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From: JD on 23 Jun 2010 00:49
What is the simplest software that would get them
talking to one another?

It seems that there are numerous ways to do this
but lots of petty details to work on.

Let's assume Windows OSs.

TIA
From: Paul on 23 Jun 2010 01:46
JD wrote:
> What is the simplest software that would get them talking to one another?
>
> It seems that there are numerous ways to do this but lots of petty
> details to work on.
>
> Let's assume Windows OSs.
>
> TIA

What do you mean by "talking" ? Exchanging files ? Supporting FTP ?
Protocols are built in "stacks", and first you have to get the physical layer
working, before anything will run on top of it.

If the interfaces are both 10/100BT, then a crossover Ethernet cable may be the
one to use. The one I have here, has a red connector on one end, and a blue
connector on the other end. That is how the manufacturer signifies the cable
type as being "crossover".

Ethernet chips supporting 1000BT (gigabit Ethernet), may also support MDI/MDIX,
a mechanism where the LAN interface crosses over the wires as part of the
negotiation procedure. Such an interface can use either kind of cable.
If I connect one or two Gigabit Ethernet equipped computers together, I can
use a LAN cable with the same color connector on both ends. That is a
"straight thru" cable. On router boxes, "straight thru" cables are used
on the LAN side, while the WAN cable may be different.

Once the link has been properly wired, my next step in the past, might have
been to assign unique private addresses to them. Like 192.168.1.2 and
192.168.1.3. Then, using the "ping" command, I could prove the connection
is working electrically between the two computers. Sitting on 192.168.1.2,
I could open a command prompt window and do

ping 192.168.1.3

If you look at your Network control panel, if you'd been previously using
broadband, you might notice in the Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) Properties, the
items

X Obtain an IP address automatically

X Obtain DNS server address automatically

That highlights some other services that make a LAN work better.
A DHCP server, such as your router, modem/router, or some other
computer, is a means of automatically assigning IP addresses. That
saves having to do it manually. If you have no DHCP server in your
setup, then changing to manual assignment, like in my example,
is a quick way to get things working.

DNS is the service running on the network, that translates
"www.google.com" to "173.194.32.104". The computer can only
communicate, based on numbers, so to send packets some where,
it needs an IP address to work with. If there is no DNS service
available in the setup, a desperate person could edit the "hosts"
file, and place entries in there. The default file installed in
WinXP, contains this example of how to add an entry.

102.54.94.97 rhino.acme.com

But since you're just connecting your two computers together, it's
unlikely you'd be setting up an IIS web server on one computer, and
then trying to use Firefox on the other computer. If you were doing
something like that, then setting up mappings to symbolic addresses
might help.

So that's why I get back to your definition of "talking".

There are other connectivity cases to consider. Perhaps you're
trying to do something like this, and don't know the name of the
option used on the central computer. In this diagram, the central
computer has two LAN interfaces, and runs the built-in ICS (internet
connection sharing). Its been quite a while since I used ICS, but
I think the two sides of the computer end up on their own subnets.
The central computer actually does routing, to ensure that packets
from the Second Computer, destined for the Internet, are forwarded
onto the left hand side Ethernet interface. DNS should work in this
case, so when you type in "rhino.acme.com" in the web browser
on the second computer, the broadband_modem and DNS server at the
ISP, may do the DNS translation and return the number for it.
I've only used this setup, while doing benchmark testing on
two gigabit interfaces on the two connected computers, while
at the same time, being able to web surf from the second computer.

192.168.0.1 192.168.0.2
broadband_modem ---------- Windows ICS ------------- Second Computer
computer

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_connection_sharing

Now, that is perhaps a more useful "talking" configuration,
if the person on the right expects their web browser to work
for example. You could, for example, do dialup networking on the
left hand side, and share one dialup session with two computers
(ugh!).

This kind of configuration is a bit more boring. You might run
FTP, or set up a web server and web browser, or maybe a printer,
but other than that, there might not be a lot of other fun things
to do. I suppose you could always set up a game server in your
basement, and put extra LAN interfaces on the computer, to make
a very expensive router. This doesn't need ICS, and you can choose
your own IP addresses if there are no other sneak paths to the real
Internet. 192.168.x.x addresses are private, so should not be transmitted
by your network equipment (like, outside your house). They'll
be translated by some NAT device, before appearing as remapped
packets using your "public" address assigned by the ISP to your
broadband router or dialup modem.

192.168.1.2 192.168.1.3
First Computer ------------- Second Computer

By manually assigning addresses, network mask, and providing a bogus
gateway address, you can probably get ping running. But it'll take
a bit more creative thought and planning, to do applications on top of
that.

Any site that specializes in home networking, should be able to walk
you through how to set up the Network control panel.

HTH,
Paul
From: GT on 23 Jun 2010 04:48
"JD" <JD(a)No-where.con> wrote in message
news:88di3fFeltU1(a)mid.individual.net...
> What is the simplest software that would get them talking to one another?
>
> It seems that there are numerous ways to do this but lots of petty details
> to work on.
>
> Let's assume Windows OSs.

A short version of Paul's answer - if you are connecting the PCs together
*directly* (not via a network), then a normal LAN cable (sometimes called
patch) won't work - you need a 'crossover cable'.


From: Grinder on 23 Jun 2010 10:28
On 6/23/2010 3:48 AM, GT wrote:
> "JD"<JD(a)No-where.con> wrote in message
> news:88di3fFeltU1(a)mid.individual.net...
>> What is the simplest software that would get them talking to one another?
>>
>> It seems that there are numerous ways to do this but lots of petty details
>> to work on.
>>
>> Let's assume Windows OSs.
>
> A short version of Paul's answer - if you are connecting the PCs together
> *directly* (not via a network), then a normal LAN cable (sometimes called
> patch) won't work - you need a 'crossover cable'.

Just an extra 2 cents here:

I would recommend using a regular cable + crossover adapter instead of a
crossover cable. For one off situations I guess it doesn't matter much,
but I find that the adapters simplify options in the long run.

http://www.thinkgeek.com/gadgets/tools/7470/

http://www.monoprice.com/products/product.asp?p_id=5088
From: JD on 23 Jun 2010 14:19
Paul wrote:
> JD wrote:
>> What is the simplest software that would get them talking to one another?
>>
>> It seems that there are numerous ways to do this but lots of petty
>> details to work on.
>>
>> Let's assume Windows OSs.
>>
>> TIA
>
> What do you mean by "talking" ? Exchanging files ? Supporting FTP ?
> Protocols are built in "stacks", and first you have to get the physical
> layer
> working, before anything will run on top of it.
>
> If the interfaces are both 10/100BT, then a crossover Ethernet cable may
> be the
> one to use. The one I have here, has a red connector on one end, and a blue
> connector on the other end. That is how the manufacturer signifies the
> cable
> type as being "crossover".
>
> Ethernet chips supporting 1000BT (gigabit Ethernet), may also support
> MDI/MDIX,
> a mechanism where the LAN interface crosses over the wires as part of the
> negotiation procedure. Such an interface can use either kind of cable.
> If I connect one or two Gigabit Ethernet equipped computers together, I can
> use a LAN cable with the same color connector on both ends. That is a
> "straight thru" cable. On router boxes, "straight thru" cables are used
> on the LAN side, while the WAN cable may be different.
>
> Once the link has been properly wired, my next step in the past, might have
> been to assign unique private addresses to them. Like 192.168.1.2 and
> 192.168.1.3. Then, using the "ping" command, I could prove the connection
> is working electrically between the two computers. Sitting on 192.168.1.2,
> I could open a command prompt window and do
>
> ping 192.168.1.3
>
> If you look at your Network control panel, if you'd been previously using
> broadband, you might notice in the Internet Protocol (TCP/IP)
> Properties, the
> items
>
> X Obtain an IP address automatically
>
> X Obtain DNS server address automatically
>
> That highlights some other services that make a LAN work better.
> A DHCP server, such as your router, modem/router, or some other
> computer, is a means of automatically assigning IP addresses. That
> saves having to do it manually. If you have no DHCP server in your
> setup, then changing to manual assignment, like in my example,
> is a quick way to get things working.
>
> DNS is the service running on the network, that translates
> "www.google.com" to "173.194.32.104". The computer can only
> communicate, based on numbers, so to send packets some where,
> it needs an IP address to work with. If there is no DNS service
> available in the setup, a desperate person could edit the "hosts"
> file, and place entries in there. The default file installed in
> WinXP, contains this example of how to add an entry.
>
> 102.54.94.97 rhino.acme.com
>
> But since you're just connecting your two computers together, it's
> unlikely you'd be setting up an IIS web server on one computer, and
> then trying to use Firefox on the other computer. If you were doing
> something like that, then setting up mappings to symbolic addresses
> might help.
>
> So that's why I get back to your definition of "talking".
>
> There are other connectivity cases to consider. Perhaps you're
> trying to do something like this, and don't know the name of the
> option used on the central computer. In this diagram, the central
> computer has two LAN interfaces, and runs the built-in ICS (internet
> connection sharing). Its been quite a while since I used ICS, but
> I think the two sides of the computer end up on their own subnets.
> The central computer actually does routing, to ensure that packets
> from the Second Computer, destined for the Internet, are forwarded
> onto the left hand side Ethernet interface. DNS should work in this
> case, so when you type in "rhino.acme.com" in the web browser
> on the second computer, the broadband_modem and DNS server at the
> ISP, may do the DNS translation and return the number for it.
> I've only used this setup, while doing benchmark testing on
> two gigabit interfaces on the two connected computers, while
> at the same time, being able to web surf from the second computer.
>
> 192.168.0.1 192.168.0.2
> broadband_modem ---------- Windows ICS ------------- Second Computer
> computer
>
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_connection_sharing
>
> Now, that is perhaps a more useful "talking" configuration,
> if the person on the right expects their web browser to work
> for example. You could, for example, do dialup networking on the
> left hand side, and share one dialup session with two computers
> (ugh!).
>
> This kind of configuration is a bit more boring. You might run
> FTP, or set up a web server and web browser, or maybe a printer,
> but other than that, there might not be a lot of other fun things
> to do. I suppose you could always set up a game server in your
> basement, and put extra LAN interfaces on the computer, to make
> a very expensive router. This doesn't need ICS, and you can choose
> your own IP addresses if there are no other sneak paths to the real
> Internet. 192.168.x.x addresses are private, so should not be transmitted
> by your network equipment (like, outside your house). They'll
> be translated by some NAT device, before appearing as remapped
> packets using your "public" address assigned by the ISP to your
> broadband router or dialup modem.
>
> 192.168.1.2 192.168.1.3
> First Computer ------------- Second Computer
>
> By manually assigning addresses, network mask, and providing a bogus
> gateway address, you can probably get ping running. But it'll take
> a bit more creative thought and planning, to do applications on top of
> that.
>
> Any site that specializes in home networking, should be able to walk
> you through how to set up the Network control panel.
>
> HTH,
> Paul

I can never thank you enough Paul. Will be back to
your post later today.
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