XP networking impossibles

[thepeartree]

I have a situation that seems impossible- 3 systems, all running XP SP-3 into
the wired ports on a LinkSys WRT310N Wireless/Wired router: all 3 work fine
for internet access, but one system can't see the others on the network at
all and the other 2 can't access the third system, though they can see it.

2 of the systems (the isolated 'maverick' and one other) have attached
printers, but the printer attached to the 'invisible' system can't be seen by
the other two on the network.

I've spent countless hours trying to debug the situation, without success. I
have done my best to turn off any and all firewalls that might be keeping the
invisible system from being seen, but I don't know that I've got them all.
The last possible step would be to turn off the firewall in the router, which
is not something I can make myself do.

In any case, I've run all the troubleshooting tests I can find, without any
luck. They all fail at the most basic level- I can't ping the invisible
system from any of the other systems in the house.

Any ideas on this would be welcome!

 

[Malke]

I have a situation that seems impossible- 3 systems, all running XP SP-3
into the wired ports on a LinkSys WRT310N Wireless/Wired router: all 3
work fine for internet access, but one system can't see the others on the
network at all and the other 2 can't access the third system, though they
can see it.

2 of the systems (the isolated 'maverick' and one other) have attached
printers, but the printer attached to the 'invisible' system can't be seen
by the other two on the network.

I've spent countless hours trying to debug the situation, without success.
I have done my best to turn off any and all firewalls that might be
keeping the invisible system from being seen, but I don't know that I've
got them all. The last possible step would be to turn off the firewall in
the router, which is not something I can make myself do.

There is no need to turn off a router firewall. Be systematic and follow
these steps, even if you think you've done them before. For XP, start by
running the Network Setup Wizard on all machines (see caveat in Item A
below).

Problems sharing files between computers on a network are generally caused
by 1) a misconfigured firewall or overlooked firewall (including a stateful
firewall in a VPN); or 2) inadvertently running two firewalls such as the
built-in Windows Firewall and a third-party firewall; and/or 3) not having
identical user accounts and passwords on all Workgroup machines; 4) trying
to create shares where the operating system does not permit it.

A. Configure firewalls on all machines to allow the Local Area Network (LAN)
traffic as trusted. With Windows Firewall, this means allowing File/Printer
Sharing on the Exceptions tab. Normally running the Network Setup Wizard on
XP will take care of this for those machines.The only "gotcha" is that this
will turn on the XPSP2 Windows Firewall. If you aren't running a
third-party firewall or have an antivirus/security program with its own
firewall component, then you're fine. With third-party firewalls, I
usually configure the LAN allowance with an IP range. Ex. would be
192.168.1.0-192.168.1.254. Obviously you would substitute your correct
subnet. Refer to any third party security program's Help or user forums for
how to properly configure its firewall. Do not run more than one firewall.
DO NOT TURN OFF FIREWALLS; CONFIGURE THEM CORRECTLY.

B. For ease of organization, put all computers in the same Workgroup. This
is done from the System applet in Control Panel, Computer Name tab.

C. Create matching user accounts and passwords on all machines. You do not
need to be logged into the same account on all machines and the passwords
assigned to each user account can be different; the accounts/passwords just
need to exist and match on all machines. DO NOT NEGLECT TO CREATE
PASSWORDS, EVEN IF ONLY SIMPLE ONES. If you wish a machine to boot directly
to the Desktop (into one particular user's account) for convenience, you
can do this:

XP - Configure Windows to Automatically Login (MVP Ramesh) -
http://windowsxp.mvps.org/Autologon.htm

D. If one or more of the computers is XP Pro or Media Center, turn off
Simple File Sharing (Folder Options>View tab).

E. Create shares as desired. XP Home does not permit sharing of users' home
directories or Program Files, but you can share folders inside those
directories. A better choice is to simply use the Shared Documents folder.
See the first link above for details about Vista sharing.

F. After you have file sharing working (and have tested this by exchanging a
file between all machines), if you want to share a printer connected
locally to one of your computers, share it out from that machine. Then go
to the printer mftr.'s website and download the latest drivers for the
correct operating system(s). Install them on the target machine(s). The
printer should be seen during the installation routine. If it is not,
install the drivers and then use the Add Printer Wizard. In some instances,
certain printers need to be installed as Local printers but that is outside
of this response.

Malke

 

[Kevin]

thepeartree,
If after doing what Malke suggests and you still have issues.
Do yourself a favor and pick up a cheap spare router for troubleshooting.
I just spent a day and a half working on what turned out to be a failing
router.
2 out of 3 machines could get internet access. One machine could ping the
other two but not vice versa. I'll spare you all the gory details.
A new router was the solution.
-Kevin