# Direct cable connection not working



## deweylovem (Sep 28, 2007)

I am trying to get files from my old ibm thinkpad laptop with win 95. I have a direct cable connected from lpt1 on my laptop to lpt1 on my pc. My pc has win xp pro. I have run the direct connection setup on both pcs and a window is up on both. The window on my laptop says it is listening as the host. The window on my pc says "error 721 the host pc did not respond". I have enabled sharing on my laptop. Is there something else I need to do?


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## johnwill (Sep 26, 2002)

GAD! The only way to use parallel ports is with a special cable and a program like LapLink.

Do both of these machines have Ethernet ports?


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## deweylovem (Sep 28, 2007)

No. The laptop is old, and only has serial and parrallel ports. I have a serial cable that I could use. I guess I need some software any way.


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## johnwill (Sep 26, 2002)

Yep, you'll need serial or parallel port transfer software.

A free one for serial ports (use a null-modem cable) is: Zip File Transfer Utility (ZIP221.ZIP - 50 KB)


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## deweylovem (Sep 28, 2007)

Thanks JohnWill,
You guys are always fast and accurate with your replies. I downloaded the software and will get a null modem cable.


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## johnwill (Sep 26, 2002)

Let us know how you make out. I used that serial port program in the 90's, nowadays I network everything.


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## deweylovem (Sep 28, 2007)

I installed the serial null modem cable to the only serial port on my laptop. When I look in device manager it shows only 1 serial port and it is called com 2.
When I use zipset, the default port is com1. When I edit and change it to com 2, and save the changes, it says "write error" and keeps it as com 1. So far, no luck.


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## johnwill (Sep 26, 2002)

Hmm... It's been so long I don't remember if I ever used other com ports, though I'd think it should work with at least COM1 and COM2.

Are you using the ZIPSET utility as described in the documentation file?


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## deweylovem (Sep 28, 2007)

Zipset allows selecting com ports from 1 thru 4. I have configured both pcs to com 2, and then both to com1. Neither works. one pc says "waiting" and the old laptop says "ready". When this happens, the zip instructions say there is no connection. I have not figured out how to check the connection and fix it. I have a brand new cable and null modem adapter. Perhaps the old laptop serial port is bad. I am going to try this connection with another pc to see if it will work. Thanks for your interest.


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## johnwill (Sep 26, 2002)

Connect pins 2 & 3 together on the laptop serial port and fire up HyperTerminal. Configure for a direct wired connection and see if when you type a character it's echoed back to you.


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## deweylovem (Sep 28, 2007)

Thanks for telling me about hyper terminal. I configured com port 2 on both pcs and it sent all the files I needed from my old laptop. It takes some time,but it worked. PROBLEM SOLVED!!!


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## johnwill (Sep 26, 2002)

Great, thanks for the feedback.


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## Dlorah (Dec 3, 2010)

I've got pretty much the same issues as deweylovem - not a win95 laptop, just an old desktop....even with a direct cable connection between the two I haven't even been able to get a ping, much less ftp. The lovely tool you suggested - HyperTerminal - at least tells me I'm connected, and I'm solidly encouraged to pursue that solution based on deweylovem's results.

One big question...since I have been sharing a single monitor between the two desktops, I haven't been able to view the results of my sending and receiving...in all cases, the connection is timed out. Should I be setting up "send" on one computer, then "receive" on the other? Should I trundle down to goodwill and buy another monitor?

By "see if when you type a character it's echoed back to you" I take it you mean that I should type into the white portion of the HyperTerminal window and see the typed characters in that portion of the window? (.e.g. not in the grey portion of the window?) Earlier this evening I accomplished that, but at the moment I'm not sure how I got there. (I'm on another network connected computer at the moment.)

Any clues as to why I'm not getting ping results? I manually configured the IP addresses of both boxes earlier this evening, but geeze, at least that much was pretty straightforward. Years ago I used the win95 box for work....I had a bunch of UNIX workstations on a network in my home office, and I would use the internet connection on the win95 box to email files to clients. I seem to recall just using plain old ftp at the command prompt....maybe I had a 5 port hub back then?

At this point, HyperTerminal seems like a great solution if I can get it to work...the time required to transfer the files would probably be small in comparison to the time I've spent attempting to configure what I thought would take me a few minutes. So do I need monitor #2? 

Your assistance is much appreciated.


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## Wand3r3r (Sep 17, 2010)

Dlorah please start your own thread. Thx


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## Dlorah (Dec 3, 2010)

In what forum? Now my old desktop is losing awareness of the monitor, keyboard, and mouse as soon as MS Win 95 comes up (it recognizes all three during boot up). At this point I'm thinking of removing the hard drive from the old computer and then somehow plugging it in to the new one to transfer the files. And I don't even know what a hard drive looks like....well, barely. So what forum should I post in?


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## Wand3r3r (Sep 17, 2010)

if a networking problem you would post here.
if a Win95 problem you would post in the Microsoft forums
if a hardware failure you .... get the idea

if you need to get data off the hd I would recommend the hardware forums


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## 2xg (Aug 5, 2009)

I think that was well explained.


> if a networking problem you would post here.
> if a Win95 problem you would post in the Microsoft forums
> if a hardware failure you .... get the idea
> 
> if you need to get data off the hd I would recommend the hardware forums


I will Close this Thread now.


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