HELP

[AMP762]

Help from the brain trust.I know I am a computer dummy so be gentle please. I have two puters in home,one is windows98 the other is 2000 Proff. is there a CHEAP and easy way to connect these? I have dial up out here in the woods so I don't need to know about broadband I have found sevsral sites on that.

Thanks
Paul

 

[Jagmandave]

Why do you want to connect them? In other words, what is it that you ultimately want to do? File share, printer share? Each solution has a different answer. The first and easiest is to upgrade the Win 98 to XP, then hook 'em together with a good Cat 5 wire (assume both have an ethenet card) and follow the wizards to do whichever tasks you need. Other than that, we need more info!
Broadband has nothing to do with it, unless you want one to act as the online portal for the other. If you have them both hooked up to the internet thru their own respective phone lines, that would not need to change.
Tell us what you have in mind for this hookup and we'll have some better ideas..........

 

[Moon]

I toss out a couple of ideas. Depends on the reason for connecting them.

If you want to transfer data from one to another, a one time deal you could look for a product called 'LapLink'. It connects via the serial port on each computer. You need the computers sitting pretty much side by side for this to work.

If you want to network the two computers to share data all the time, you need to get a small hub. 4 port is the smallest I"ve seen. Newegg.com or buy.com have hoards of them. You'll also need a network card (aka 3comm card) in each computer (unless they have network cards built into the mother board - ie if you have a plug in for a lan cable, you have lan built in). Then you would need the lan cable to connect from each computer to the hub. You might be able to do without the hub, but with a hub you could add a third computer at any time. Without one you are limited to the two connected to each other (i think).

Is this close to what you are aflter?

Moon of Ohio

 

[Freds]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( The first and easiest is to upgrade the Win 98 to XP... )</font>

I'm no computer whiz, so I have to ask, why? My home pc is running Me (I know, I know /forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif) and my work pc is running 2000 pro. They are networked without any problems.

The reason I ask is because I will probably be upgrading my home pc shortly and I was going to get XP pro, unless there is a reason that they should both be running the same OS, but there doesn't appear to be.
/forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif

 

[thcri]

The 98 machine and the windows 2000 will communicate together as they are. You don't need to update either one of them. In fact you can have a crosslinked cable made and you can hook them toghether without a hub. You just need network cards in each of the machines. With this you can now share printers and files. As far as hooking the machines to the internet I would not try and share the same modem. Let each computer dial up on it's own and do your browsing at the same machine. If you share modems you will take an already slower than molasses device and make it slower.


murph

 

[Moon]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( Let each computer dial up on it's own and do your browsing at the same machine. If you share modems you will take an already slower than molasses device and make it slower.
)</font>

I have to agree with thcri, but with one caveat. You can connect both to the internet if both users are just reading forums or something similar. If one was downloading music the other would be heavily impacted (slow to a crawl) ...but otherwise to save costs or for a temporary setup there is nothing wrong with this. Just be aware of the gotcha's.

Moon of Ohio

 

[slapshot]

There are also broadband modems that you can connect a regular dial-up modem to, such as the SMC SMC7004ABR . This would allow for shareing files and printers as well as sharing your dial-up internet connection.
I used a shared dial-up for years it really wasn't too bad. Obviously if two users are trying to download files at the same time there is a performance hit. But for general web surfing would would not likely notice a difference.

-dave

 

[jpr62902]

Hey Moon,

I thought LapLink used the parallel ports?? I do know you need a null modem cable for LapLink to work. Comments?

 

[texbaylea]

Laplink now uses USB ports also parallel or serial. I don't see the need to go to XP as 2000 Pro has the same abilities with very little difference.

Vernon

 

[Jagmandave]

My only justification for going to XP was both to improve over 98 and because the file transfer, printer sharing and so on wizards are built in - they may also be in 2000, I don't know.
If he's happy with 98, fine, but I found the upgrade to XP made my life considerably easier in many areas.........other than that, you all are right on target, but he just needs to figure out what he wants to do, then he can get the "best" answer.........

 

[SLOBuds]

I believe that the cheapest way to connect both of them together is either by using rope, or possibly a couple of rubber bands from the morning newspaper will do also.

How tightly do you need them connected?

 

[SPIKER]

I would run them as is, the 98 is actually better than the XP or pro for the most part as the OLD mach will take a sevier hit in performance due to the resource hoging of the higher end software. ethernet cards in each simply plug them together enabeling the newier mach to be the host and the other as a client on the client server software under the "My Computer, - control panel, - network setup."


or you can run the lamplink setup but it will not be as easy to setup or have the features such as sharing printers & dialup connections.

as for sharing dial up fine and dandy but may take a bit of fanangeling. the primary (master computer with the dial up modem) will have to assign address for the slave/client computer.

it is easier to run them each with own phone line, but that limits you to ONE connection at a time so the setup of ethernet cards (very cheap to buy if you don't have one but I suggest getting same brands to make connection & driver selection easier for YOU) most NEW systems will have a 10/100 card built in or as a PCI. check systems specs and if you have one already & otherone does not then get the same brand if at all possable for a simple home system.

a port/router is not needed for 2 computers but if you want to brad band them using one brodband connection then the master computer will need 2 (two) ethernet cards in it or you will require a router of some type and the router will be primary connection to the cable/broad band router.


oh btw my compure skills are very rusty but should bear fruit.
MarkM

 

[AMP762]

Thanks for all the help guys.The reason I thought of hooking them together is I was given the 2000 machine and since the times I want the puter S.W.M.B.O. seems to be using it. Also the98 harddrive is about full I thought this is cheaper than a new drive. Other than reading this group and storing my pix I'm still not sure this puter thang is going to catch on /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif

 

[Moon]

Jpr,
It's been awhile since I used laplink, but I thought it used the serial ports. The first time I used it (late 80's early 90's I needed the null modem cable; but I didn't think I needed the null modem for the version I got 10 years ago.
Nice to hear that it now uses usb ports. That makes it even easier.

Amp,
If you just need storage for the one computer - disk drives are pretty cheap nowdays (newegg.com has Maxtor 30 gig for $48.00 and a 40 gig for $52.50).
But, on the other hand, shared storage can be good if you need to share the data between both computers and it should be cheaper to setup than $50.00 plus shipping on a disk drive.

Moon of Ohio

 

[Ozarker]

For about $150 you can get an external drive. I have one that holds 120GB and use it to backup my C: drive and store pictures.