network noob question

P

psyphi7

n00b
Joined
May 10, 2005
Messages
19
i am planning on connecing both my laptop and main computer together so that they can both be on the internet and access files, at least that is what i want to do.
i want both computers to be on the same IP address and i think i need a router to do that. the reason why is cause i have port forwading issues and i can't port forward 2 different ips on my dsl modem. so my question is what kind of router do i need, or will a hub work. also what software is good for this. i have never set up a network before and any help would be greatly appreciated.
dell laptop win xp pro.
custom comp win xp pro

also i used the same win xp pro cd for both comps, will that be a problem conecting them two together?
 
You are correct, you cannot forward one port to two different machines. What you need to do is pick a different port to forward for one of the machines, and have your application software listen on that port instead of the default port.

If your current DSL modem/router allows for port forwarding, adding an additional router will not help. What services are you running that you wish to forward?
 
well i want to be able to have both computers online to surf the web and maybe be able to share files like songs. i would like to be able to have the same ip address becasue of the port forwarding. i don;t know a whole lot about networking. so would i need a router or just a hub?
 
You need a router if you want the same IP address.

question: You need port forwarding yet you admit you are a network novice. Why do you think you need to have port forwarding? Port forwarding is for applications behind your router like email servers, http servers, teamspeak servers, etc that accept INBOUND connections.

Basically, if all you want is to have 2 (or more) computers on the internet at one time to do normal day-to-day tasks, you dont need to worry about port forwarding, you need a router that does NAT (network address translation) and ALL (going on a limb here) routers you can buy in a retail store will do this for you quite nicely.

If you are concerned with stuff like filesharing programs (bittorrent, etc) then you might have to worry about port forwarding, but you need the basics learned first.


If you just want to share files between your laptop and the desktop (windows file-sharing), a router will also work, but so would a hub/switch. The benefit to the router is that it will easily allow both PCs on the interweb and still allow them to "see" each other from your local area network.
 
yeah i did need to to port forwarding to allow some bittorrent stuff to work faster and mirc. so a router is all i need. is there software that comes with those? or can i use windows networking?
 
networking for your purposes is by TCP/IP, it is already a part of windows, you wont need any special software for a router.
 
psyphi7 said:
yeah i did need to to port forwarding to allow some bittorrent stuff to work faster and mirc. so a router is all i need. is there software that comes with those? or can i use windows networking?
Click to expand...


The only software that you need is built into the management interface of the router. Its available via a web-browser from your lan PC to configure it. Best of luck to you, and I would advise reading on the interweb about router basics. It will help you out in the long run.
 
thanks for all the help, im so new to networking. i bought my router and its all pretty self explanetory. windows sets it up good.
thanks.
 
Everyone starts somewhere. Just be patient and until you get really comfortable, write down or backup your settings in case someting goes horribly horribly wrong.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top