hi there,

Can anyone please let me know how I need to go about networking two laptop computers that are housed in two different places? Both are Toshiba.


Thanks.

KeepItSimpleStupid

Define the scope of "places"? India and the US, same house, same room
Wired, wireless?
For the purpose(s) of?
Temporary, Permanent?
Internet, no internet?
Secure, insecure?

frangipanis

Thanks!


Define the scope of "places"? India and the US, same house, same room:
WE LIVE AROUND 30 KILOMETERS FROM EACH OTHER


Wired, wireless?
ONE HAS WIRELESS INTERNET CONNECTION, AND THE OTHER BROADBAND - THOUGH WOULD BOTH WANT WIRELESS


For the purpose(s) of?
TO MANAGER ALL ASPECTS OF OWNING A SMALL BUSINESS

Temporary, Permanent?
GOOD QUESTION ... POSSIBLY ONE OR THE OTHER. IT'S MY PARTNER'S BUSINESS AND DEPENDING ON HOW WELL WE GET ALONG, WE MIGHT MOVE INTO TOGETHER NEXT YEAR

Internet, no internet?
YES, DEFINITELY INTERNET

Secure, insecure?
SECURITY IS AN IMPORTANT ISSUE

biggsie

I think it would be best to set up home network -- share internet --files - printer

Epinions.com - Setting up a home network between two computers

How To Connect Computers to a Network | eHow.com

If you have more questions I'm sure someone has the right answer

KeepItSimpleStupid

OK, I'll give you a few terms to search on: VPN, "VPN appliance" and DynDNS -- Dynamic DNS, E-Mail Delivery and Other Services.

The last item is a method of allowing someone with a dynamic IP address to be findable on the internet.

frangipanis

okay, it's me, frangipanis.... i somehow lost my previous identity. That's how IT savvy I am

I read through the Dyn DNS link and a bit about VPN appliances and know the two laptops can be linked, with one acting as the server. I'm now ready to think about purchasing things to make this happen. Would you like to recommend any specific products?

KeepItSimpleStupid

Very good. Now take a look here: Kentrox - Q2300 Ethernet QoS Access Router

There are two videos to watch. One is Fundamentals of VPN.

Cisco is probably the Gold standard.

You only understood one aspect of VPN which is a a secure link into a "corporate lan" or for that matter a "home lan". Some routers designed for home use have VPN servers built in. Some, however, were blacklisted by DynDNS -- Dynamic DNS, E-Mail Delivery and Other Services because they didn't adhere to the protocol.

One of the aspects you missed is the ability to extend a LAN, which makes your laptop and your friends laptop and their associated networks to be one small intranet. In this case there is no client-server per se.

What you may have discovered is that this method USUALLY requires static IP addresses. Static IP addresses are usually only available to business class customers.

And thanks for attempting to elaborate so I didn't waste time barking up the wrong tree. It's appreciated.

I don't have experience with this vender, but their products are extremely interesting and worth checking out.

If you are interested initially in a method of securely transferring files between locations, you can implement a secure ftp server at both ends. ssh under the Cygwin environment is in my opinion difficult to set up, but it's free. Look at Home Page (Bitvise) for other products. That may be all you need to get started. Don't know.

This is the first time I used the "map" method on this site to answer a question and I'm glad it worked out so far.

Remember, I don't know specifically what your planning and what capabilities you need and maybe you don't either that's why I'm throwing out secure FTP as an option.

frangipanis

brilliant. I'll take a look.

frangipanis

hi there, I've watched the VPN Fundamentals and getting a little clearer.

Can you tell me what you mean about CISCO being the gold standard?

Is the Kentrox Q2300 router available in Australia, do you happen to know?

I'm in Australia and so did a google for routers here. This is what I found:
http://dellstore01.dell.com.au/publi...586850&sr_no=1

How would you rate these compared to Kentrox?

And finally, I hope you don't mind me asking this mind-numbing stupid question, but is this the only way of networking the two laptops? Just wanting to know if I have all the basics covered.

KeepItSimpleStupid

Cisco Systems, Inc drives internet development. Most commercial entities use Ciisco equipment, Linksys is a division of Cisco, but I don't feel they share the same values.


I can't answer that question and I had trouble with the link.


VPN is probably the cheapest easiest and secure way.


Renting webspace on a server along with someone else.

Renting a server that you have control over with web space is yet another.

These latter two suggestions are not networking, but it's a way of running a business.