NOT HAPPY LAN
 

Hey all.....

My and my son in law are trying to lan our 2 computers to play some FPS's together.

We have ZERO idea and are struggling with info we found on the net.

I am running a PC with XP and he has a laptop with Vista.

We are both connected,hard wired, into a Dlink wireless router

Any help would be fantatstic

it depends on what game you are trying to play. some games are very user friendly and setting up lan games is just a matter of clicking a series of buttons, others are more complex and require the use of console commands or network configurations within the game.

What game is it, oh and I'm not sure if this will matter but make sure both computers are of the same "workgroup" so they can see each other in the network.

workgroup???

Im guessing the computers are networked already since they both joined to the router???

We are looking at Return to castle Wolfenstein, Call of Duty and Farcry

In the Network and Sharing center you should be able to see both the router, and any other computer on the same network (but only if they're of the same workgroup). If they are not, they will not appear, allowing a LAN to have multiple workgroups that are "separated" from one another. This is an option you can change in your Network settings. Just make sure those are the same and it "might" help.

Where do i find this info
?

its easier to do this on the Vista pc if you are new to it cuz its more simple.
just open up Windows Explorer and click on Network. If you are in the same workgroup, both PCs should show up in there.

but generally speaking, if you havent messed with any settings and just plugged in an extra LAN cable, it should automatically put you into the same workgroup/network.

as for setting up the games. not too sure about wolfenstein and farcry, but for the CoD games other than MW2, it was simply a matter of going into LAN games, having one person host the game and the other join... dont even need to use console commands unless you were planning on playing on non-standard maps.

Also, make sure you're using the "blue" ethernet cable. The Red one is for linking directly without a router or something in between.

ok so i had a squizz at the cables.

COMPUTER XP-----beige cable-----MODEM-----blue dlink cable------DLINK ROUTER-----blue cable-----LAPTOP VISTA

For some silly reason most routers have weird coloured cables, but for the sake of clarity you can pretend they are like the "blue" cables. The essential difference is in the red cable you buy from shops, the connections are reversed inside, so that two computers can connect directly to one another, whereas blue (or router specific cables) connect through an interface hub/switch/router.