Different behavior wired and wireless...?

[Kenneth]

Howdy,

I found it inconvenient to switch back and forth between the
several network configurations I need when using my laptop
in my office (wired), my home (wireless) and at various
other locations when I travel...

I installed and configured NetSwitcher with no trouble (or
so I thought), but now, have an odd problem:

We have six systems on our lan, five are Win2000 Pro boxes,
and those all connect via Cat5.

The sixth box is my laptop. It is a WinXP box, and can
connect via Cat5, or wireless (hence my desire for
NetSwitcher)...

Here's what's happening -

If I set NetSwitcher on the laptop accordingly, and then
plug the laptop into the lan, all is fine. The laptop can
browse the Internet and all systems see, and can browse the
laptop. Also, it can see and browse all other systems.

With the hardwired setting, if I attempt to view the lan
Workgroup, all machines display by name, including the
laptop.

If I then set NetSwitcher to my wireless configuration (that
is, hardwire card disabled, and static IP assigned to the
internal wireless card), the laptop can still browse the
Internet, but it cannot browse any other systems on our lan,
and none of them can browse the laptop.

The laptop can successfully ping any other system on our
lan, but only by IP address, that is, it cannot successfully
ping by any system's name. When I try, I get the "Unknown
host error."

Other systems can successfully ping the laptop, but only by
IP address, and not by name.

If, on the laptop, I attempt to view the lan Workgroup,
nothing displays...

If I drop down previously mapped lan network locations, they
display, but each computer name is listed as "Unknown."

When I saw all this, I thought "AHA!, the NetSwitcher
wireless setting does not include the proper Workgroup
designation for the laptop!" But when I checked, it does.

My tech support friends at Dell were, (Hmmm, how to say this
in a polite way...?) something less than helpful, and so I
thought to try here.

With apologies for the long post, I ask for any insight you
might provide.

Very sincere thanks for any help on this,

 

[Bob Willard]

Howdy,

I found it inconvenient to switch back and forth between the
several network configurations I need when using my laptop
in my office (wired), my home (wireless) and at various
other locations when I travel...

I installed and configured NetSwitcher with no trouble (or
so I thought), but now, have an odd problem:

We have six systems on our lan, five are Win2000 Pro boxes,
and those all connect via Cat5.

The sixth box is my laptop. It is a WinXP box, and can
connect via Cat5, or wireless (hence my desire for
NetSwitcher)...

Here's what's happening -

If I set NetSwitcher on the laptop accordingly, and then
plug the laptop into the lan, all is fine. The laptop can
browse the Internet and all systems see, and can browse the
laptop. Also, it can see and browse all other systems.

With the hardwired setting, if I attempt to view the lan
Workgroup, all machines display by name, including the
laptop.

If I then set NetSwitcher to my wireless configuration (that
is, hardwire card disabled, and static IP assigned to the
internal wireless card), the laptop can still browse the
Internet, but it cannot browse any other systems on our lan,
and none of them can browse the laptop.

The laptop can successfully ping any other system on our
lan, but only by IP address, that is, it cannot successfully
ping by any system's name. When I try, I get the "Unknown
host error."

Other systems can successfully ping the laptop, but only by
IP address, and not by name.

If, on the laptop, I attempt to view the lan Workgroup,
nothing displays...

If I drop down previously mapped lan network locations, they
display, but each computer name is listed as "Unknown."

When I saw all this, I thought "AHA!, the NetSwitcher
wireless setting does not include the proper Workgroup
designation for the laptop!" But when I checked, it does.

My tech support friends at Dell were, (Hmmm, how to say this
in a polite way...?) something less than helpful, and so I
thought to try here.

With apologies for the long post, I ask for any insight you
might provide.

Very sincere thanks for any help on this,

Sounds like that static IPA is not in the same subgroup as the other
PCs in your LAN. You may want to use DHCP with your WiFi NIC.

 

[Kenneth]

Sounds like that static IPA is not in the same subgroup as the other
PCs in your LAN. You may want to use DHCP with your WiFi NIC.

Hi Bob,

Thanks for your comment...

The wireless system is using the same static IPA as it was
when all was working well, and the system shows the proper
workgroup name when I click on "View Workgroup Computers."

Beyond that though, is there a way that I can view a list of
all the IPAs that are in the subgroup? (I will try the
dynamic assignment in a moment...)

OK, no joy...

I am now running with a DHCP assigned IPA and have exactly
the same results: I can browse the Internet, but cannot
browse any systems on the lan.

Also, I just noticed something else:

When I now click on "View Workgroup Computers" the right
pane is unpopulated. If I then double click on the workgroup
name that appears in the address bar, I get the following:

Hide UPnP Icons

You have chosen to hide UPnP device icons. This will also
close the Windows Firewall ports so that the UPnP device
software can no longer discover networked UPnP devices. Do
you want to continue?

That leaves me baffled...

Does it make any sense to you? Might there be a relationship
between the failure to see other systems in the workgroup
and some firewall UPnP setting?

Thanks for any further thoughts,

 

[Bob Willard]

Howdy,

I found it inconvenient to switch back and forth between the
several network configurations I need when using my laptop
in my office (wired), my home (wireless) and at various
other locations when I travel...

I installed and configured NetSwitcher with no trouble (or
so I thought), but now, have an odd problem:

We have six systems on our lan, five are Win2000 Pro boxes,
and those all connect via Cat5.

The sixth box is my laptop. It is a WinXP box, and can
connect via Cat5, or wireless (hence my desire for
NetSwitcher)...

Here's what's happening -

If I set NetSwitcher on the laptop accordingly, and then
plug the laptop into the lan, all is fine. The laptop can
browse the Internet and all systems see, and can browse the
laptop. Also, it can see and browse all other systems.

With the hardwired setting, if I attempt to view the lan
Workgroup, all machines display by name, including the
laptop.

If I then set NetSwitcher to my wireless configuration (that
is, hardwire card disabled, and static IP assigned to the
internal wireless card), the laptop can still browse the
Internet, but it cannot browse any other systems on our lan,
and none of them can browse the laptop.

The laptop can successfully ping any other system on our
lan, but only by IP address, that is, it cannot successfully
ping by any system's name. When I try, I get the "Unknown
host error."

Other systems can successfully ping the laptop, but only by
IP address, and not by name.

If, on the laptop, I attempt to view the lan Workgroup,
nothing displays...

If I drop down previously mapped lan network locations, they
display, but each computer name is listed as "Unknown."

When I saw all this, I thought "AHA!, the NetSwitcher
wireless setting does not include the proper Workgroup
designation for the laptop!" But when I checked, it does.

My tech support friends at Dell were, (Hmmm, how to say this
in a polite way...?) something less than helpful, and so I
thought to try here.

With apologies for the long post, I ask for any insight you
might provide.

Very sincere thanks for any help on this,

It may be that the wireless segment of your LAN is isolated from the wired
segment. On my LAN's WRT54G, for example, look at the Wireless page and
then at the AdvancedWirelessSettings page for the AP Isolation setting;
with that set to On, my wired PCs can only ping my wireless PCs by number,
with it set to Off, my wired PCs can also ping my wireless PCs by name.

If you have a different router, the specifics will (of course) differ.

 

[Kenneth]

It may be that the wireless segment of your LAN is isolated from the wired
segment. On my LAN's WRT54G, for example, look at the Wireless page and
then at the AdvancedWirelessSettings page for the AP Isolation setting;
with that set to On, my wired PCs can only ping my wireless PCs by number,
with it set to Off, my wired PCs can also ping my wireless PCs by name.

If you have a different router, the specifics will (of course) differ.

Hey Bob,

Thanks for your comments...

I am using a Linksys WAP54G wireless access point (no DHCP).
I can find nothing in its configuration about "AP
Isolation."

Can you tell me something more about what that means in the
hope that I can find a setting under another name?

All the best,

 

[Bob Willard]

Hey Bob,

Thanks for your comments...

I am using a Linksys WAP54G wireless access point (no DHCP).
I can find nothing in its configuration about "AP
Isolation."

Can you tell me something more about what that means in the
hope that I can find a setting under another name?

All the best,

The explanation given on my router is:

"Creates a separate virtual network for your wireless network.
When this feature is enabled, each of your wireless client
will be in its own virtual network and will not be able to
communicate with each other. You may want to utilize this
feature if you have many guests that frequent your wireless
network."

I don't know if the WAP54G has AP isolation or not.

You may also want to look at the router upstream of your WAP to see
if the settings for the LAN port connected to the WAN port of your
WAP are causing isolation. (I'm guessing that's how your WAP gets
to the rest of your LAN. If not, maybe you should explain.)