Unable to change network location

[senile]

I have this problem with Windows 7, trying to create a lan between a 2 PCs with a switch. But I'm unable to set one of thme to the "Home" network location.
Any advice? The option to change it is not there like the other PC

[SykomantiS]

Type in a default gateway, or make sure one is supplied if using DHCP

[rustypup]

??

are you referring to the "networking-for-illiterates" homegroup option?

have you managed to workgroup them in the past?

can the two machines ping each other, (i'm assuming static IPs).

while it really shouldn't be necessary, have you replicated user login credentials between the 2 machines?

[Monty]

If you are using a plain old "dumb" switch, you can't set the network as anything other than public. If you want to be able to set the network type as Home/Work, you need to get a "smart" switch that will act as a DHCP server

Or set on of the PC's up as a DHCP server and give it a static IP and use that in setting up the connections

[senile]

Type in a default gateway, or make sure one is supplied if using DHCP

No DHCP server used.

??

are you referring to the "networking-for-illiterates" homegroup option?

have you managed to workgroup them in the past?

can the two machines ping each other, (i'm assuming static IPs).

while it really shouldn't be necessary, have you replicated user login credentials between the 2 machines?

I tried the conventional way to set up LANs but Windows 7 doesn't like it. You know, set the IPs in the same range, same gateway workgroup blah blah the stuff that worked for XP and Vista. Does homegroup require the IPs to be in the same range?

[rustypup]

You know, set the IPs in the same range, same gateway workgroup blah blah the stuff that worked for XP and Vista.

so... you've verified that the two can ping each other?

i'm running a fairly mixed environment at home and have yet to encounter this hiccup with the 2 W7 boxes :/... (admittedly, it also means i've not used the M$ homegroup automagic)...

[senile]

Yes they can ping each other, but I've managed to join them both to homegroup now. Works o.k. for file sharing etc. but unable to detect network printers, I'm assuming that it's due to the randomly generated IPs that Windows assigns to the PCs

Weird IP address.
Pinging eyes_only [fe80::516a:e699:ba81:c5f0%11] with 32 bytes of data:
Reply from fe80::516a:e699:ba81:c5f0%11: time<1ms
Reply from fe80::516a:e699:ba81:c5f0%11: time<1ms
Reply from fe80::516a:e699:ba81:c5f0%11: time<1ms
Reply from fe80::516a:e699:ba81:c5f0%11: time<1ms

[SykomantiS]

Edit: nevermind. will come fix this post later when I have time

[rustypup]

I'm assuming that it's due to the randomly generated IPs that Windows assigns to the PCs

you assume incorrectly... you should be running static IPs?

have you explicitly shared the printers? (here i'm assuming they're connected to the PCs)

[senile]

I'm assuming that it's due to the randomly generated IPs that Windows assigns to the PCs

you assume incorrectly... you should be running static IPs?

have you explicitly shared the printers? (here i'm assuming they're connected to the PCs)

Both PCs have their IPs set to automatic, I couldn't get them to ping each other with static IPs hence the homegroup was set up. No idea how it works with random IPs though (New Microsoft magic?)

Network printers with static IPs. I could connect them to USB but then the sharing PC has to be switched on for the other to print, not ideal

[rustypup]

homegroup is not my forte, but i'm almost positive it exists within its own little world...

1) confirm you don't have a router plugging into this switch
2) are the printers currently plugged into the switch?
3) are the printers visible/accessible to either of the machines?

workgrouping couldn't be simpler.. it requires that the NICs be statically assigned IP addresses within the same net segment and have matching subnet masks. if the printers fall within the same segment, discovery will take over and make them available to the workgroup...

[SykomantiS]

Rusty is correct, assign each pc a unique ip wait matching subnets, sommer
ip 1 : 10.0.0.3 & subnet 255.255.255.0
ip 2 : 10.0.0.4 & subnet 255.255.255.0

Right,

If you are using a plain old "dumb" switch, you can't set the network as anything other than public. If you want to be able to set the network type as Home/Work, you need to get a "smart" switch that will act as a DHCP server

This isn't technically correct, as far as I'm concerned. We had this very same problem this morning with a new pc we added to the network. We use static ip's. the option to make it a private network appeared the moment I entered a default gateway into the settings.

So just try it. Set both pc's to static ip's and add the gateways.

[senile]

Rusty is correct, assign each pc a unique ip wait matching subnets, sommer
ip 1 : 10.0.0.3 & subnet 255.255.255.0
ip 2 : 10.0.0.4 & subnet 255.255.255.0


So just try it. Set both pc's to static ip's and add the gateways.

Let's say I use those IPs, what should the default gateway be? There's no router or anything and it's a "dumb" switch as Monty calls it. And what about DNS, as soon as you manually assign the IPs you need to assign a DNS as well. Or leave it blank?

[SykomantiS]

You don't need dns. Try using pc2's ip as pc1's gateway (assuming pc1 is the one giving the problem)

[senile]

So 127.0.0.1 on one and 10.0.0.3 on the other?

[SykomantiS]

127.0.0.1 Refers to the localhost...

If pc1 is 10.0.0.3 then set it's gateway to 10.0.0.4 (this would be the pc not giving you the option of setting it to private network)
pc2 then has to get ip 10.0.0.4

[senile]

Thanks I'm gonna try that