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I have a laptop with an ethernet port. I have a Western Digital MyBook with an ethernet port (it contains its own little internal computer).

I need to hook up my laptop directly to the MyBook and be able to access it via windows networking. How can I tell my laptop to connect to the MyBook? I'm not sure if it has a static IP or if I need to run some sort of a DHCP server to assign it one.

This would be a lot easier if the MyBook had a monitor and keyboard and I could just assign the IP address manually!

2 Answers 2

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If the MyBook is configured to get an IP address via DHCP, you can run a DHCP server on your XP laptop and connect the MyBook to the laptop via a crossover cable or an ethernet switch. This should give the MyBook an IP address and you can connect to it that way. The DCHP server should be able to tell you what IP address it assigned to the device.

If the MyBook is configured to use a static IP you can assign a static IP to your laptop that's in the same private networking space (10.0.0.0 – 10.255.255.255, 172.16.0.0 – 172.31.255.255, or 192.168.0.0 – 192.168.255.255) and you can locate it by pinging your broadcast address.

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  • After reconfiguring the DHCP server a little bit and restarting the MyBook, the IP it was assigned showed up in the console window. I've got full access now. Thanks! Sep 4, 2010 at 16:51
  • Glad I could help!
    – Josh
    Sep 4, 2010 at 17:32
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The first thing I would do is just plug it in using an ethernet cable and run Windows Explorer and see if it shows up in Network Neighborhood. It can't hurt.

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  • You'll need a crossover Ethernet cable probably. Sep 4, 2010 at 16:32
  • Yes : XP can be DHCP master if necessary.
    – harrymc
    Sep 4, 2010 at 16:34
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    @KronoS: Many ethernet interfaces automatically detect and correct using Automatic MDI/MDI-X. Sep 4, 2010 at 16:48
  • That's good to know. Thx Sep 5, 2010 at 0:22

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