Trying to network two laptops...
 

Hmmm....fast forward.....a few months later....

I really love my new HP DV1420, but am having serious issues separating from my old Compaq Armada 1598DMT running WIN95..... :D :D

My current thought is that since my HP does not have a 1.44 floppy drive, I should network the two using an ethernet (RJ45 to RJ45) crossover wire via the Compaq's (WIN 95) existing ethernet 10/100 cc adaptor to transfer data from the 10 billion+ 1.44 floppies I have . I figger it'll be a trifle slow, but eventually will get me where I'm going without having to shell out more $ for a USB floppy drive.

I presume one system should be host and the other guest? Which should be which? Is it better to have system running XP designated host? Is there a "networking for dummies" with a step by step instruction booklet???

Thoughts? Ideas? Any comments and/or constructive criticism would be greatly appreciated!

Connect them, make sure they are in the same workgroup name (default is "workgroup"), make sure the Win95 machine has Microsoft NetBeui protocol installed in its networking screen, and that the XP system has File and Printer sharing enabled in its networking screen.

Then share the A and/or C drive on the old machine, head to Network Neighbourhood on the XP machine, and you SHOULD see it. I say SHOULD because this amost never works right away :)

Or for $29 save yourself the hassle and buy a USB floppy drive:

http://www.buy.com/retail/product.asp?sku=10344072
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000096B01

For software look into www.alohabob.com . I have never used it but know 4 people who say its fast, does a great job and is easy to use.

MisterNice

NetBEUI? Yuck!

95 has a TCP/IP protocol bundled. Make sure that's added to the NIC, and then either see if you can't get them to work via DHCP autoconfig (where they have some random IP out of 169.254.0.0/16) or else make 95 192.168.1.1 and XP 192.168.1.2 with a netmask of 255.255.255.0

Try doing a "ping computername" for the opposing machines from a command prompt on each to see if they are communicating.

Thank you all for the suggestions.

Scott, I don't know what NetBEUI is!

bdesmond, I do know that my WIN95 machine had TCP/IP protocol bundled (used the card to access libraries at Yale and Harvard via TCP/IP protocols). But what I don't know is what the term "netmask" is or how to achieve it?
And last, is "ping" command from DOS or Windows? (I presume Windows, but since WIN 95 is interface running on DOS OS, I thought I would just check).

Yuck? It works, it doesn't need configuring and it is simple to add to the network. You may think it is dirty, but it is quick, clean and simple.

Netmask is one of the advanced/detail type settings on the network adapter's properties pages. If you poke around (starting from the control panel/networking) you should be able to find it. It probably means you will switch something from automatically configuring to manual/static values. Remember to write down any settings that work today, before you change them ;)

The whole point of ping is to see if one PC can see another on a network, and in this case the 'ping' command is best run from a command window running within win95. This allows your computer to use your existing windows network drivers (re-boot into dos-mode is not the same), plus running it from within a command window allows you to see results/errors before they disappear. The command prompt should be a menu entry in 95 (and xp for that matter).

Adding NetBEUI happens in almost the same place as changing netmasks - on the control panel/Network 'configuration' tab you can 'Add' NetBEUI or change TCP/IP via the 'Properties' button.

Since this is not really a contest about protocol elegance, this has an added bonus of not messing up the OP's TCP/IP settings for routine internet use.

Good luck with either choice :)