Setting up Peer-to-Peer Networking in Windows 95

What You Need to Get Started:

First, make sure that your Internet connection to your provider runs well. Troubleshooting gets messy unless you know what works and what doesn't. To set up your Windows 95 machine for Internetworking, all you need is a Windows 95 machine with a functioning PPP connection to your provider (Windows 95 does not support peer-to-peer networking over SLIP connections).

Step 1: Verify that Client for Microsoft Networks is Installed

Go into your Control Panel, then double-click Network. You'll see the Network dialog box, which looks like this. If Client for Microsoft Networks is installed, go to step 2.

If Client for Microsoft Networks does not appear on the list, then press Add, then Client, then find the Client for Microsoft Networks option. Press OK and it will appear in the Networks dialog box.

Step 2: Verify that Sharing is Enabled

Go into your Control Panel, then double-click Network. You'll see the Network dialog box, which looks like this. If File and printer Sharing for Microsoft Networks is installed, go to step 3.

If File and printer Sharing for Microsoft Networks does not appear on the list, then press Add, then Service, then find the File and printer Sharing for Microsoft Networks option. Press OK and it will appear in the Networks dialog box.

Step 3: Configure File and Printer Sharing

Go into your Control Panel, then double-click Network. Press theFile and Print Sharing button. You'll get a dialog box like this. Click one or both boxes, depending on if you'd like to share your files and/or printers

Step 4: Set your Computer Name and Workgroup

Go into your Control Panel, then double-click Network. You'll see the Network dialog box, which looks like this. Click the Identification tab. The tab looks like this.

Fill in a name for your computer (this is the NetBIOS name). You can call it anything, and it is not case-sensitive. Fill in anything for the Workgroup option (workgroups don't work yet across subnets, making it impossible to "browse" your Network Neighborhood for other computers on Internet).

Step 5: Set Access Control

Go into your Control Panel, then double-click Network. You'll see the Network dialog box, which looks like this. Click the Access Contol tab. The tab looks like this. Enable the Share-level access control, as shown in the picture.

Step 6: Configure WINS and LMHOSTS

To connect to and to share resources across the Internet, your computer has to be able to find other computers, and they have to be able to find you!

Computers use IP addresses for locating each other. They either have a permanently addigned (static) IP address, or they have a different (dynamic) IP address each time they connect to the network.

WINS and its companion, LMHOSTS, work together to locate remote computers. While WINS will suffice to locate both static and dynamic IP addresses, LMHOSTS is useful for locating static IP addresses that don't use WINS (if your computer cannot locate an IP address using WINS, it will automatically try LMHOSTS) (click here for more information about WINS).

Regardless of how your computer receives its IP address, you can use a combination of the LMHOSTS and WINS to locate remote computers.

To configure WINS do the following:

To configure LMHOSTS do the following:

IP.Add.re.s.s ComputerName

198.105.232.1 ftp

Step 7: Verify Log On To Network Option

If you're using Dial-up Networking, go to your Dial-Up Networking Folder and select your dial-up connection icon. Press the right mouse button and choose Properties.... Now press the Server Type... button. You'll get the Server Types dialog box, which looks like this. Check the Log On To Network option. Also, make sure that the computer you wish to connect to has File And Printer Sharing For Microsoft Networks installed, and is sharing some resources (directories, drives, printers, etc.).

Step 8: Login and Connect

Dial-up and login to your regular Internet connection as you normally would. Then, go to any Explorer window or the My Computer window. Click the Map Network Drive button. You'll see a dialog box pop up and show you your first available drive letter, like this. On the Path: line, enter the information for the computer you want to log on to, using the \\ComputerName\SharedResourceName format.

If you only know the \\ComputerName, you can still connect. Just make sure the Network Neighborhood icon is present on your desktop, press the button, then select Run..., and type in the \\ComputerName. You'll get a dialog box with all the shared resources available on the remote computer. Or, to just connect to a drive on an NT machine, run the \\ComputerName\driveletter$. Make sure the dollar sign follows the drive letter!

If you don't happen to know the names of some shared resources out on the Net, go to the Start menu and Run... the following:

\\winserve.001\guest

\\winserve.001\guest\winhq (The WINHQ Public Share)
\\ftp\data          	   (Microsoft's FTP server)
\\winserve95\guest  	   (Winserve's Experimental Windows 95 shared drive)
\\clyde\infoserver  	   (EMWACS NT Share)
\\discord\public	   (Shared systems site by A. Weintraub)

Mapping Remote Drives

To make a remote drive appear local to your system, you can map it. Select My Computer on the desktop and press the right mouse button. Select the Map Network Drive option. You'll receive a dialog box that lets you choose which drive letter to assign and a text box for the UNC address of the remote resource. If you select the Reconnect at logon option, Windows 95 will attempt to re-establish a connection and assign the same drive letter to this resource the next time you logon.

Press OK and the connection will be made. The drive is now accessible by any DOS or Windows application! To disconnect from the mapped drive, simply choose Disconnect Network Drive when you right-click on My Computer.

Security Issues

Remember, please download the network drivers update program and run it. This will prevent possible security risks that have been discovered with this type of networking.

Once you've got peer-to-peer connections running, try sharing some of your own stuff! You can share a CD-ROM drive, printer, directory, entire hard drive... just make sure that you protect your sensitive data and only allow full access to people you know and trust!

If you do plan on sharing any of your resources, make sure you password protect them according to the resource's importance and your security needs. You can share and protect any resource from the Sharing... tab of the Properties... dialog box of any printer, drive, folder, etc.