XP connecting to Vista - No Internet

[RobPierce]

Hi all. I've searched quite a bit without finding resolution to this one.

I have a wireless router installed at the house with three laptops currently able to connect to it with no problem. Two are running XP, one is running Vista. I have a fourth machine, an XP desktop, in the basement with no wireless card and located too far from the router to run an ethernet cable.

For logistical reasons outside the scope of this post, the Vista laptop is the only one I am able to bring into the basement to try and share an internet connection with the desktop. I have an ethernet cable connected between the Vista laptop and XP desktop, with file and connection sharing enabled, password protection turned off and Windows firewall disabled on both machines. Each of the two is able to recognize the other and access shared folders on the opposite machine without incident.

The XP desktop however does not recognize an internet connection. The status of the LAN connection on the XP machine is detailed as "Limited or No Connectivity" due to "the network did not assign a network address to the computer." Clearly the connection itself or broadband adapter is not at fault since the desktop can communicate with the laptop. It's just not reaching past the Vista laptop to the internet for some reason.

Running ipconfig reveals in fact the ip address to be a Windows internal address, 169.254.xxx.xxx. The last time the desktop was hardwired to a router, it accessed the internet no problem.

Any ideas on how to go about fixing this?

 

[brucethetech]

the ethernet cord won't work unless you have a hub or switch between the two devices. If you wire them directly to one another you need a crossover cable.

 

[RobPierce]

Good to know. Could you elaborate on this a bit further? Would a second router work as a switch? If so, how would I go about setting it up?

I'm actually not familiar with what a crossover cable is, but suspect that I do not have access to one.

And thanks for the quick reply!

 

[DelJo63]

You need to use the Network Wizard on the Vista machine and select the Shared Internet option
eg isp---- vista ---xp.pc
to get the routing to/from the XP machine

Also, the Firewall should be enabled. Stopping it does not disable some default controls as one might expect.

 

[brucethetech]

Good to know. Could you elaborate on this a bit further? Would a second router work as a switch? If so, how would I go about setting it up?

I'm actually not familiar with what a crossover cable is, but suspect that I do not have access to one.

And thanks for the quick reply!

its just an ethernet cable with a few of the wires "crossed over". Yes a second router could get the job done in most cases. try wiring the vista and the desktop to the second router and sharing the internet connection from the vista laptop. internet sharing can be complicated to setup like this if you've never done it before.
u can also setup the second router as a device on your existing wireless connection or as an access point. this way is much easier but all routers are not able to be setup this way.

post the equipment that you are working with.