With Direct Cable Connection (DCC), you can establish a direct serial or parallel cable connection between two computers to share the resources of the computer designated as the host. DCC can also be used over an IR link.
The computer that contains the folder you want to share is the host, and the other computer is the guest. Share a folder on the host, granting access rights to anyone using the guest computer, by carrying out the procedure given below.
Note
The following procedure is just one of many that could be used to share files in a folder on the host computer. For example, there is user-level access control as well as share-level access control. The following procedure is one of the simplest access control procedures, which is all that is needed to get you started using DCC. To get information about all the ways files, folders, and printers can be shared, use the Windows 95 Help.
1. Double-click on the My Computer icon.
2. Double-click on the icon of the drive that contains the folder you want to share (for example, double-click on the icon for the C: drive).
3. Right-click on the icon of the folder you want to share and then select Properties.
4. In the folder properties dialog, select the Sharing tab and then select the Shared As option, enter a share name, enter a comment, and add user access rights (Full or Read-Only).
5. The picture of a hand is added to the folder icon to indicate the selected folder is now a shared resource.
DCC is not installed with the typical Windows 95 installation recommended for most computers.
So you must check whether DCC is installed on both of the two computers that will be using the IR link. To do this, click the Start button, point to Programs, and then point to Accessories. Direct Cable Connection appears in this menu of it is installed on the computer you are checking.
If you find that DCC is installed on the host and DCC is installed on the guest, then you can skip the next step.
Before you can establish a DCC connection, DCC must be installed on both the host and guest. The procedure for installing DCC on either the host or the guest is given below. If you find that DCC is not installed on the host and is also not installed on the guest, then you must run the following procedure twice (once on each machine).
1. Click the Start button, point to Settings, and then click the Control Panel. Double-click the Add/Remove Programs icon.
2. In the Add/Remove Program Properties, click the Windows Setup tab.
3. In the Components list, click Communications, and then click the Details button.
4. In the Communications dialog box, make sure Direct Cable Connection is checked and then click OK.
To run DCC over an IR link, carry out the following procedure:
1. Make sure the IR communications driver is properly installed and the IR devices are enabled by carrying out the procedures in Step 1. Installing the IR Communications Driver and Step 2. Validating the IR Communications Driver Installation.
Note
You might want to use the Limit Connection Speed To option on the Infrared Monitor Options tab to limit the IR connection speed to 9600 bps for the first test of DCC over the IR link (and then increase the speed later).
2. On the host computer, click the Start button, point to Accessories, and then click Direct Cable Connection.
3. Follow the steps in the Direct Cable Connection Wizard to set up the host computer. When the wizard prompts you, select the Host option. When the wizard prompts you to choose a port, use the same virtual port as you used in the procedure Step 2. Validating the IR Communications Driver Installation earlier in this document. The wizard will also offer password protection. You do not need to establish password protection on the host for this test of the IR link. When you are done with the wizard, click the Finish button. DCC will start running on the IR link and display the message "Status: Waiting to connect via Serial cable on Comx," where Comx is the name of the virtual port the IR link is using.
4. Repeat steps 2 and 3 for the guest computer, except select the Guest option instead of the Host option. When you are done with the wizard, click the Finish button. The DCC connection is automatically made over the IR link, and all the shared folders on the host are displayed on the guest's screen.
5. Working on the guest computer, to copy a shared folder from the host to the guest over the IR link select the folder's icon in the window that displays all the shared folders that are on the host and drag the icon to the desktop. To work on a shared folder on the host without copying it to the guest, double-click on the folder in the display on the guest. Note that if the host is connected to a network, the guest can reach shared resources on the network through the DCC connection to the host.