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Re: Accessing the internet on 2 home laptops at the same time

 
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Bill Zanetti
Frequent Advisor

Accessing the internet on 2 home laptops at the same time

Dear Forum,

Please could you advise what sort of kit I would need for accessing the internet on 2 laptops at the same time.

All the Best


Bill Z
31 REPLIES 31
Les Ligetfalvy
Esteemed Contributor

Re: Accessing the internet on 2 home laptops at the same time

Well... you say nothing about your internet connection. You also don't say if you are wired or wireless. If you have DSL using PPPOE, get a wireless DSL router that will do the PPPOE and Bo's your uncle.
Bill Zanetti
Frequent Advisor

Re: Accessing the internet on 2 home laptops at the same time

Dear Les,

Thanks for taking the time to reply.

No the network is not wireless, I am accessing the internet via the modems on the laptops. They are run by cable to the phone line.

The modems are 56k and when connected the speed is approx 45k.

I thought what I wanted was a router, your email cnfirms that - thanks.

What type of router should I be looking for?

Given the above more detailed info am I likely to have any succes with a router?


All the Best

Bill Z
Ernest Ford
Trusted Contributor
Solution

Re: Accessing the internet on 2 home laptops at the same time

Bill

You are using the internet over a "dial-up" connection, the only way to have two dial-up connections at the same time would be to use two phone lines, which I assume is what you're trying to avoid.

To share a dial-up connection will require installing some sort of local area network with the two laptops connecting to it - if the laptops have ethernet adapters built-in (most recent models do), this could be as simple as a "cross-over" cable plugged in between the laptops and connection sharing software loaded on one of them - all versions of Microsoft Windows after Windows 98SE come with Microsoft's ICS which can do this job, so you may not need anything other than a few feet of network cable.

Perhaps you could let us if the laptops have ethernet (look for an RJ-45 connector on them - looks like an 8 wire phone jack), and what OS you have installed and we could help you get it all configured.

Bill Zanetti
Frequent Advisor

Re: Accessing the internet on 2 home laptops at the same time


Dear Ernest,

Thanks very much for the advice and offer of help.

Yes I am using the internet via dialup with only one phone line and no possibility of a second.


The two laptops are Zt3352APand zt3325ap.
(they are already connected by bluetooth)

Both machines are running windows Xp with service pack 2.

I have checked the device manager. On zt3352ap the ethernet is

Realtek RTL8139 C+ fast Ethernet NIC

with driver

R8139n51.sys


On Zt 3325ap the ethernet is realtek rtl 8139 C + fast Ethernet nic with the same driver.

I have an ethernet cable - basically it looks like a larger version of the dialup networking cable?

I plugged the cable between the two computers and in my network cnnections it says lacal area connection connected (the x has been removed).



I am ready to go and look forward to your response - although back to work tomorrow I might not be as quick as I am at the weekend.

Thanks again for your help

All the Best


Bill Z
Ernest Ford
Trusted Contributor

Re: Accessing the internet on 2 home laptops at the same time

OK! Sounds like you have everything you need - take a look at the instructions on this page - http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;306126 - and you should be good to go.

Holler back if you need help
Bill Zanetti
Frequent Advisor

Re: Accessing the internet on 2 home laptops at the same time

Dear Ernest,

I have eventually got torund to trying this out and got nowhere. The Knowledge Base article seemed very clear, and I setup one laptop as host and one as client.

When you use the connection wizrd in Internet Explorer the last step tells you to connect via broadband that is on all the time. In fact I use adialup connection whose speed is about 48kps. Maybe that is what caused the problem, because every time I tried to connect whilst the other machine was using the internet the page could not be displayed.

Ah well

Thanks again Ernest for your efforts.

All the Best

Bill Z
Ernest Ford
Trusted Contributor

Re: Accessing the internet on 2 home laptops at the same time

Bill,

It works for dialup also - I used ICS to share dialup internet connections for many years until the advent of broadband in my country.

Open a command prompt on each system and type "ipconfig /all", this will show the ip configuration details - post the results and I'll try to pinpoint the trouble area.
Bill Zanetti
Frequent Advisor

Re: Accessing the internet on 2 home laptops at the same time

Dear Ernest,

Thanks very much again for your help. Here are the results of the ipconfig/all

Client computer(BZNEWHP)

Microsoft Windows XP [Version 5.1.2600]
(C) Copyright 1985-2001 Microsoft Corp.

C:\Documents and Settings\BillZ>ipconfig/all

Windows IP Configuration

Host Name . . . . . . . . . . . . : bznewhp
Primary Dns Suffix . . . . . . . :
Node Type . . . . . . . . . . . . : Broadcast
IP Routing Enabled. . . . . . . . : No
WINS Proxy Enabled. . . . . . . . : No

Ethernet adapter Wireless Network Connection 2:

Media State . . . . . . . . . . . : Media disconnected
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Intel(R) PRO/Wireless 2200BG Networ
Connection
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-0E-35-F5-53-79

Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection:

Media State . . . . . . . . . . . : Media disconnected
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Realtek RTL8139 C+ Fast Ethernet NI

Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-0F-B0-4B-66-03

Ethernet adapter Bluetooth Network:

Media State . . . . . . . . . . . : Media disconnected
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Bluetooth LAN Access Server Driver
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-0F-B3-6D-59-D4

C:\Documents and Settings\BillZ>

Host bzmultimedltop

Microsoft Windows XP [Version 5.1.2600]
(C) Copyright 1985-2001 Microsoft Corp.

C:\Documents and Settings\BillZ>ipconfig/all

Windows IP Configuration

Host Name . . . . . . . . . . . . : BZMULTIMEDLTOP
Primary Dns Suffix . . . . . . . :
Node Type . . . . . . . . . . . . : Unknown
IP Routing Enabled. . . . . . . . : Yes
WINS Proxy Enabled. . . . . . . . : No

Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection:

Media State . . . . . . . . . . . : Media disconnected
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Realtek RTL8139 C+ Fast Ethernet NIC

Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-0F-B0-3F-D2-1F

C:\Documents and Settings\BillZ>

Hope you can suggest a solution.

All the Best

Bill Z
Ernest Ford
Trusted Contributor

Re: Accessing the internet on 2 home laptops at the same time

Bill,

Both configuration reports show the ethernet media as "disconnected", either there is no cable connected or you have a "straight-through" cable, and what you actually need is a "cross-over" cable.

On a "straight-through" cable each contact in the plug is wired straight to it's counterpart at the other end - you can sometimes see the wire colors through the plastic.

A "cross-over" cable connects the two transmit connections at one end to the receive connections at the other, and vice versa - if you can see the wire colors, pin1 on one end should go to pin3 on the other, pin2 connects to pin6 and vice versa, pins 4,5,7 & 8 aren't needed and don't have to be wired.

Cross-over cables can be purchased or if you know someone with the tools built quite cheaply.