Networking

[seaside@esva.net]

Anybody got any experience with networking computers? It would be great to be able to connect the computer that I do design work on (Windows 95) with the computer that runs my ShopBot in DOS, especially if I could run the ShopBot computer remotely from the office one. It's about 50' between them.

I've tried connecting the two computers with a serial cable and running the DOS and Windows 95 versions of PCAnywhere, but I could never get them to connect successfully. Should I go to network cards, and if so what software should I use to connect Win95 to DOS?

Thanks,

Bill

[john@pcjet.com]

Bill,

When you use PC Anywhere, make sure that you use your parallel port (on both computers) and not your serial port. Your transfer will be better and more stable.

John
J.E.T. Enterprises

john@pcjet.com (mailto:john@pcjet.com)
www.pcjet.com

[seaside@esva.net]

John,

I've used a parallel cable to connect two Win 95 machines and you're right, it works great. Unfortunately the PCAnywhere for DOS version that I have (ver5) doesn't allow me to connect by using parallel ports, only serial cable or various flavors of networks. Is there another version of PCAnywhere for DOS (or a similar program) that will let me use the parallel port?

Thanks,

Bill

[dthorpe@gte.net]

Bill,
we do our design and tool path generation on a more powerful computer in the house and then save them to a zip disk. Then we hand carry the file to computer that drives the shopbot. This works quite well and free's up the "house" computer to do other tasks.
den

[giggalo]

Bill I set up a computer for another shopbotter that was about 75'from his machine and he wanted to do the same as you want, so do this.

From your computer in the house run a serial cable to your computer for your machine, then run a parallel cable to your main computer you want to do work on, then all you need to do is switch back and forth, depending on your system you might want to have another port installed on your main computer, that wat you will have 1 free for your printer. total cost is about $40.00.

This setup is like running 2 printers at the same time.

all this does is tranfer data like sbp files to your machine computer and lets you run it from there.

There is another way, you will need 3 computer, 1 your main 1 that you want to do all the work on, and 2 others that will comuncate with each other, all you need to do is run a parallel cable from your main computer of the other and from that to the 3rd computer and from the 3rd to your machine.

This way you could do your work on the main, send it to the second computer and your 3rd 1 will run the machine, you will be able to run the machine from both computers in the house or the shop.

They do have a card that will let you switch between computers but you will still need to go to the computer on the machine to run it and stop it.

Any computer store that does upgrades can help you with this.

Someone told me awhile back that they make a Y or T that will let you run 2 computers at the same time? must be adding another com port?

Hope this helps you .

Me I am like John make it on 1 and copy it to disk and walk out to the other, only have to walk 10'.

[robin]

Bill, you said you had connected two Win 95 machines without a problem. Why not run SB from Windows 95? I've been setup this way for the past year or so without any problems. I did find I needed a reasonably fast machine (now a Pentium 233) and a maximized dos window.

[seaside@esva.net]

I wish I could! The computer I run the ShopBot from is a 486/66 with a tiny hard drive. I tried installing Win95 on it twice before, but after a minute or two it just ground to a halt. Any experience with Windows for Workgroups?

Your suggestion is probably the best though, especially with the cost of computers dropping so low. I can probably find a used computer with Windows 95 on it for just about the cost of setting up a network, especially if I figure in my time!

[giggalo]

Windows for Workgroups? that is on win 3.1 right, and sometime with useing the win95 upgrade it might not work because you do not have enough ram and the hard drive might be to small to handle it.

The best way to do it is a clean install with win95 and not the upgrade from win 3.1 to win95.

To save time and money you must have win95 cd and your cd-rom instalation disk , if you have them you got it made, or if you have the 29 disks with the full verison of win95 you will not need the cd-rom disk.

Win95 takes about 65mb of your hard drive so if yours is 100mb you can do it.

On the computer you want to install win95 on do this.
1. At the A: type FORMAT C:/S then enter and then y for yes.

2. After it is done it will ask for a lable, call it windows.

3. Now type D: enter, if D came up insert your win95 cd and type SETUP and you will be up and running in 20min.

If you did not get a D: and got a error message like no drive found? you have to do it this way

1.You can Buy a cd-rom for about $40.00 and use it to install win95.

2. Find the model # of your cd and get the setup disk from the web at the site of the maker of the cd-rom.

3. Or send me the make and model # and I will send it to you, I have 50 diffrent drivers.

4. If you have a new cd-rom that you bought for your computer in the past you can use that to install win95 and after you install it you can take out the cd-rom and put it back on your computer.

First check to see if you have a file on the computer you want to install win95, at the C: type DIR then enter, do you see a file called MSCDEX.EXE? if yes just run the setup disk for the cd-rom.

If you do not see it, then go on your main computer under C: dir you will see it, copy it to a disk, then insert it on the computer you want to install win95 and type at the A:
COPY A:C:\ then enter

Then install the setup disk for your cd-rom.

Then reboot your computer then at the C: type D: enter , if you got a D: your ready to install win 95 from cd.

You might know all of this but others might not.

Ron

[imserv@imsrv.com]

Windows 3.1 has a program called terminal, and Windows 95 has a program called Hyperterminal. These two programs will allow you to connect a win 95 PC to a Win 3.1 PC, using the serial port (Rs-232). The wiring is the same as a laplink or "Null Modem" cable. I recommend that people wire straight through, and buy a null modem box for $5. This connection will allow you to send files back and forth.

There is also a shareware program called Procomm that will let you set one of the machines up as a remote host. In this way it will answer back as if it were intelligent (slightly), and will allow upload and download of selected files, without having to type receive and send commands at each machine.

This technique will not allow you to use the files, as you would on a network, but you will be able to avoid problems with "dust & diskettes"

[jdabbott@iserv.net]

Hello Botters,

I manage a cad/cnc department in a tool & die shop
and have had to build a network of 20+ PC's to cad stations and mills. Please feel free to email me with any networking questions.

Jeff Abbbott
jdabbott@iserv.net (mailto:jdabbott@iserv.net)

[Howard Andersen]

Thanks Jeff! I haven't bought my bott (!!) yet but I'll keep your generous offer in mind. Howard.

[giggalo]

Well i am back again.lol

If you want to use 2 of more computers to run your shopbot? it is easy to do, you have to set your computers to PEER TO PEER.

All you need is Network cards for the computers you want to use.

You need to run cable to each computer and a wall jack.

You would do this like you would a phone line but with the right cable and jack.

You can get all the supplys from any computer shop.

Then all you would need is win95 or win98 installed on your computer.

I did my 4 computers at a cost of under $75.00.

Network cards will run you $20.00 to $50.00 each.

You might be able to find some used ones like I did, 4 for $50.00.

Cable is sold by the foot. You can get it all at Radio Shack, let them know you are doing PEER to PEER.

About 2 years ago I wrote a complete networking help file on how to do it all step by step.

If you need these files let me know.

Ron

[cwho@mountainmax.net]

HI a shop botters,

I am perusing this forum as I am sweatting my credit card out of my back pocket to order a machine.
We currently run a two axis laser cutter off a DOS machine and I recently got it on the network. I wanted to get the DOS machine on a Peer to Peer network. We have two Macintoshes, two Pentium II's and one (well soon to be two) 486's with 586 upgrades that all talk on the same 10 base t network.

The site that helped me get this all working is
http://www.helmig.com/
If you are particually interested in DOS to Windows that is at
http://www.helmig.com/j_helmig/dosclien.htm
If Ron is theShopbot guru Helmig is the networking guru. HIs site is very clear and has step by step tutorials about how to install the network software onto the DOS machine and how to configure it to talk to the other computers. The network card cost me $25 but only becase I wanted it right away!. The software is free (for the Wintel machines - about $150 if you want to get macs going) We already had the network hub and other parts for the other computers. If you only want two computers you do not keed a hub you can use what is called a crossover cable to connect two machines.
We used to shuttle files back to the laser on floppy disk but this is MUCH faster and the machine actually cuts faster as it does not pause to read the disk file.

If anyone needs help drop me an email. CWHO@mountainmax.net
hope you all can help me out soon with the shopbot

thanks

[saintjohnbosco@yahoo.com]

Ron, Do you know how far you can string the cables between computers. I have about 160 feet between my house and shop. Do you know which networking card would be best for this distance?

[birdsofplay]

I've run thinwire cable over 600' with no problems.

Twisted pair may be another story, but I suspect not.

If you are moving A LOT of files betweeen the office and the shop all the networking fuss "may" be of some use but for a few per day or less ...
a floppy and sneaker net" is pretty efficient, no cost, no labor, no extra power, no used up slots, no used up irqs, no extra files loaded, no memory consumed, yada yada yada blah blah

Now if ya just wanna do it for fun .. go for it.

[saintjohnbosco@yahoo.com]

Thanks for the info BOB. I would like to access my modem and the web through my "future" shop machine. I was looking around for some software that would handle DOS and WIN95 and only found Lantastic would work well but it cost about $200.00 Maybe I'll have to find a used machine that can handle WIN95 and then I can use some of the cheaper software. Do you by chance know how much the TurboCad folks are charging to use their product on a network? I would be nice to have access to the Cad software from the shop as well.