
4.4K Posts
0
September 7th, 2004 23:00
The "workgroup" name is what makes network "browsing" work. If all the machines are in the same "workgroup", they should all show in the list of nearby computers on all machines. If not, then, as you found out, you can "discover" them manually. "workgroups" have nothing to do with account authentication (as you also discovered!). They're really just a convenient way of doing what's called "resource discovery" - finding other computers without knowing exactly what their name is, in this case.
When one machine running Windows File and Print Sharing wants to find another machine, the machine initiating the search sends out a broadcast message on the LAN asking if the name exists. The answer will be returned either by the machine being sought, or, through the "browsing" mechanism, by the machine that is currently the "browse master" for the workgroup in which the machine being sought is configured. In either case, the answer that's returned contains the IP address of the machine, so a TCP/IP connection can be made to it.
(edit) Here's an article from Carnegie-Mellon that's a good introduction to how all this works.
Jim
Message Edited by jimw on 09-07-2004 05:34 PM
jwatt
4.4K Posts
0
September 7th, 2004 23:00
Since NetBIOS in all recent forms uses TCP/IP as a transport, it's fundamentally TCP/IP. You can see if NetBIOS over TCP is selected by looking at the "Properties" of one of your network adapters. Select TCP/IP, then Properties/Advanced/WINS. See if NetBIOS over TCP/IP is enabled. Likely it is, although systems running Windows 2000 or later don't require it. Interoperability with earlier OS's does, though, and there's no performance penalty associated with enabling it on all machines.
The computer and workgroup names are still important. For all the machines on your LAN to be able to "see" each other, the workgroup name needs to be the same. And the computer names need to be unique.
The router plays an entirely passive role in all this. It just makes sure packets get delivered to the right machines. There are two XP services that implement Windows File and Print Sharing - the "Server" and "Workstation" services.
Jim
Srgtroy
19 Posts
0
September 7th, 2004 23:00
Thanks again Jim!
I guess what threw me is that while experimenting, I was able to share a drive between two computers WITH DIFFERENT WORKGROUP NAMES that were both connected to my router. From everything I had understood, this was not possible, but I did it easily, which is what got me confused in the first part in terms of what I had to do to properly setup my network. One of the workgroups was named Mshome, and the other simply Workgroup. Not quite sure why it worked but it did.
Roy