games over wireless lan - help?

I set up a wireless Lan at home over Xmas, hooking up my kids' two PCs with my own. We can share files off a common drive, share internet access etc, but I haven't been able to get networked games like SWAT, Nerf working. I start a server under the LAN option, but the other PCs don't see the server. I've fiddled with firewall exceptions and even tried disabling them, with no difference, so I don't think it's to do with that. Any ideas?

 

Should work fine, what OS are they running, if it's XP type in from a command prompt "ipconfig /all > 1.txt" from one pc and change the filename for the second pc to 2.txt, this should create a text file with the network info what do both pc's say ?

It's nowt to do with the firewall on the router, the PC's will be on the same subnet if they are on wireless, does each PC have a firewall on it too ?

 

they're all on XP. I'll do what you suggest when I get home tonight. each PC does have a firewall, but I've named the games as allowed exceptions within each one (and even disabling the firewalls didn't seem to make a difference)

 

Have you manually set the IP addresses of each computer?

I always find it much more reliable if I set the computers to have incremental addresses,
e.g. 192.168.1.100, 192.168.1.101, etc and make sure they are all on the same subnet (e.g. 255.255.255.0)

If you don't know how, go to control panel, network connections, right click on your lan connection and go to properties. Double click on Internet Protocol to open its properties and put an IP address in there.

 

On some routers you can say this mac address (the hardware address on each network card, they are unique) always is given this ip address.

 

I'll have to wait till the weekend to get stuck into this - the kids are in bed by the time I get back so I can't get to their PCs. Can you just make up the IP address or do you need to find one that isnt already in use somehow? It also then asks for a preferred DNS server - same question?
cheers
Roger

 

192.168.xxx.xxx are reserved for private networks, so those will be fine for you.
For PC's not connected directly to the internet, set the default gateway and preferred DNS server to be the IP address of the PC which is connected to the internet.
For the PC connected to the internet, leave the default gateway empty and preferred DNS set to obtain automtically.

Think that should do it, but there is plenty of help on the net if you get any particular problems.
Phill