Computers in same workgroup not recognizing each other

[Peter]

Seems a common problem. Two machines definitely connected by wireless,
excellent signal. Went through set up with Network Wizard to establish
computer and workgroup names, but nothing shows in "Network Places\View
Workbook Computers" on either machine. I use Windows Live Care - set
firewall configuration to "Home Zone" on both machines - should allow file
viewing on other machine - but still nothing. Does the "Map Network Drive"
function found by right-clicking "My Compter" have anything to do with this?
Is it worth paying for phone support at this point?

 

[John Wunderlich]

Seems a common problem. Two machines definitely connected by
wireless, excellent signal. Went through set up with Network
Wizard to establish computer and workgroup names, but nothing
shows in "Network Places\View Workbook Computers" on either
machine. I use Windows Live Care - set firewall configuration to
"Home Zone" on both machines - should allow file viewing on other
machine - but still nothing. Does the "Map Network Drive"
function found by right-clicking "My Compter" have anything to do
with this? Is it worth paying for phone support at this point?

Almost always this is caused by a firewall on some computer in the
subnet.

Bring up a command window (start->Run->"cmd") and try the following
commands:

1) Can you ping the other machine's IP address?
ping 192.168.1.10 <- Replace with actual IP address

2) Does Windows Networking respond on other machine?
nbtstat -a computername
or
nbtstat -A computer.IP.Address.

3) Do you get an error when you try to manually connect:

net use * \\computername\sharename

HTH,
John

 

[John Wunderlich]

Almost always this is caused by a firewall on some computer in the
subnet.

Bring up a command window (start->Run->"cmd") and try the following
commands:

1) Can you ping the other machine's IP address?
ping 192.168.1.10 <- Replace with actual IP address

2) Does Windows Networking respond on other machine?
nbtstat -a computername
or
nbtstat -A computer.IP.Address.

3) Do you get an error when you try to manually connect:

net use * \\computername\sharename

HTH,
John

Also, enter the command:
ipconfig /all

and verify that the Node Type is not P-Type or Peer-to-Peer on either
machine.

HTH,
John

 

[Peter]

Thanks for helping, John. Answers:

ip config - node is "mixed". I set this up as a "peer to peer" network
manually. The wireless network wizard only sets up infrastructure systems I
believe.

How do I find the IP addresses for the computers? Is there a unique IP for
each?

nbtstat provides the workgroup name associated with the other computer so
something is being recognized (maybe.

net use does not appear to yield anything useful. What is the "share name"?

One computer is connected to the internet via a cable router, the other is
not connected directly to the net. A third PC is also connected to the
router, but does not have a wireless connection. AS i only want to share
files beweeen the machines, maybe i should remove the internet cable
connection?

Thanks, Peter

 

[Lem]

Thanks for helping, John. Answers:

ip config - node is "mixed". I set this up as a "peer to peer" network
manually. The wireless network wizard only sets up infrastructure systems I
believe.

How do I find the IP addresses for the computers? Is there a unique IP for
each?

nbtstat provides the workgroup name associated with the other computer so
something is being recognized (maybe.

net use does not appear to yield anything useful. What is the "share name"?

One computer is connected to the internet via a cable router, the other is
not connected directly to the net. A third PC is also connected to the
router, but does not have a wireless connection. AS i only want to share
files beweeen the machines, maybe i should remove the internet cable
connection?

Thanks, Peter

You said that you have a "cable router," but you also said that you set
up your wireless connection between 2 computers manually as a
"peer-to-peer" network. From your use of the word "infrastructure" in
the next sentence, I assume that you mean that you have attempted to
create what's usually called an "ad-hoc" wireless network. The question
is why? Or more pertinently, why not connect all of the computers to the
cable router?

Does your cable router have more than one Ethernet port? Does your
cable router have wireless capability?

WRT your questions:

Run ipconfig /all on each computer in order to get the IP address for
each computer. You should copy/paste the *entire* output of ipconfig
/all for each computer in your next post (to copy from the Command
Prompt window: right-click > Select All > <ctrl>+C).

Yes, each computer must have a unique IP address.

In addition, in order to properly communicate over a network, each
machine must be in the same subnet. That information will be shown in
the output from ipconfig /all.

Further, when you write "nbtstat provides the workgroup name associated
with the other computer," it suggests that you used different workgroup
names in the different computers. If you want to use "My Network
Places," you must use the *same* workgroup name for all computers. Each
computer, of course, has its own unique computer name.

"Share name" is the name you assigned to a resource when you configured
it to be shared. For example, suppose you have 3 computers named
"Peter," "Pan," and "Hook." Your workgroup might be "Neverland," but
that bit of information is rarely used.

Now suppose you have a folder on "Pan" named My Documents\Lost Boys and
you want to share it. On Pan, open Windows Explorer, right click on My
Documents\Lost Boys and select Properties. Then click the "Sharing" tab.
Under the heading "Network sharing and security," click the box to
"Share this folder on the network" and enter a Share name. For best
results, limit the share name to 12 characters or less and don't use any
special characters or spaces. Suppose you assign the share name LostBoys.

Then, on Peter, you can access that folder on Pan (i.e., that "share")
by typing \\Pan\LostBoys in Windows Explorer.

There are a few additional things involved in successfully sharing files
over a Windows network. Standard advice from MS-MVP Malke follows. Take
what applies to you.

<Quote>
File/printer sharing

Excellent, thorough, yet easy to understand article about File/Printer
Sharing in Vista. Includes details about sharing printers as well as
files and folders:

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb727037.aspx

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 with
"Internet Worm Protection" (like Norton 2006/07) which acts as a
firewall, 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. 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. The instructions at this link
work for both XP and Vista:

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.
</QUOTE>

--
Lem -- MS-MVP

To the moon and back with 2K words of RAM and 36K words of ROM.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo_Guidance_Computer
http://history.nasa.gov/afj/compessay.htm

 

[Peter]

Thanks Lem and John,

Sorry for the late reply. The first thing to say is that the network is now
working. I have no idea what caused it to work, unless it had something to
do with the pinging etc. that I did following John's suggestions, but that
seems unlikely. Anyway, I can now see files on computer A from computer B
and vice-versa. Not only that, but I was actually able to load Office onto
my new netbook using the CD drive on the older laptop computer, which was why
I was trying to set the network up. By the way I am using XP Home on these
machines, but my main PC uses XP Pro.

Yes, I did set up the wireless connection as an ad-hoc network following
instructions from a Microsoft website. Yes, the computers have the same
Workgroup name. As I said, the Wireless Network Wizard seems only able to
set up in the infrastructure mode, and I wanted peer to peer.
I have wondered about using the cables connected to the router as a home
network connection, but have so far only been using them as an external
internet connection. Would I simply use the Network Setup Wizard to set up
the network via cable, or do I have to do something else? You can tell I am
pretty clueless when it comes to this subject. As I said, my main PC uses XP
Pro - i don't know whether this can cause a problem.

However, my frustrations (anticipated of course) seem to be over, and I want
to thank you both for the good advice.

Peter

 

[Lem]

Thanks Lem and John,

Sorry for the late reply. The first thing to say is that the network is now
working. I have no idea what caused it to work, unless it had something to
do with the pinging etc. that I did following John's suggestions, but that
seems unlikely. Anyway, I can now see files on computer A from computer B
and vice-versa. Not only that, but I was actually able to load Office onto
my new netbook using the CD drive on the older laptop computer, which was why
I was trying to set the network up. By the way I am using XP Home on these
machines, but my main PC uses XP Pro.

Yes, I did set up the wireless connection as an ad-hoc network following
instructions from a Microsoft website. Yes, the computers have the same
Workgroup name. As I said, the Wireless Network Wizard seems only able to
set up in the infrastructure mode, and I wanted peer to peer.
I have wondered about using the cables connected to the router as a home
network connection, but have so far only been using them as an external
internet connection. Would I simply use the Network Setup Wizard to set up
the network via cable, or do I have to do something else? You can tell I am
pretty clueless when it comes to this subject. As I said, my main PC uses XP
Pro - i don't know whether this can cause a problem.

However, my frustrations (anticipated of course) seem to be over, and I want
to thank you both for the good advice.

Peter

It's good that you got things working, and you're probably best off
following the old adage, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it."

However, you've done things the hard way. When you connect computers to
a router (wired and/or wireless) for the purpose of sharing an Internet
connection, you *have* created a local area network. Some people leave
it at that and never implement file sharing over their local network.

If you want to share files (and other resources) over the network using
the router, see Malke's advice that I quoted. If you're successfully
sharing files, you've already done most of what's needed. The main
additional step would be to ensure that whatever firewall protects the
Ethernet adapters in your computers is configured to permit local
network traffic in the same way you did it for the wireless network
adapters.

--
Lem -- MS-MVP

To the moon and back with 2K words of RAM and 36K words of ROM.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo_Guidance_Computer
http://history.nasa.gov/afj/compessay.htm