Registered: Dec 1999
Location: brooklyn
Posts: 268

help! trying to set up a network

i am trying to set up a simple wireless network between two dell laptops. i have all the equipment installed, but network neighborhood won't let me access the network... help, please... i've done all sorts of futzing in the network control panels, and i'm stuck. help, do i need an outside software solution? the wireless cards i'm using are cisco aironet 350. win98 (work, not my fault).

any tips?

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Registered: Jan 2000
Location: Twin Cities, MN
Posts: 1683

This is a wild guess, but do you need a base station? A main computer that broadcasts the signal to the others?

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Registered: Dec 1999
Location: brooklyn
Posts: 268

they told me with 2 laptops i didn't need a base station, they called it a peer-to-peer, i believe.

hmm... doesn't anybody know?

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Registered: Apr 2000
Location: St Petersburg Fla
Posts: 224

Try this site

This site may have the answers you seek:

http://www.homepcnetwork.com/

Registered: Feb 2000
Location:
Posts: 638

I am almost posative (note almost) that any wireless setup will need both a transmitter, and a base station.

BEN

Registered: May 2000
Location: St. Paul, MN
Posts: 1429

hmm. The first driver revisision had that flaw, (needed base stations) but almost every card lets you to P2P.. Infact doesn't Apple's Airport 1.1 even support it?

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-miradu

Registered: Feb 2001
Location: Atlantic Rim
Posts: 570

And "they" Would be?

quote:

---

Originally posted by matty
they told me with 2 laptops i didn't need a base station, they called it a peer-to-peer, i believe.

hmm... doesn't anybody know?

---

Registered: Feb 2001
Location: Atlantic Rim
Posts: 570

Insidious They

"They" are also prone to tell people you can do a peer to peer network with Cat 5 cable, neglecting to inform you that if you go peer-to-peer (without a hub) you need to specify cross-over cable.

Not that this has anything to do with this specific topic.

Registered: May 2000
Location: St. Paul, MN
Posts: 1429

read this article here: http://krypton.mnsu.edu/~kawatra/ieee80211.htm

specificly figure 3

or do a search on google, it coems up with tons of stuff..


It's possible, you just need hte lastest drivers..

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-miradu

Registered: Dec 1999
Location: brooklyn
Posts: 268

Re: And "they" Would be?

quote:

---

Originally posted by Keefer Lucas


And "they" would be who? Staples associates?

---

actually, the computer guys at nyu... my boss is a professor, so we get educational discounts at the store. anyway, the documentation i have has intimated that i don't need a base if it's two laptops (which is all it is, nothing else!). i'll check out those two links (thanks bud and miradu) when i get a chance, which, i hope will be soon.) by the way, i tried doing a google search, but i must not have narrowed it down enough, because i was way too intimidated by the deluge of answers.

(you know what i like about these forums -- i can get two totally different answers to the same question. wait, maybe that's what i like about computers. not.

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Registered: Jan 2001
Location:
Posts: 278

You can set up a peer to peer network if you want. Right now you do need a base station since you do not have the software on the laptops to make a p2p network. If you wanted a p2p network you need to install a piece of software like LapLink onto each computer. I would reccomend getting a base station.

--David

Registered: Dec 1999
Location: brooklyn
Posts: 268

HOORAY

well, kids, i got it. it was, as i had sort of suspected the whole time, just a matter of flipping the right (virtual) switches. i finally got the windows networking software (preinstalled) configured properly, and i'm currently online via my wireless card via a dial-up connection (dsl next week)

so... thanks for the help all, and so you know:

it can be done with no more than 2 laptops, each with wireless cards, their drivers and the network software that ships as part of windows98.

no hub. no router. no desktop. only the hassle of microsoft (if these had been macs, i am quite sure that i never would have needed to ask the question. ah well.

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Registered: Feb 2001
Location: Atlantic Rim
Posts: 570

Besmerched

I thought about wandering back into this string with my tail between my legs, then I decided that I would instead continue to insist that your laptops cannot be networked.

If I can't be right then I can atleast be intractable.

Registered: Dec 1999
Location: brooklyn
Posts: 268

hahahahahahahaha...

i think there should be a 51st state, the state of Denial.

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