[jamiemac]

OK I have looked pretty hard for a post on this topc but can't find anything definite.

I want to share out my NAS to other PC's on my network. Sounds simple huh?

Here’s my home network:
• Netgear wireless router plugged in to my phone line. IP 192.168.1.1
• Vista laptop wirelessly connects to the Netgear router as 192.168.1.x DHCP
• HomePlug adapter plugged in to the mains electricity and also in to the Netgear router via RJ45 (no ip address as far as I know)
• HomePlug wireless access point (located two floors away) IP 192.168.1.254
• XP laptop wirelessly connects to the HomePlug access point. Laptop wireless connection LAN IP 192.1.168.x DHCP
• Maxtor Network Storage Device connected via RJ45 to my laptop

My problem :
The XP laptop happily backs up to the Maxtor each night using Acronis TrueImage (great product by the way) , but the Vista laptop can’t see the Maxtor Networked Storage device at all.

The Maxtor came with a default IP address of 169.254.0.1
So if I configured my XP laptop’s LAN Connection properties (Internet protocol TCP/IP) to 169.254.0.2 and whey hey it works fine. I can even configured the Maxtor to be in the same workgroup as my laptop thus allowing me to map it as a drive. So far so good.

However my Vista laptop downstaris in the kitchen see the Maxtor on the network and neither does it show up as an 'attached device' on the Netgear Router screen. “Aha”, I hear you say, “why don’t you configure the Maxtor to (say) 192.168.1.10 and the XP laptop LAN TCP/IP connection to (say) 192.168.1.11? Well that's what I tried, but no luck.

It could just be that my laptop is not working properly but I just wanted to check I understand the whole IP mask thing. For all devices I am configuring a mask of 255.255.255.0 and default gateway and Primary DNS to 192.168.1.1.

(I could plug the Maxtor in to the either the Netgear Router or the Homeplug Access point but that would be bad as I would lose the high speed link to my laptop as wireless is much slower.

Any thoughts gratefully received.

Thanks,

[Advertisements]

Give This tutorial by SpaceCowboy706 a read, it's got just about everything you'd need to know.

you've got to have every device on the same IP subnet (i.e. 192.168.0.1 or 1.1 or whatever)

also...the maxtor device HAS to be plugged into the network not into your laptops ethernet port...otherwise no one but the laptop will see it

[dsenette]

Give This tutorial by SpaceCowboy706 a read, it's got just about everything you'd need to know.

you've got to have every device on the same IP subnet (i.e. 192.168.0.1 or 1.1 or whatever)

also...the maxtor device HAS to be plugged into the network not into your laptops ethernet port...otherwise no one but the laptop will see it

[jamiemac]

Many thanks for your instantaneous reply dsenette, I just love this forum!

I think you have answered my question straight off in that if I connect my NAS direct to my laptop via ethernet cable then no other device on the network would be able to see it. That's a real shame as doing backups wirelessly is soooo SLOOOOOW!