Some IT help needed

[miniminx]

Hi All:)

Hope someone can help me here as it would be appreciated.

As I work from home(self employed) I use my Desktop everyday which has all my clients work & information stored on the hard drive.
Now I sometimes back up this information on CD discs & transfer it across to my laptop, which If you like I see as my external hard drive.
However, most of my client folders are now way to big to transfer across onto disc's onto the laptop.

So, is there a way of connecting the laptop to the desk top Pc & transfer the files that way?
If there is, please explain in idiot form as I am hopeless with this sort of thing.:clown:

Cheers
Mike:)

[The Dogfather]

The best way would be via a network cable. Do both machines have ethernet connections?

[miniminx]

yes, I believe they do. Thats one of those big square connecter type thingy like a phone cable plug RJ56 ????

[Craig]

yep, thats the cable....

plug the cable in to both PC and laptop. Depending on the defaults on your pc it should see both... If not, go to the network connections (probably shown as Local Area Network Connection) and set a manual I.P. address on both units (ie 172.16.16.1 and 172.16.16.2) This will mean that they are on the same subnet and should be able to talk.

to test this, open up a command window and type ping 172.16.16.X (x being the address of the other PC. you should get a response saying "reply from 172.16.16.x etc etc)

once you have connection, share the c: drive by right clicking on it and select sharing. you should then be able to map a network drive (by right clicking on My Computer and selecting map a network drive)
ie....... \\172.16.16.1\c

hope this helps :D

[The Dogfather]

Just as he said :D

[miniminx]

ok.

plugged one end into the laptop & the other into the desk top, it did not do anything automatic.

I then went to : Control panel> network connections> in there under Local Area Connection icon says: limited or no cennectivty both on the PC & the laptop.

So where do I set up the I.P address?

I had a look at the nework wizard but just seems to ask me about connecting to the internet.

Told you I was rubbish at this sort of thing:D

[Craig]

go to the network connections.

right click on Local Area Connection and select properties.


once in there select Internet Protocol (TCPIP) then select properties.

once in here select the radio button to use this I.P. Address.

put in a number as noted earlier in I.P. address - leave the subnet mask as default (should be 255.255.0.0) and also put the same I.P. Address in the gateway..

Repeat this for the other PC/Laptop (but use a different I.P address by changing the last number up or down by 1)

Fingers Crossed
:D:D

[miniminx]

Hi I did the above but had the following problems.

1) could not connect to the internet/email. Had to go back into network connections>Local area icon>properties> & check the "obtain an IP address automatically"

2) To enter an IP as listed above I had to check "use the following Ip address" but then it seems it won't let me connect to the internet.

Anyway, I did the above on both PC's but can not see how you would transfer files between the two computers. There was no desktop icon or anything to tell me where to place/copy my files to.

Please help, it is turning into a nightmare this end & I can see one of these PC's taking flying lessons:D

[Craig]

Hi Mike,

sorry, forgot that one of these machines would be used for your internet connection and that would muck that up... apologies.

The easiest way I can see to do this is by way of an external usb hard drive. If you could borrow one from a friend that would be best or you could buy one and use it for backups as they are also important if you have important files that you would need in the event of your PC expiring..:)

this http://www.ebuyer.com/UK/product/113888 may be a possibility for you, just depends how quick you need this to happen..

It's really difficult to try and work it out without seeing it (Its my fault, not great a visualising...;))

[duncan]

A Router, wireless or just a plain one, would be probably easier.
It would give you a shared internet connection on both machines, and be able to share files between them.

I often have my Laptop connected wirelessly, watching video files that are on a hard drive on my PC

[Gismo]

You're using the wrong kind of cable, well, the set up is wrong, you need a straight through cable and not the cross over type you're using at the mo.
Thought Craig would have known that :p8)
And never share the entire C:\ Drive, just the folders you need to share or move etc

Also, if you have anti virus/firewall software you'll have to set it up to share between the PC and Laptop, somewhere in the settings you'll have to add all that IP stuff

[miniminx]

Thanks for your help.

Gave up in the end & will get one of those external hard drives as I think this will be a much easier way of backing up my work.

Cheers:)
Mike

[Mon the fish]

I've got a Netgear Storage Central thingy, basically a hard drive the plugs into the wireless router so anything on the network can access it.

But here's the best bit - it takes INTERNAL hard drives. 2 of them. So you can upgrade it as and when by putting in bigger HD's, unlike an external one which is fixed in capacity :)

[euan]

Following on from Netgear storage, a cheaper solution is to go to ebuyer.com, they sell external USB caddies, so you can put any drives in them - and they cost less than 20 quid!

[euan]

quote:Originally posted by Bonnie Scotland

You're using the wrong kind of cable, well, the set up is wrong, you need a straight through cable and not the cross over type you're using at the mo.
Thought Craig would have known that :p8)
And never share the entire C:\ Drive, just the folders you need to share or move etc

Also, if you have anti virus/firewall software you'll have to set it up to share between the PC and Laptop, somewhere in the settings you'll have to add all that IP stuff


Actually, a cross over is the right type of cable for this but the set-up for getting it working with XP can be a bit of fiddle as it wants to rule the world.

[Gismo]

quote:Originally posted by euan
Actually, a cross over is the right type of cable for this but the set-up for getting it working with XP can be a bit of fiddle as it wants to rule the worldOops :I

[Craig]

quote:Originally posted by Bonnie Scotland


quote:Originally posted by euan
Actually, a cross over is the right type of cable for this but the set-up for getting it working with XP can be a bit of fiddle as it wants to rule the worldOops :I


ha ha - (Nelson stylee) :D