Another problem, ( the hair is getting thin)

You're providing very little information, so anything might seem obvious to you.

At any rate, you might want to follow some instructions here: http://www.gabston-howell.org/NETBEUI/index.shtml , just in case that's part of your problem.

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Thanks for the reply, and sorry for the little info, the reason for this, I don't have a clue on what is required. Ernie

How about if I ask some questions:

(1.) Are you trying this through a wireless connection?
If so, don't. Use a 10/100 connection first.

(2.) When you say a direct connection, are you talking about a wired connection (10/100)?
If so...

(3.) Are you going direct to the MEPIS machine with a crossover cable?

(4.) In connecting through the router, is it a wired connection, and are both machines using straight-through networking cables, instead of crossovers?

(5.) Do you at least have Internet access available to both machines?

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Thak you for your KIndness.

1) Anwer No.
2) Yes, have tried both crossover cable and straight through with the same nil result.
3) I have tried both ways to connect, both with straight through connections, and with a cross over to the Mepis Machine and straight though to XP laptop.
4) I can get internet connection on both machines
5) The Router is a CNet CNIG904S.
I hope this answers your questions OK. Regards Ernie

first, disable possible firewalls both on XP and Mepis (guarddog). Then try to ping again. If it works, all you need to do is open a couple of ports on the machines

Newbie or not Newbie, there's always a question

1) find out the ip addrresses of each computer when connected to a router
MEPIS - as root in a console, type ifconfig - look for inet addr:192.168.1.3 or similar
WIN - start > run > cmd [enter] type ipconfig, look for an ip address similar to the one above, but take note of the routers address too, called the default gateway.
All should be similar, but with a different last digit

This is the real address of your machines and your gateway/router

First, ping the roouter from each machine from a command console. note - the -c4 is not required, but it restricts the number of ping requests to 4 or whatever number you use.
MEPIS - ping -c4 (routers ip address)
WIN - ping (routers ip address)
you should get 4 immediate responses. Next ping the other machine
MEPIS - ping -c4 (win mach address)
win - ping (lin mach address)
as above, you should get 4 immediate responses. If not then start looking at your firewall, but with a default install of mepis, firewalls are not the issue - (take note all those that jump there first) Windows standard install is the same, unless you have a non-standard firewall.

when you can ping back and forth, in mepis, open konqueror file manager and type in the address bar
smb://192.168.1.# or whatever the windows machines ip address is.
As long as you have shares on the windows machine, you will be able to browse them. Here's another hint, you can use the netbios machine names instead of the ip address, but network browsing will be very slow.

Mepis may require a minor tweak if your router uses one of the less common address ranges like 10.1.1.1 etc.
Edit /etc/samba/smb.conf and add the first 3 blocks of your gateway/routers address to the line hosts allow =, save the changes and restart samba networking with the following
/etc/init.d/samba restart
and try pinging the linux machine from windows.

Now for another surprise. After your network is up an running, if you want to hide a file from the network, change it's permissions so that only you have read and write access and others are denied all access. The file will disappear from view across the network.

Windows file permissions are a joke in comparison to the simplicity, ease and security of linux.

Mike P

Thanks fella's, This is far more info than I expected, I will give it atry tomorrow, one small question, should I use a straight through connection or use a crossover. thanks again Ernie

When using a router, best to use a straight through, but some routers don't care and will adjust accordingly.

Mike P

Hi All,
Many thanks for the assistance, with your help I have been able to nail down the possible cause of my problem, beleive it or not it seems to be my nice New Laaptop.
I was able to ping the router with the Mepis Machine, but not the laptop, looking furthern into it I discovered I can no longer access the internet with it. It does tell me it is connected, and I tried changing leads in case I had a broken connection, so its a trip back to the dealer. Thanks again Ernie.

Have you tried resetting your router. or at the very least, unplugging the phone cable and the power lead for 30 seconds, then reconnecting it and powering up both systems?

Many routers run Linux and some are prone to log files clutter.

Mike P

I have now got the two machines to recognise each other. The main problem I discovered was that I have been beta testing a anti virus, firewall program, it was that firewall,foregot it was on. Now I have to set it up so I can see and use something. I thank you very much for you great help. Ernie