Trying to share files between computers

[makecoldplayhistory]

I'll try to explain what I'm trying to do. Although I'm pretty tech savvy, I know far too little about networking etc.

I have a router in one part of the house and it's too impractical to have a wired connection to it. Therefore, in another room, I have two Win 7 machines which connect to the internet wirelessly.

Trying to share files between the two machines is far too slow to be practical. Video's can't stream; even copying a word doc from one PC to the next takes a good few minutes.

Today, I bought a crossover cable and put them between the PCs. The file sharing is now super fast but only one PC connects to the wifi and the 'network'. The other PC can connect to either the other PC or wifi. I can't seem to get it to work with both at the same time.

I'm sure I haven't provided enough information... let me know what else I can tell you.


Thanks in advance,

Mike

 

[makecoldplayhistory]

Sorry for the double post.

I meant to say that with the 2nd PC, the networking is very fast if I unplug the wifi dongle. If I plug it back in, it becomes slow again.

I can't see how to configure it so that it uses the wifi connection to the router (internet) but the wired connection for file sharing / access etc.

Thanks

 

[ngrego]

Do both connections on the firsrt PC work fast? better than the second PC?

Having a PC connected to two different networks is kind of difficult to setup, especially if you are not too sure what you are doing. The PC has to prioritise the networks and serve each one in the order they are set to be served. You can check the priority of your network connections from: Network Connections > Advanced > Advanced Settings. There you will see a list of all the connections on your PC and which order thay are set to served in. So if the Wifi connection is first in the list, every request made by your PC will check the wifi connection first and then go down the list untill it finds what it is looking for (theoretically).

Here are a few things you can check:
1. Check the network priorities on the PC that works fast and then set up the slow one in the same way.
2. Try using the same address range your router is issuing on the wifi network. Check the address on your wifi adapter and use the same range on the ethernet adapter. So if you have an address like 192.168.1.10 on your wifi NIC assign an address like 192.168.1.30 on your ethernet NIC (be sure not to use the same address twice)

I hope tht helps you...

 

[makecoldplayhistory]

Thanks for the reply.

Both PCs have slow file transfers but good internet speed.

I've tried your second suggestion, no joy though.

Found a guide which says

The configuration way to do this is to add a static route on each PC to force traffic destined for the other to use the wired network. You'd need to use the "route" command of the following form:

route -p add 192.168.0.10 192.168.0.10 IF 1

Where:
-p makes the route "permanent" (otherwise, rebooting Windows clears it)
192.168.0.10 is the address of the computer you are trying to send to
IF 1 is the number of the interface you are forcing it to use (check Windows Networking to get the number of the interface)

If you are on Windows 7 (and probably Vista), you'll need to execute the command from a command prompt "run as" Administrator. You'd also need to do the matching command on the other machine. If you mess up the parameters, you can use "route delete 192.168.0.10" to remove it (highly recommended, since you've made it permanent).

http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=559833


However, I can't find the number of the interface(s)


Thanks again

 

[makecoldplayhistory]

I tried 'route print' in cmd prompt but don't understand the output.

Here it is though

Microsoft Windows [Version 6.1.7601]
Copyright (c) 2009 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

C:\Users\Mike>route print
===========================================================================
Interface List
13...4c e6 76 07 b9 9c ......BUFFALO WLI-UC-GNHP Wireless LAN Adapter
10...00 26 18 92 d8 02 ......Realtek PCIe GBE Family Controller
1...........................Software Loopback Interface 1
16...00 00 00 00 00 00 00 e0 Microsoft ISATAP Adapter
11...00 00 00 00 00 00 00 e0 Teredo Tunneling Pseudo-Interface
18...00 00 00 00 00 00 00 e0 Microsoft ISATAP Adapter #2
===========================================================================

IPv4 Route Table
===========================================================================
Active Routes:
Network Destination Netmask Gateway Interface Metric
0.0.0.0 0.0.0.0 192.168.1.1 192.168.1.100 25
127.0.0.0 255.0.0.0 On-link 127.0.0.1 306
127.0.0.1 255.255.255.255 On-link 127.0.0.1 306
127.255.255.255 255.255.255.255 On-link 127.0.0.1 306
169.254.0.0 255.255.0.0 On-link 169.254.246.27 276
169.254.246.27 255.255.255.255 On-link 169.254.246.27 276
169.254.255.255 255.255.255.255 On-link 169.254.246.27 276
192.168.1.0 255.255.255.0 On-link 192.168.1.100 281
192.168.1.100 255.255.255.255 On-link 192.168.1.100 281
192.168.1.255 255.255.255.255 On-link 192.168.1.100 281
224.0.0.0 240.0.0.0 On-link 127.0.0.1 306
224.0.0.0 240.0.0.0 On-link 169.254.246.27 276
224.0.0.0 240.0.0.0 On-link 192.168.1.100 281
255.255.255.255 255.255.255.255 On-link 127.0.0.1 306
255.255.255.255 255.255.255.255 On-link 169.254.246.27 276
255.255.255.255 255.255.255.255 On-link 192.168.1.100 281
===========================================================================
Persistent Routes:
None

IPv6 Route Table
===========================================================================
Active Routes:
If Metric Network Destination Gateway
1 306 ::1/128 On-link
10 276 fe80::/64 On-link
13 281 fe80::/64 On-link
10 276 fe80::3d2c:9f3c:e658:f61b/128
On-link
13 281 fe80::dc3e:cd:3bca:756c/128
On-link
1 306 ff00::/8 On-link
10 276 ff00::/8 On-link
13 281 ff00::/8 On-link
===========================================================================

p.s. double posting as when I try to edit I get a "you are not allowed to edit this post" message

 

[makecoldplayhistory]

I managed to set up the route between the two PCs although it would still use wifi for home sharing, homegroup and sharing network files.

I've now connected the two PCs using a crossover cable (although I've been told that all modern PCs will work with a regular ethernet cable) and set up a shared internet connection with one of the PCs...

 

[makecoldplayhistory]

Best answer selected by makecoldplayhistory.