<SNIP A Lot of Diagnostics>
Jenn,
Well, as I suspected, you have some issues indicated. Now for the enumeration
of the symptoms, and for the questions.
Firstly, ARWTrucking1 resolves its ip address to 10.10.10.100. ARWTrucking2
thinks ARWTrucking1 to be 10.10.10.101. Both of these addresses are valid (as
indicated by the IPConfig), but depending upon whether one or the other is
connected at the time, may be a problem. The latter address, 10.10.10.101 being
the Ethernet address, whenever ARWTrucking1 is only connected wirelessly, it
will be un accessible from ARWTrucking2.
ARWTrucking2 having only an Ethernet connection with address 10.10.10.102,
there's no similar confusion by ARWTrucking1.
Also, ARWTrucking1, though able to properly resolve ARWTrucking2 at
10.10.10.102, cannot ping it, by name or by that address. ARWTrucking2,
however, resolves ARWTrucking1 to 10.10.10.101, and successfully pings it, by
name and address, and by its alternate address 10.10.10.101.
The Net View tests, even those by ip address, indicate yet another symptom.
Neither ARWTrucking1 nor ARWTrucking2 can Net View the other, by name or by ip
address (neither of the two addresses for ARWTrucking1).
What OS (name, version, SP level) is on each computer? What firewalls
(Microsoft or third party) are, or ever were, on either? And finally, what
changes were made in the time immediately preceding "we recently lost the
ability to share our files and printers"?
Firstly, check for a browser conflict between the two computers. I"m not talking
about Internet Explorer here. The browser is the program that allows any
computer to see any other computer on the LAN. On a two computer LAN, you
should have only one browser.
Make sure the browser service is running on only one of the computers. Control
Panel - Administrative Tools - Services. Verify that the Computer Browser, and
the TCP/IP NetBIOS Helper, services both show with Status = Started. Disable
the browser on the other computer.
After checking / disabling / enabling as above, power both computers off to
reset the browser settings on each. Then power both back on.
The Microsoft Browstat program will show us what browsers (I'm not talking about
Internet Explorer here) you have in your domain / workgroup, at any time.
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=188305
You can download Browstat from either:
<
http://www.dynawell.com/reskit/microsoft/win2000/browstat.zip>
<
http://rescomp.stanford.edu/staff/manual/rcc/tools/browstat.zip>
Browstat is very small (40K), and needs no install. Just unzip the downloaded
file, copy browstat.exe to any folder in the Path, and run it from a command
window, by "browstat status". Make sure both computers list the same master
browser.
For more information about the browser subsystem (very intricate), see:
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=188001
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=188305
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=231312
<
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/winntas/deploy/prodspecs/ntbrowse.mspx>
In addition to firewalls, check authentication / authorisation. Here the
question of OS name, version, and SP becomes important.
On any XP Pro computer, check to see if Simple File Sharing (Control Panel -
Folder Options - View - Advanced settings) is enabled or disabled. With XP Pro,
you need to have SFS properly set on each computer.
On XP Pro with SFS disabled, check the Local Security Policies (Control Panel -
Administrative Tools). Under Local Policies - Security Options, look at
"Network access: Sharing and security model", and ensure it's set to "Classic -
local users authenticate as themselves".
On XP Pro with SFS disabled, if you set the above Local Security Policy to
"Guest only", enable the Guest account, using Start - Run - "cmd" - type "net
user guest /active:yes" in the command window. If "Classic", setup and use a
common non-Guest account on all computers. Whichever account is used, give it
an identical, non-blank password on all computers.
On XP Home, and on XP Pro with Simple File Sharing enabled, make sure that the
Guest account is enabled, on each computer. Enable Guest, with Start - Run -
"cmd", then type "net user guest /active:yes" in the command window. Ensure
that the password for Guest is blank, with Start - Run - "control
userpasswords2"; select Guest, click Reset Password, click OK without entering a
new password.
On XP Pro, if you're going to use Guest authentication, check your Local
Security Policy (Control Panel - Administrative Tools) - User Rights Assignment,
on the XP Pro computer, and look at "Deny access to this computer from the
network". Make sure Guest is not in the list. Look at "Access this computer
from the network", and make sure that Everyone is in this list.
More about file and printer sharing, between different versions of Windows:
<
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...db-aef8-4bef-925e-7ac9be791028&DisplayLang=en>
--
Cheers,
Chuck
Paranoia comes from experience - and is not necessarily a bad thing.
My email is AT DOT
actual address pchuck sonic net.
