A Can Ping B, But B Cannot Ping A?

[(PeteCresswell)]

Home network, both machines running XP Pro SP2.

Network problems. The workgroup is named "303"

Machine A can get to Machine B's shares - no problem

Machine B can see the work group (Network Places|Entire Network|Microsoft
Windows Network|303, but it tries to open 303, it throws "303 is not accessible.
You might not have permission to use this network resource. Contact the
admin........ The list of servers for this workgroup is not available."

Machine A can ping machine B, but B cannot ping A.

Where should I start looking? A little voice says "Firewall", but that doesn't
seem consistent with A's being able to get to B.

 

[(PeteCresswell)]

Per (PeteCresswell):

Machine A can ping machine B, but B cannot ping A.

Oops... two more little twists.

When I actually opened the "B" SharedDocs directory from A, it turned out that
it was pointing to A.

Also, after doing that, I tried to ping B again from A and it wouldn't work.

A can ping itself, however....

?????

 

[(PeteCresswell)]

Per (PeteCresswell):

Also, after doing that, I tried to ping B again from A and it wouldn't work.

A can ping itself, however....

Oops again... Now I pinged B from B itself, then pinged B from A again and it
worked.

Can anybody point to where I should start looking - bearing in mind the thing
where when A opens B's SharedDocs it winds up looking at itself instead of B?

 

[over]

Home network, both machines running XP Pro SP2.

Network problems. The workgroup is named "303"

Machine A can get to Machine B's shares - no problem

Machine B can see the work group (Network Places|Entire
Network|Microsoft Windows Network|303, but it tries to open 303, it
throws "303 is not accessible. You might not have permission to use
this network resource. Contact the admin........ The list of servers
for this workgroup is not available."

Machine A can ping machine B, but B cannot ping A.

Where should I start looking? A little voice says "Firewall", but
that doesn't seem consistent with A's being able to get to B.

The little voice is possibly correct.
Do you have file and printer sharing enabled as a firewall exception on B
but not on A? The firewall lets everything out, but only certain things
in, so this would allow A to access B, but not the other way around.
Allowing ping in appears to be tied to file sharing - if I turn this
exception off and on, it also blocks or allows ping.

 

[(PeteCresswell)]

Per (PeteCresswell):

Also, after doing that, I tried to ping B again from A and it wouldn't work.

A can ping itself, however....

To wit: (Asus=A, Kat=B)
-----------------------------------
Microsoft Windows XP [Version 5.1.2600]
(C) Copyright 1985-2001 Microsoft Corp.

C:\WINNT>ping kat

Pinging kat [192.168.0.100] with 32 bytes of data:

Reply from 192.168.0.100: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=128
Reply from 192.168.0.100: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=128
Reply from 192.168.0.100: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=128
Reply from 192.168.0.100: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=128

Ping statistics for 192.168.0.100:
Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 0ms, Maximum = 0ms, Average = 0ms

C:\WINNT>ping asus

Pinging Asus [192.168.0.101] with 32 bytes of data:

Reply from 192.168.0.101: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=128
Reply from 192.168.0.101: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=128
Reply from 192.168.0.101: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=128
Reply from 192.168.0.101: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=128

Ping statistics for 192.168.0.101:
Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 0ms, Maximum = 0ms, Average = 0ms

C:\WINNT>ping kat
Ping request could not find host kat. Please check the name and try again.

C:\WINNT>ping kat
Ping request could not find host kat. Please check the name and try again.

 

[(PeteCresswell)]

Per (e-mail address removed):

The little voice is possibly correct.
Do you have file and printer sharing enabled as a firewall exception on B
but not on A? The firewall lets everything out, but only certain things
in, so this would allow A to access B, but not the other way around.
Allowing ping in appears to be tied to file sharing - if I turn this
exception off and on, it also blocks or allows ping.

If you mean Windows Firewall|Exceptions|File and Printer Sharing = Checked, then
yes - both PCs have it checked.

I'm starting to wonder, however, if it's a Windows Firewall issue bc when I turn
Windows Firewall off on both PCs (Windows Firewall|Off (not recommended) =
Checked) the problem persists.

OTOH, with both firewalls off, machine B can open up the workgroup and see
machine A.... although when it tries to open A, it throws "\\Asus is not
accessible.... You may not have permission.... The network path was not found."
in spite of A's having things in it's "Shared Documents" folder.

OTOOH, the goofey thing where A opens B's SharedDocs and sees itself persists...