Rhymes With Geek

I have been working OK with VPC 2004, all installed software is working and they are a great solution for my many uses.

That was until I tried to print. The system is useless without, but does not support USB. Research showed that it would work if I networked the printer and shared.

All instructions fail me because they seem to assume a prior knowledge of networking. I have been in the computer business for many years but NEVER networking.

I have a laptop with XP sp2. It has a built in network adaptor 'Realtek RTL8139 ethernet NIC. It is not used. I set the IP address to 192.168.1.1, subnet mask 255.255.255.0 and then I set the printer to shared. (I don't know how the system knows that it is shared on a network, not something else).

I set the network adaptor on the VPC to the same adaptor (it now appeared in the list) and tried to set up the network on the VPC but not setting any IP address. (I don't know what I am doing).

When I tried to add the printer in the VPC it only found 'Microsoft Windows Network' and no printer name. I typed the correct printer name from the host share window. No go.

Meanwhile, the network adaptor icon in the taskbar says 'little or no connectivity.

My lack of fundamental knowledge tells me that I am missing something everybody else knows!!

Could some kind person walk me through gently and show every step of the way, I am desperate after spending all day on the internet trying to find the answer. Everybody assumes you know most of it.

My grateful thanks.

 

I've got an idea you can try. I'm not totally confident it will work for you - as you can tell from the website, I usually work at the "so technical it hurts" end of computer networks and I'm not great with the home stuff, but still its worth a go.

On the HOST computer, open up your start menu --> control panel --> network and internet connections --> network connections

In the right hand side, under NETWORK TASKS, click "Set up a home or small office network" and walk through the wizard. Part of the way along it will give you an option for sharing drives, and printers too - make sure you choose to share your printer. This is what makes printers and disk space on your computer available to others on the network.

As part of this wizard's ending, it should give you instructions for connecting other computers to the first one that you ran this wizard on. Follow these instructions (this is where I get vague because I don't do this often myself!). Hopefully you'll now be able to connect the two computers together to some degree.

Now, when you come to use a networked printer, what you need to do is 'browse' the network, kinda like looking through a list of folders for a file.  In the add printer window, when you see "microsoft windows network", double click on that and it should open up, with possibly a pause here. Hopefully there will only be one item in the next window. Open THIS up too, and keep going until, I hope, you see your printer on the host machine..

hope that gets you started at least
rob  

Thanks Rob for the try.

Unfortunately still no go so I tried manually. Experiments show that I did not have a connection (tried IPCONFIG at prompt).
On the host at dos prompt, IPConfig, I get 'Media Disconnected' and of course get no IP address.
It also says 'Cable Disconnected' on the icon in the task bar.

I set up Microsoft Loopback instead on the host and I do get the IP address I set up as 192.168.1.1 and subnet mask 255.255.255.0
The icon in the task bar says 'connected'

I set up VPC as 'Shared Networking (NAT)' and did not set IP address, it is set to DHCP.
When I use ipconfig i get the generated address 192.168.131.65 subnet mask 255.0.0.0
In VPC 'Network Connections' I see the Local Area Connection icon which says it is connected, firewalled and has a small padlock which is closed.
So far it looks as if the network is connected but I fear not to each other!!

On Host I have set the printer to share and it has the little hand beneath.

On VPC when I set add printer to 'Networked Printer' I still get the 'Microsoft Windows Network' and on double clicking it goes away for a while and comes back with nothing.
VPC 'Local Area Connection Status' shows Sent 93,606 and Received 3997.

The window of .'My Network Places' is empty and clicking 'View Workgroup Computers', after a delay produces nothing!!

If there are any clues in my description, maybe you can help further

Thanks

Ah.. you mentioned NAT. In virtual PC settings, change the network settings to use a direct connection using the loopback adapter. You most definately cannot share printers or anything like that through a NAT connection.  

Thanks for your continued assistance.

I set up both ends as Loopback. Set up the network then displayed computers on the network, on the VPC. Only the that computer showed. The network icon showed 'limited or no connectivity' and was at 100Mb/s. The icon on the Host showed normal but only 10Mb/s.

I installed the printer drivers on the VPC and added the printer. In doing so I had to set a 'New Port' as a TCP/IP port and gave the 'odd?' address of 169.254.249.177 that Ipconfig showed me.
All appeared OK until print test page. It spooled OK to the task bar and then failed. Presumably some failure in the network connection.

For straight networking to Host At no time have I been able to show computers on the Host Network. If I use the buiilt in card it simply shows 'Cable Disconnected' and won't run.

Two problems seem to have emerged. Only 10Mb/s on the Host and 'Limited Conectivity'
I did not get this when using the NAT for a straight network.

I feel we are close???

Any further help of course appreciated.

Don

I think I was a little unclear - with the loopback adapter setup on the host, and specified in virtual PC settings as your default network connection, this is when you should run the network wizard I talked about earlier on the host and follow its instructions - including running the wizard on the guest also when asked to do so.

The network adapter speeds are nothing to worry about, this is just a quirk of using software based virtual network adapters instead of real network adapters. The "real" network adapter won't work unless you're properly connected to a network due to the error about not being plugged into anything :-(

If the real and virtual computers cannot "see" each other at all, then you wouldn't want to proceed to trying to setup the network printer... building a network works like building a wall... you need to get the foundations right before you try and set anything else up.

Thanks again Rob

This is an addendum to this very post. I just reinstalled loopback on the host and realised that both end should be set to DHCP. I have now done this and the IPs are 169.254.25.129 Host and 169.254.249.177. Both ends now display the icon with yellow exclamation saying 'Limited or No Connectivity'
If in VPC and ping itself I get a return. If in Host I ping itself I get timed out  or unreachable.

If I ping each other I get unreachable for both ends. In VPC I can see itself in My Network Places.
In Host I cannot and it mentions permissions but I am on the admisinstrator list.

From what you said I cannot set up the Network 'HOME' until I have this connection pinging?

 

Original...

After I sent the last post I changed the VPC network adaptor from DHCP and gave it an IP address because the one generated didn't start 192.168. Having done this I then got a fully fledged icon saying all was well. I also noticed that the VPC gave a subnet mask of just 255, whereas the Host was 255.255.255.
Presuming the network was now OK I installed the printer as Direct/Local and invented a new TCP/IP port with the new IP. Again it won't actually print.
When I then went to DOS and pinged (both ways), they both said 'Host Unreachable'.

I did run the wizard after I thought the network was up and I can see the VPC computer in the 'Computers on the Network' in the VPC. The problem seems to be the Host.

Earlier when I set up NAT on VPC I was able to ping itself and get a return.

This never happened on the Host, The host gives no indication there is anything wrong.

I don't want to be a pain but I think I have done what you said. I set up Loopback on the host then selected it on the VPC. I ran the wizard on both and selected 'finish' rather than make a disk which I presume was OK.

I don't think I have misunderstood

Regards

Don

 

Problem solved. It was not the initial method but a corruption of some sort (maybe virus) that prevented me turning off the MS Firewall on the host. Pressing the button said 'Due to unknown problems these settings cannot be shown' or somesuch.

Re-installed Windows, set up 192.168 numbers both ends and hey presto!

Thanks for your help

Don

Glad its working. Shame you had to reinstall Windows to get there but still, its a result!

hello ladies and gents! I've been kind of lurking around. I love this site! thanks for having me :)