TheTechGuide Forum
General Category => Software => Topic started by: geo_r on June 01, 2008, 12:23:13 AM
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I was at the family farm today. They have multiple computers and wish to network them (share directories, files, etc...) as openly as they can on the local (hard drive) level.
One of the computers is (for this example) named "R", the other named "J" (explained in a bit better detail further in this message).
Currently the residents of the farm, when they need to have a document on the computer named "J", they have to finish the document on the computer named "R", then put it onto a USB memory stick, jump in the car and drive it over to the farm....not a very good solution, especially if winter temps hit mid -30*C with windchill.
The computer network consist of:
1 WinXP Home edition
2 WinXP Pro edition (SP2) (one of which runs Norton Internet security with it's firewall)
1 Pentium2 dual-booting between Win98 and Xubuntu 8.04
2 Asus laptops running Vista.
Right now NO computers are able to see one another via the "My network places" window.
The internet comes to the property at the main building on the farm. It runs to a D-Link wireless router/firewall WBR-2310 set to broadcast on one fixed channel.
The first XP Pro computer - this one remains at the farm named "J" on the network - gets it's connection from this WBR-2310 via Ethernet cable.
The XP Home edition computer exists about 100 feet from the WBR-2310 in the grandparent's house. It gets it's connection via the wireless link through a small USB wireless widget. This wireless connection functions very well and I have it secured via WEP.
The remaining computers are about 1 km away at the house. They receive their signal via an Engenius wireless bridge mounted on the side of the house.
The signal is carried in from the Engenius bridge via Ethernet cable to a DLink wireless DI-524 router which does the following:
1) Distributes the signal via more Ethernet cable to the second XP Pro computer named "R" as well as the Win98/Xubuntu computer called "Old98"
2) Distributes the signal via wireless (set to a different fixed channel) within the house to the two laptops running Vista. The two laptops belong to two college-aged kids in the house who reside there on weekends and want to use their computers in the family network situation, to share music, pictures, etc....with their parents.
What I need to do is to be able to accomplish file and printer sharing over this wireless connection to as many of the computers as possible.
I tried all day today but to no avail. It seems the firewalls (total = 3) are really getting in the way. But two of the firewalls are hardware also required to distribute the signals and therefore are not negotiable.
I tried to set up Remote Desktop as well, as an experiment. It is enabled on the two XP Pro computers which are separated by the 1km distance.
But I could not accomplish anything because the Remote Desktop program was not able to see it's target computer.
In this situation I described, what is a practical solution?
Thanks!
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PS: The wireless bridge on the side of the distant farmhouse is an Engenius EOC-3610S-EXT. It receives the transmissions of the DLink WBR-2310 and routes the data via Ethernet cable to inside the house where it is redistributed via DLink DI-524 to various local computers.
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I successfully implimented Remote Desktop services between the two XP Pro computers. It isn't the greatest solution but it does allow business files to be able to transfer at will in a desktop environment they are already very familiar with.
I'd still like to be able to set up transparent file sharing across the network somehow. Please advise?