How would you do this?

[natb1]

I have Charter Pipline, Two PCs, One IP, Ethernet hub, SB3100 Cable modem.

My First (connected unit) PC works fine and uses DHCP services to obtain an IP address from Charter. Im pleased with its performance.

I dont want my second PC to get online at all. Im not interested in ICS, or file sharing (client not installed). I DO WANT Both PCs to Play TCP/IP games though. I installed TCP/IP protocol in second PC and bound it to the NIC. This is enough to play LAN games...which I have done with the PCs in static mode.

I set my First PC to DHCP and my Second PC to static and it all worked well, for a while. The next day however the second PC couldnt find the First PC again.

I set the Second PC with an IP address identical to the First PC, with the exception of the last digit. I used the Same Mask (255.255.254.0) as the First PC. Is this the right approach?

I then checked winipcfg of First PC and learned that the new IP lease was STILL THE SAME IP and Mask numbers...etc....etc. I can only guess that its something to do with the lease expiration or ARP services nixing my local connection. Perhaps Charter sees My Second PC with a static setup, and does something in response?

If all the IP digits in the MASK portion of PC 1 and 2 are the same...dont they communicate via the MAC table for local connections? In other words, dont they talk locally?

Why would I get limited success, and then, the second PC gets lost the next day?

Getting to the Point!....
How would you do this?
One PC has Internet service via Cable/DHCP, and one PC doesnt (and dont want it), but you want the Two PCs to TCP/IP on a LAN basis.

Connected unit...Windows98SE
Un-connected unit....Windows95

[NooNoo]

Windows 95 is a notorious liar

It says tcp/ip is bound but its flakey.

Stick with the static IP on the 95 box.

But tear it ALL out in safe mode and do it again and make sure you got the updated version of winsock too.

[natb1]

The Second PC (95 & no IC) is static & has winsock 2.

More info though....
The next morning, without doing a thing, the local connection was working again.
This time I made a note of the IP lease expiration on the Second PC (Win98 w/IC).
It was like 9:30 PM tonight.
I got on my PCs again at 10:30 PM, and low....they werent talkin again!
Every night at 12:00 AM, Charter does some kind of updating/housekeeping or something.
Im gonna try again in the morning...and see if it dont start working again.

[bigcrit]

Are you connecting to the internet to play games on both PC's? or are you playing locally? 1 possibility is getting a cable modem router for about $50 - $100. Even if you don't want to share the connection it will stop your Ip from changing on the internet connected box. The Modem router would handle charter.

[bigcrit]

You can get a D-Link DI - 704 from Best buy for 29.99 after all the mail in rebates. This router is probably one of the better ones out there for the money. Plus you get the fire wll capabilities.

[natb1]

Thanks for the reply.

No...Not interested in second PC playing on the NET

Yes....I want the PCs to LAN together w/ TCP/IP.

Secondly. My IP hasnt been changing on the Connected PC. Yes the lease expires, but I get the same Setup everytime. thats why im confused.

Your Idea of the router isolating me from Charter sounds excellent. Could I make the PC static then?

What about this?

First PC (DHCP w/Cable) has TWO NICs. One NIC has TCP/IP bound to it, using DHCP, and connectes to the modem. The other NIC has TCP/IP bound to it in static mode, and connects to the Second PC which is also in static mode? Can I make that work?

BTW...MORE INFO ON MY PROBLEM.

It seems EVERY TIME I launch "winipcfg" on the First PC (The one w/CABLE IC), The second PC cant join a TCP/IP game (Quake II), for about 10 minutes.

Hence....They can be working fine. But if I exit game, run "winipcfg", close it, restart PC, host a game, Try to join on other PC, Client Game just tries to connect over & over & over, for 10 minutes...Then suddenly....Pooof...It joins and works good. This is very predictable!

hmmmm....any thoughts?

[Gollo]

[quote]Originally posted by natb1:
<strong>Your Idea of the router isolating me from Charter sounds excellent. Could I make the PC static then?
</strong><hr></blockquote>

Get the router (30 bucks you can't go wrong and even if you do just return it) and have the pc you want connected to the net get an IP via the DHCP server built into the router. This will allow it to connect to the internet. On the pc you do not want to connect to the internet setup an IP in the 192.168.0.x 255.255.255.0 range and don't put anything in for the gateway. Cheers.

PS Just curious but why don't you want internet on the one pc.

[natb1]

Well....I can only surf one machine at a time.
I dont want to run ICS on my machine.
I dont want to purchase routers and such.

I do have a NIC already....I think Ill try that.

P.S. If the router is a DHCP server for the PC. then wont I be back in the same boat?

[Gollo]

[quote]Originally posted by natb1:
<strong>P.S. If the router is a DHCP server for the PC. then wont I be back in the same boat?</strong><hr></blockquote>

Not if you setup the one computer to be static.

[Tubbs McFatty]

You could get a router/firewall solution to solve your problem. However, if you want to avoid that, I see two possible solutions:

1)Configure the inet PC for DHCP ("obtain an IP address automatically"). Configure the non-inet PC for static IP ("specify an IP address"). Make sure you set its IP address to 192.168.1.1(or x.x). When you want to LAN, you go to the inet PC, change it from "obtain automatically" to "specify" and set it to 192.168.1.2. If you have it set it to these, you ISP will ignore them. When you want to reconnect to the internet, change the inet pc back to "obtain automatically".
Take note:
a)Don't set the LAN PC's address to the same as your inet PC's address. Use the 192.168.x.x. These addresses are reserved for LANs. Your ISP will ignore them. Don't set your static IP to one similar to the IP address your inet pc gets from DHCP.
b)You have to reboot after you change the IP properties from dynamic to static. This is because Win9x is unable to restart network services on the fly. You cam release and renew an ip address ok without rebooting, but if you change from dynamic to static, you have to reboot. This might explain some of the unusual behavior you were getting.(an aside--I've heard that sometimes network services on win9x will start without rebooting...I haven't tried to prove it. Reboot to be sure) Win2k, winXP and I would assume WinNT do not have to reboot when you change network properties.
c) I forget a lot of my subnetting rules, but use 255.255.255.0 as the subnet mask when you use a 192.168.x.x address, just to be sure.

2)This method will avoid annoying reboots, but you will have connect and reconnect cables. Set up both PC's for DHCP ("obtain automatically"). Do NOT connect the lan pc to the hub. Connect the i-net pc up normally. If you check their addresses then, you will see that the inet pc has an IP address assigned by the ISP. The unhooked pc will have something like 169.254.x.x. This is a random IP address (APIPA). When you want to lan, disconnect your hub from the cable modem, reconnect your unhooked pc to the hub, and then release and renew the IP address from the inet pc. Surprise! it will get a 169.254.x.x that will allow it to talk to the other pc. Using this, you won't have to restart network services and avoid a reboot.

I think both of those should work.

[natb1]

[quote]Originally posted by Gollo:
<strong>

Not if you setup the one computer to be static.</strong><hr></blockquote>

Dohhh!......of course....hehe

And thanks to Fatty too.

Im gonna try my Two NIC idea first, with the hope I could avoid rebooting and cable swapping (which are fine ideas), and I have a NIC anyway. I may actually maintain the I-net and LAN connections at the same time.

Your explenation Fatty sounds right...My static IP was probably conflicting with Charter. cause I used the same Firts Digits, like 24.179.217.XXX, and 255.255.255.000 mask.

Ill get back to you guys and share my experience.

[supatech]

your inet pc will need two NICs

1 nic connected to cable modem
1 nic connected to your hub

second pc will need to have a nic also connected to the hub.

the first NIC attached to the cable modem set tcp/ip to DHCP

Assign the ip 192.168.1.1
the the other nic attached to the hub assign the ip 192.168.1.2

once this has been setup make sure you can ping and you will be fine.

The second PC static

[supatech]

I wanted to clarify the first nic in the inet pc is DHCP
second attached to the hub static

second pc static

[natb1]

So Far So Good,

My i-net PC has Two NICs, one is set up DHCP & connected to Hub. The Hub UPLINK is connected to the cable modem. The other NIC is setup STATIC and connected to THE SAME HUB. That is to say....my I-net PC is connected "Twice" to the same Hub. The DHCP NIC is networked to Charter and the other NIC is static to the local network. The "NON I-net" PC connects to the same Hub.

My "I-net" PC is surfing fine. My "non I-net" PC dont surf (the way i want it), but it does join my First PCs host games...just the way I want.

The other option of course, is a "cross over cable" connecting straight to the static NIC.

I didnt have enough Ethernet Cable to leave it for a few days, and my Ethernet crimping attempt didnt work out (I thought Coax sucked).

Im gonna get the cable situation worked out, and report back.

[Gollo]

[quote]Originally posted by natb1:
<strong>So Far So Good,

My i-net PC has Two NICs, one is set up DHCP & connected to Hub. The Hub UPLINK is connected to the cable modem. The other NIC is setup STATIC and connected to THE SAME HUB. That is to say....my I-net PC is connected "Twice" to the same Hub. The DHCP NIC is networked to Charter and the other NIC is static to the local network. The "NON I-net" PC connects to the same Hub.

My "I-net" PC is surfing fine. My "non I-net" PC dont surf (the way i want it), but it does join my First PCs host games...just the way I want.

The other option of course, is a "cross over cable" connecting straight to the static NIC.

I didnt have enough Ethernet Cable to leave it for a few days, and my Ethernet crimping attempt didnt work out (I thought Coax sucked).

Im gonna get the cable situation worked out, and report back.</strong><hr></blockquote>

Why would you need a crossover cable? Most modems just plug right into your NIC without the need for a crossover. Plug the modem directly into your "Internet" NIC and then setup internet connection sharing on the connection. Your other pc should connect fine.