Network and Router ?

[Siberian]

If I have one computer connected to a router and another two computers connected to each other, how do I get one of the other computers that are directly connected to see the computer connected to the router on a network ? tongue twister :)

[JorgeM]

Why arent you connecting all of the computers to the router directly? If the router doesnt have enough ports, plug in a switch to the router, then plug all of your hosts to the switch. Make sure that all of your computers are on the same logical IP scheme.

[Siberian]

What difference does it make if I plug them all into the router ? What will a switch do, how come I can't make my current configuration work ?

[JorgeM]

Maybe I didnt understand your description. You indicated that you have a computer connected to a router.

Router <--> Computer1

and that you have two computers connected to each other...

Computer2 <--> Computer3

In this scenario, how would you expect for the computers to share information among one another if there are not networked together?

I had suggested this model.

     Router
       |
     Switch
   /   |   \
  1    2    3

[Siberian]

It's similar setup rather
Computer 1 <--> Computer 2
Computer 3 <--> Router

What your saying is, if I connect all the computers to the router they will be able to share information amoungst each other, rather then my current setup. If so, where does a switcher come into this solution, if it does at all ?

[JorgeM]

The switch is not required if your router has enough ports. Most of the consumer based routers come with 4 ports. If your router only has one port, then you need a switch. If your router has wireless capability, then you obviously can leverage that as well to add additional nodes to this network.

[Siberian]

My router has 4 ports, let the router control the network. Then sync the windows machines, sounds like a plan. I hope it works.

[JorgeM]

Once you plug in your computers into the router, assuming that you have your Windows computers' network cards set to DHCP clients, they will all receive a compatible IP configuration. From there you can work on sharing resources between computers.

Keep in mind that sharing requires correct permissions on files and folders as well as configuring the local firewalls to allow the appropriate traffic.

[caperjack]

and it helps[makes networking easier ] if they all have the same OS ,you didn't mention what OS's they all run on

[Siberian]

What about the computer that has the router connected to it via Internet. I have to connect another cable from one of the ports to the same computer, again ?
The OS's are a combination of Win7/Win8.

[caperjack]

no you only need to hook one cable to each computer ,and win 7 and win8 will work fine together .
this looks like a good place to start good luck

[Siberian]

How can it matter if one PC has dual Lan support if it's plugged into a router or in one of the dual lan ports on the MB ?

[caperjack]

not sure ,but you don't need to use/worry about dual lan support to setup the network between the 3 computer ,they can be wired to touter or if router is wireless they can be connected wireless also

[Siberian]

Can anyone clarify this, the setup here has a box with two LAN ports, I don't see how this should not work. I'm being told I have to let the router control the network.

[JorgeM]

Each computer should plug into one of the routers port. It does not make that your network hosts have more than one NIC. For your design each PC should only use one NIC.

[Siberian]

Why ?

[caperjack]

Why ?

because snakes have no armpits

[JorgeM]

I dont understand why you are asking why you should only use one NIC port to connect to the network?

Some computers have multiple NICs, but that doesnt mean you need to plug all of them in to the network. If you plug multiple NICs into the same logical subnet, there is not benefit. You are only adding complexitity to the network connection.

Multiple NICs are used when you need to plug the computer into multiple VLANs for specific reasons.

[JorgeM]

I've always wondered why snakes have no armpits? lol.

[Siberian]

I got it to work except. I can see the folder(s) I want to access, I can't directly access them without getting this error:

Network Error
Windows cannot access \ComputerName

I did my research, from enabled NetBios TCP/IP for IPv4, making sure the permissions on the folder were setup correctly, and it doesn't work ?

[JorgeM]

Have you taken a look to make sure that the local firewalls on each of the computers are allowing file/print sharing traffic through?

[Siberian]

Yes, do need to setup a IP address for each computer or is that irrelvant with Win7/8 ? I remember always having to do that, don't tell me that it's still relvant ?

[JorgeM]

Yes, of course each computer requires a unique IP address on the network. If you have a router, then it should have the DHCP service running and assigning your clients a dynamic IP address.

Just to validate, go to each computer, open a command prompt and type ipconfig.

You should see the IP address for each PC. I would assume that they will be configured on the 192.168.0.x network. If not, that's OK, but you want to make sure that all of your PCs all share the first three octects (a.b.c.?). The last number needs to be unique for each computer on the subnet.

Once you validate the IPs, you should be able to PING each other. PING 192.168.1.1 for example..

Of course, your local firewall on each computer would have to allow ICMP packets (PING) to traverse the firewalls.

[Siberian]

That is the problem, one computer is visible in the IPConfig List with an IP address, the others are all "media disconnected" with a IPv6 address, no IPv4 address. How do know from IPConfig which Connection is which computer ? And How do I solve this ? :)

[JorgeM]

AS long as the one NIC has an IPv4 address that's OK. The others will show disconnected because you have no cable plugged into it. As a best practice, I always disable the unused NICs from Control Panel --> Network Connections.

[Siberian]

I still can't get the computers to see the folder I have shared. If I don't need to assign each computer an IP address then how come it's not working ?

[BigPaw]

It's good to know that you like research. Check that all of the computers are set to the same Workgroup, and that the folders you would like to see on the other computers are set as shared on those computers

[Sammy N]

Hai, kindly run me through the process of setting up a simple network of 3 or 4 computers that are running on the same OS i.e Windows 7,iving limitations and tests that would indicate that the computers are properly pinged.

[JorgeM]

@SammyN,

It appears that you are a new member of this community. You may consider starting your own threads when you have a question, or need assistance, rather than hijacking someone's elses thread.

[Siberian]

The problem is Error 0x80070035. I feel like I've exhasted everything. I disabled the Firewall in Norton 360, I enabled NetBIOS for IP4, disabled IP6 for both computers. The folder I want to access on Box(A) I can see from Box(B) but I can't access it without getting the error.