Solid "Act" LED

I have a home peer-to-peer network sharing an internet connection. Comp1(winXP) is connected to the internet and sharing to comp2(win98SE). That works fine. I disconected comp2 so that I can place my laptop(winXP) at that point. No matter what I do I can not get the comp1 and laptop to see each other.
The "ACT" LED on the laptop is solid until I try to access something like the internet and then it flickers a bit. The "Link" LED has never lit up. What can I do? Do I need a crossover. I have never needed one b4 and don't know what the purpose is. Any help would be great.
Thanks

1. RE: Solid
lbyard Dec-08-01 08:27 PM
In response to message 0

It won’t work until the Link LED goes solid (http://duxcw.com/faq/network/link.htm), which I presume it is on the other computer when it is connected. The Activity LED is doing the opposite of the ones I’ve seen. Are you sure you read the labels on the adapter correctly? It could be a combination ACT/Link LED. In which case the behavior is what I would expect. After double-checking the cable plugs, I would run diagnostics on the network adapter in the notebook. Most adapters come with a floppy with a diagnostic program. The loopback test should fail without a loopback adapter connected to the adapter. The cable must be a crossover cable if it works connecting two computers directly together. Once the hardware is correct, try just installing the FTP/IP protocol on the notebook and other computer. Activate the Guest account on the XP computer. It may take 15 minutes or so before the computers sort things out. Try searching for them by computer name. I would shorten the default, 15-character computer name on the XP computer. Larry