XP peer 2 peer LAN problems - help me!

[dread]

I have two PC's (XP Home) which I want to network up (see spec below, both PC's as the same).
Easy, fool-proof, I thought - XP is the Dogs dangle sacks for easy networking I'm told.
So I got a crossover cable, plugged it in boths NICs and ran the wizard... no chance. The wizard starts trying to set up the connection, after I put all the options in it asks for, and just before it ends in crashes. When it crashes a box pops up with the message 'Spooler SubSystem app has crashed...' (or something like that), which happens on both machines - everytime.
So I searched the internet to find out what the hell was going on and how to fix it. After hours of searching I found out that its was the damaged windows print spooler crashing and that other people (of course) were also having the same problem when running the network wizard. But I can not find a fix anywhere that works. I have found a Microsoft Knowledgebase article that refers to the print spooler crashing when printing but the Reg hack it sugested did not work. I also tried another dodge reg hack off a dodgey looking forum which just did wierd things to my PC. I also tried un-installing the printer drivers and making sure all driver files were gone. The thing is that even though it crashes it seems to set something up - I now have these bridge things. We did get a connection that lasted for a few minites but stoped working and only worked from one machine. So I tried to manaully put in IP's (yes, I followed the right conventions) and Subnet mask as but still no connection and have made sure they are in the same workgroup - what else do I need?
But I don't really understand the options - do I need the bridge with a p2p network? what exactly is it? What else will I need to enter? I don't even know if manually putting in the settings will work anyway.

Can anyone help or point me in the direction of a good site for this kind of thing?

PS - I really don't want another "Format yer PC" if possible

Many thanks and some beer for the one who can help me get it working!

 

[(Shovel)]

If the initial problem is print spooling, see if you can disable print sharing to start with.

You can do this by bringing up the properties for your printer and disabling the "Share this printer" bit. See if that restores stablity, and if that allows you to run the network.

If that gets things up and running, see if you can enable the printer again afterwards.

If that doesn't fix it, then maybe try manually disabling "File and Printer Sharing" fully in the LAN connection properties, again, see if this gives something functional, even it is just sending a ping to the other machine.

Can I have my beer?

 

[kameleon]

Get XP Professional

*passes shovel a beer*

p.s. get yerself down to platt fields park while its sunny

 

[dread]

Originally posted by (Shovel)
If the initial problem is print spooling, see if you can disable print sharing to start with.

You can do this by bringing up the properties for your printer and disabling the "Share this printer" bit. See if that restores stablity, and if that allows you to run the network.

If that gets things up and running, see if you can enable the printer again afterwards.

If that doesn't fix it, then maybe try manually disabling "File and Printer Sharing" fully in the LAN connection properties, again, see if this gives something functional, even it is just sending a ping to the other machine.

Can I have my beer?

Cheers, will try that. But the thing is that I completey removed the printer. I did also try disabling the spooler service completely without sucess. If it works I will send you some beer vouchers? Anyone else fancy a pint? help! I'm going mad :wall:


A couple of things though... how do I ping and can anyone explain exactly what this bridge thing is all about - what is it, what it does, do I need it and what should I do with it

 

[(Shovel)]

Not sure about bridging, running a crossover cable *should* be enough, but someone else who's tried it may be better for advice on that, my home network runs through a router to cope with 3 PCs, so I don't know that.

Re: Ping.

"Ping" is sending a packet of information from your computer to a defined IP address. It gets pinged back and returns the amount of time it took.

First, disable Zone Alarm or any other software firewall, since these can sometimes block ping requests for security. Once you know it works, switch them back on again!

Then, go to the command prompt and type:

ping <IP Address>

Where <IP Address> is the IP of the other PC in the network.
--> E.g. 192.168.1.10

You can get the IP address of the computers by typing (at the command prompt again):

ipconfig /all

This returns a long table of information and will (somewhere) include the IP address of your machine. Use this address from the other computer.

Hope that helps.

 

[Krazeh]

Originally posted by kameleon
Get XP Professional

Very important point, from what i've seen XP home isn't worth the media it's written on, it has pretty much anythin useful disabled.
Got 2 pc's runnin XP pro, slapped a crossover cable between them, set up the ip address manually, worked perfectly first time and ever since.