1,000 Games/Disc1.iso/NEW/CSSPADES/DCC_INST.TXT

Text File | 1996-10-09 | 11KB | 209 lines

Connecting Two Computers Via Printer or Modem Cable Under Win95

Copyright 1996 Nelson Ford, PsL


Needing to connect my notebook to my desktop computer recently, I checked
the Win95 "Help" system to see if Win95 had something similar to the
INTERSVR-INTERLNK programs in DOS 6. I came across the following:

=====

"Using a parallel or serial cable to connect to another computer:

"With Direct Cable Connection, you can gain access to shared folders on
another computer, even when your computer is not on a network. If the other
computer is connected to a network, you can also gain access to that
network. For example, if you have a portable computer, you can use a cable
to connect it to your work computer and network.

"To set up a direct cable connection with another computer, click the
Start button, point to Programs, point to Accessories, and then click
Direct Cable Connection ['DCC']

"Note: If you do not see Direct Cable Connection on the Accessories menu,
it is not installed. To find out how to install it, click Related Topics."

=====

Naturally, the program wasn't there, so I clicked Related Topics, which
brought up the Windows Help System "Topic" list. One of the topics was
"Installing a Windows component...", which I assumed I was supposed to
click on. Doing so brought up a help screen with a button for bringing
up the "Add/Remove Programs" dialog. (Actually, it brought it up BEHIND
the help window, so it took a while to figure out that something had
actually happened.

Now if you are like the average user, you may have never used this thing
before. Its use is anything but intuitive and you no longer get any
instructions to walk you through the installation of the DCC.

This lack of specific instructions is the purpose of this file. I will try
to fill in the gaps left by Win95's help system.

Overview:
   Using DCC, one computer is the Host and the other is the Guest.
   You must specify on the Host which drives and folders the Guest
   can access. The Host cannot access drives/folders on the Guest.

Hooking up the Computers:
   Two computers can be connected either through parallel (printer)
   ports or serial ports using special cables. The reason special
   cables are needed is to get the same connector at each end. You
   can get such cables at electronics stores and computer stores.
   If you can't find them, check the ads in Computer Shopper magazine.
   The serial cable is called a "null modem" cable. I don't know of
   a similar name for the printer cable, but my understanding is that
   the printer cable provides faster throughput.

A. Using Add/Remove Programs to install the DCC:

   1. If the "Windows Setup" page is not on top, click on its tab.
   2. Only "Communications" should have a check mark next to it.
      Double-click on "Communications" to see the details.
   3. Select "Dial-Up Networking" and "Direct Cable Connection"
        and click Ok.
   4. Click the Apply button. (You need the Win95 CD or disks.)
   5. Close the Add/Remove Programs window.
   Note: When I installed DCC on my desktop from the Win95 CD-ROM,
         it worked fine, but during the same installation on my
         notebook, I got a message saying that a couple of different
         files could not be found on the CD. I told it to continue
         anyway and the DCC worked all right.

B. Configuring Networking:

   1. Click on Win95's Start button, Setup, and Control Panel.
   2. Double-click the Network icon in Control Panel. This should
      bring up a window with three tabs: Configuration, Identification,
      and Access Control. In the Configuration page, the minimum you
      should listed in the Components list is "Client for Microsoft
      Networks", "Dial-Up Adapter", and "NetBEUI [protocol]". If you
      do not see one or more of these, click on Add.
   3. The Add button brings up a window in which you can select a type
      of component to add, Client, Adapter, and Protocol. Select the
      type for any of the components mentioned above which are misssing
      and install them. For example, if NetBEUI is missing, double-click
      on Protocol and in the next window, click on Microsoft, which will
      bring up a list of MS protocols, including NetBEUI. Do NOT click
      "Have Disk", just double-click on the protocol name (NetBEUI).
   4. Once you have installed all the necessary components, look to see
      if "File and printer sharing for Microsoft Networks" is in the
      component list. If it is not, click on the "File and Print Sharing"
      button.
   5. The Configuration page is finished. Click on Identification, fill
      in that page, click on Access Control and make a selection there,
      then close the Network window by clicking Ok. Windows will copy
      the necessary files from your Win95 CD and then restart Windows.

C. Specify Drives & Folders to Share:
      You must specify at least one drive or folder for the Host
      computer to share, or the direct connection will not be made.

   1. Double-click on My Computer. If you want to share one or more
      drives, click on a drive icon to highlight it, then click on the
      File menu and the "Sharing" line, which brings up the Properties
      window.
   2. Select the Sharing page in Properties.
   3. Click on "Shared As". You can keep whatever Share Name is the
      default or change it. Do NOT put a drive spec in the name. For
      example, "C" is an ok name, but using "C:" will just confuse things.
      Mapping is done on the Guest computer to give a drive or folder
      a drive spec for the Guest machine to use.
   4. Make other selections as you see fit and then Apply and close.
   5. Repeat this for any other drives or folders you wish to share.
      If you specify a drive to share, you do not HAVE to specify
      folders on the drive in addition. However, if the Guest computer
      mainly wants to access a specific folder, it is easier if on the
      Host you use My Computer to find the folder and specify Sharing
      for it. Then the folder will appear in a list on the Guest.

D. Run DCC:

   1. Assuming you have hooked up the computers, you should now be
      ready to run DCC. Click on Win95 Start, Programs, Accessories,
      and the Direct Cable Connection icon.
   2. On the Host machine, the Settings box should say: "Host computer
      set up to listen on Parallel cable on LPT1" (or serial, if you are
      using a null modem cable). Click on the Change button if any of
      this is incorrect.
   3. Click on Listen.
   4. Assuming you have completed the above installation on the Guest
      computer, go to that machine and run DCC on it. The Settings should
      read: "Guest computer set up to connect to host using Parallel
      cable on LPT1" (or serial). Click on Change if necessary. Click
      on Connect when ready.
      Note: When connecting, the system says "Checking on password" even
            if you disabled password protection. Ignore it.
   5. If the connection failed, press F1 to bring up Win95's help system.
      As bad as Win95's Help is, it actually has a pretty good walk-thru
      for DCC problems, although some critical info is left out.
      Note: If you get the message that the parallel connection is
            disconnected, it does NOT mean that your cable is not
            connected. It means that the connection failed because
            something in the above installation was not done right.
            (Real helpful error message, isn't it?)

E. Mapping Drives/Folders on the Guest:

   When connection is made, a window comes up to show the drives and
   folders the Guest has access to on the Host. If all you want to do
   is copy files, you can do it from this window in the usual way.

   However, if you want to run a program and have it access the files
   on the Host machine, you must map the shared folders to a drive letter
   (or in English: assign a drive letter to a folder).

   1. To do this, simply click on a folder,
   2. Click on the File menu.
   3. Click on Map Network Drive, and
   4. Assign a drive letter to it.

   Notice that no matter how deeply nested a folder is inside a set of
   other folders, if you assign a letter to that internal folder, then
   when you access that folder with another program, you do NOT have
   to specify the full path on the Host machine, just the drive letter.

   For example, if you want to access \\Host\MyEditor\Biz\Vendors and
   the Host has specifically Shared that folder so that it appears on
   the list in the Guest's window and the Guest has assigned drive letter
   F: to that path, then using a program to open a file in that folder,
   you would just select drive F: and the contents of the Vendors folder
   would be displayed.

   This might cause a little confusion. For example, both my Hearts game
   and my Spades game support network play between up to 4 people. Two
   people could play using DCC, but both machines must access the same
   physical drive and directory. The Host may set up a directory for that
   purpose on his machine as C:\NETPLAY and specify it for Sharing.

   However, the Guest would probably have to assign some other letter
   to the directory/folder since the Guest has C: as his own hard drive.
   So say the Guest assigns the letter E: (an otherwise unused drive
   letter) to the folder.

   Now in CardShark Hearts/Spades, you are asked to specify the drive
   and path for the shared directory/folder. The Host would select the
   C: drive and the \NETPLAY path, but the Guest would specify the E:
   drive and would not have to select a directory, since \NETPLAY would
   be the only directory available on "E:".

   Even though the drive letters are not the same, they ARE the same
   *physical* drive and directory, and that is all that matters.

F. Minimize DCC

   Once the connection is made, just minimize the DCC window. Don't click
   Close until you are ready to end the connection. Note that on the Guest
   machine, you can bring up the DCC window and click on View Host at any
   time. If you did not assign drive letters to any of the Host's drives
   or folders, this is the only way to access them.


I hope this saves you some of the hours of frustration that I went through
trying to set up DCC. If you find errors or omissions in here, please let
me know and I will correct them. You can send them to Nelson Ford at
74777,[e-mail] or call me at 713-524-6394 or FAX me at
713-524-6398. If you did not get this on my Web page, there may be a later
edition of this file there (http://206.109.101.6).