I have a Windows 2000 Pro PC at home with a printer connected to the
parallel port and the PC is connected to a 4-port switch that is in
turn connected to my DSL line.  I use a Windows 2000 Pro laptop at
work and it's setup to connect to a domain while I'm at work.  Before
I leave work, I put the laptop in sleep mode, take the laptop home,
connect it to the 4-port hub and
take it out of sleep mode.  It connects to the internet fine as does
my home PC.

Problem: How do I share files between my computers at home and print
to the home PC printer from my laptop without changing any cables and
without changing my laptop from a domain to a workgroup?

I just want to do what I do now: plug in my ethernet cable to the
laptop, open it up, and be able to share files between both computers
and print to my printer without reconfiguring any network settings or
changing any cables.  Is this possible?  If yes, what do I do?

---

Request for Question Clarification by alienintelligence-ga on 01 Nov 2002 03:37 PST

Hi headless...

You said you don't want to reconfigure,
is that because you don't want the hassle
or do you simply not want to change anything?
Would a network utility like:
[ http://www.netswitcher.com/ ]
be of benefit to you? Or is the idea to
have identical network setups? TCP/IP used
at work and at home? IP addresses preassigned
or dynamically allocated with DHCP? DNS, WINS? 

thanks
-AI

Dear headless,

I'm assuming you know all about tcp/ip configurations, and you
question has specifically to do with the security aspect of your
situation. (If you need help configuring the TCP/IP aspect, please
refer to this document. (
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=KB;EN-US;Q258717& )

Firstly, let me ask, why do you not power down the pc instead of going
into sleep mode??

I'm also assuming that your pc at home is NOT in a domain and is in a
local workgroup. Thus having no way to identify users by their domain
login. And this is the only problem you could encounter. As there is
no common reference to authenticate users, you will need to set
security on the shares to (everyone full access). In fact there are
other ways to set security, using the guest account and or mapping
drives as other user, but the everyone full access approach is the
easiest, and will not be a problem in home network environment.

Taking this into account, you can start sharing the drive/printers you
want on the workgroup PC. Do this by right clicking the folder/printer
and selecting the share tab. Create a new share and set permissions to
everyone full control. If your drive is an NTFS file system, check the
permissions for the files as well and set it to everyone full control
to. Now go to your laptop, and type \\Computername in the run box.
(Click start, then click run) (replace computername with the
computername of your home PC.)

When the window opens it will show you all shared folders/printers and
you can access them by dblclicking on the icons.

---

Request for Answer Clarification by headless-ga on 01 Nov 2002 14:13 PST

Hi,

I put the notebook computer into sleep mode because rebooting takes
too much time.  It can sometimes take 2 minutes for it to shutdown and
then 3 - 5 minutes to get the OS loaded and all of the tray items
opened from a cold boot.  Couple that with the extra steps of having
to change the notebook from a DOMAIN configuration to a workgroup and
it can take 10 minutes to get my notebook configured and then I have
to change it back when I get to work.  There is no way that I know of
to change between a workgroup and a domain without a reboot.

You are correct in that my home PC is not in a domain configuration. 
My notebook is setup as part of my domain at work and the home PC is
just configured as a workgroup.

Specifically, my question is: how do I share files between my notebook
and my home PC and also print to the printer on the home PC from my
notebook without having to reboot my notebook?

Here are some of my ideas, please tell me if they're possible:

1) What if I connect the printer, the PC and my notebook to a USB hub?
 Would I be able to print to the printer from both computers?  If yes,
that would solve one problem.

2) Could I setup a VPN connection between my PC and my notebook and
connect the two through the internet?

3) I don't have a shortage of NICs.  If I added a second NIC to the
home PC and a second NIC to my notebook, could I connect a crossover
cable between them and use that private bus to transfer files between
the notebook and PC while still using the other NICs to access the
internet?  I don't really care whether I can browse the home PC from
my notebook, I just want to be able to transfer large files from one
to the other.

Thanks for the help!

---

Clarification of Answer by lucason-ga on 03 Nov 2002 08:37 PST

Hi Headless,

Firstly let me assure you there is no need to change your laptop from
domain to workgroup to allow sharing between the two pc's. As long as
you have a network connection between the 2 with the same protocol you
will be fine.

Let me answer your questions one by one first.

1: I would not recommend using a usb hub. It's really a makeshift
solution and won't give you access to files anyway. Once your file
sharing is operational so will your printer sharing so you only have
one problem to begin with so no need for 2 solutions. Right?

2: Using VPN via Internet for 2 computers which are close to each
other is a complex and expensive not to mention extremely slow
solution. Don't even think about it.

3: Now were talking a crossover cable (or indeed 2 strait cables and a
hub) will do the trick.

Let me elaborate on the 3rd option.

One nic per pc will be enough as long as we get the protocols in sync.
First question is which protocol do we use. We really have 2 choices.
TCP/IP or netbeui.

Netbeui: is a great little protocol for small unrouted networks. (and
you can't get any smaller that 2 pc's) The advantage of this protocol
is that there is no configuration required, so it's plug and go. The
disadvantage is that there is no way to share an Internet connection
or traverse routed networks.

TCP/IP: the most versatile and most definitely the most widely used
protocol (the entire internet is based on it) the downside is basic
knowledge is required to configure it.

Let's take a look at both systems.

Netbeui: Go to the network connections part of you configuration panel
and right click on your network connection and select properties. If
netbeui is not in the protocol list, add it (from the installable
protocol list). Do this on both pc's. Make sure Microsoft networking
client is installed. (Install is from the installable clients list)
also the File and printer sharing service needs to be installed. (From
the installable service list). If this is done, select any folder on
the sharing pc and select sharing from the right click menu. Add a
share (give it a name) and set the permissions to everyone full
access. Now go the other PC and enter \\Computername (replace
computername by the name of the host PC) in the run box (to open the
run box click on the start button and then select run)

You should see the share you just created. Do the same for your
printer (right click -> share) go to client PC open \\Computername and
dblclick on the printer. (If both PC’s are running the same OS drivers
will be installed automatically.

TCP/IP: If you use TCP/IP your ip address needs to be within certain
parameters to be able to connect. If your Laptop is configured by your
companies DHCP this could be a real pain. Local networks should have
IP:192.168.0.x (where x is any number unique on your network between 1
and 255) and subnet mask 255.255.255.0 . This is a worldwide
convention for small local networks. Give your Desktop IP:192.168.0.1
and your laptop IP:192.168.0.2 connect the Xcable and follow the same
instructions as in the previous paragraph to connect the sharing
service.

As I don’t know your level of technical knowledge I’d recommend the
netbeui solution.

I hope this helps you.

This isn't exactly the answer I was looking for, but the researcher
gave lots of ideas of what to look at and that's helpful.  I'm
realizing that 99% of the battle is asking the question with enough
detail that the researcher can understand what my level of knowledge
is.

If your laptop can ping your home pc and vice versa, then you can see
your laptop from My Network places at your home pc. Share your printer
connected to your home pc, and add the printer on your laptop as a
network printer option.

If your username/password are different on your laptop and home pc,
win2000 might give you security problem, to pass that setup the same
username/password on your home pc and login with that one.

you have to log-in to your laptop localy and them you should be able
to share the files or printers. Your home computer should be listed in
the my network places under entire network,microsoft networks and
under workgroup if you set it up so that it was no part of a business
network.