network problem.

[rugeleyboy]

i have 2 computers joined by a network cable and they have worked fine together for the past 12 months. however, i came back from a weeks holiday and they no longer work, i have tried to repair and it tells me to contact the person who deals with the network???..... thats me!!! any ideas? TIA

[another-view]

Has anything different changed with your setup in the last week?

Do you keep these machines on all the time and switched them off when you went away? If so, try rebooting them one at a time in a different order.

[rugeleyboy]

hi thanks for answering.

the computers were kept on and the folks i work with used them, its telling me my IP adress is invalid? but i dont use this network to access the internet?

[another-view]

They will still have an IP to talk to each other though. The IP address identifies the computer.

Try going into network settings and see if anything looks odd. The 2 PCs should pretty much resemble each other's settings.

[ACtheTROLL]

the machines do indeed need ip addresses
start with a command prompt
start | run | cmd.exe
in the black box type
ipconfig /all
if you see 169.x.x.x this is an auto address ... and not ideal
go to network properties and enter a fixed address
192.168.1.10
and in the other
192.168.1.100
subnet 255.255.255.0 (this should pick up automatically)

this should make it clear
http://www.makeitsimple.com/how-to/simple.htm