Home network problem

[rich47]

I had two xp computers on a home network. They worked fine, and I was
able to share documents between the computers. Now that network seems
to have disappeared. I can' see one computer from the other. I
recently added a router to one of the computers, so I'm wondering if
that might be causing the problem.

I tried starting from scratch and creating a new home network with a
new name. I turned off the firewall and used the same network name
for each computer. Each computer says it's in the right workgroup,
but they still don't see each other.

I'd appreciate any tips for making this work. Thanks!

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

I had two xp computers on a home network.

How were those two computers connected? Did you have a cable running
directly from one computer to the other, or did you have a hub,
switch, or router between them? If they were directly connected by a
cable, it was a *crossover* cable.

They worked fine, and I was
able to share documents between the computers. Now that network seems
to have disappeared. I can' see one computer from the other. I
recently added a router to one of the computers, so I'm wondering if
that might be causing the problem.

Exactly what do you mean by "added a router to one of the computers"?
You don't add a router to a computer; the router is normally the
central point of the network, to which all the computers are
connected.

Also *why* did you add a router? What was its purpose?

If you're using a router, your old cable is no longer any good because
it's a crossover cable. You need to connect each of the two computers
to the router with a regular cat5 cable (not a crossover).

 

[rich47]

How were those two computers connected? Did you have a cable running
directly from one computer to the other, or did you have a hub,
switch, or router between them? If they were directly connected by a
cable, it was a *crossover* cable.

My house has eight ethernet ports in different rooms. They end up in
a box in my basement. I connect from that box to a couple routers,
one of which is connected to my cable modem. I also have a couple
routers that are connected on the "room side" of the box. For
example, I have an office with an ethernet port that connects to the
box and router in the basement. In the office, I have a cat5 cable
coming out from the wall and connected to a router, which is connected
to a pc, a printer and a tivo in the office. I have another room with
a pc that is connected directly to the ethernet cable in that room,
which is looped back to a router near the "basement box." Previously,
I had no problem viewing files between these two computers; now I
can't. The only change I can determine is the router (a Trendnet
TEW-432BRP) I added in the office so that I could also put the printer
and tivo on the network.

 

[John Wunderlich]

m:

My house has eight ethernet ports in different rooms. They end up
in a box in my basement. I connect from that box to a couple
routers, one of which is connected to my cable modem. I also have
a couple routers that are connected on the "room side" of the box.
For example, I have an office with an ethernet port that connects
to the box and router in the basement. In the office, I have a
cat5 cable coming out from the wall and connected to a router,
which is connected to a pc, a printer and a tivo in the office. I
have another room with a pc that is connected directly to the
ethernet cable in that room, which is looped back to a router near
the "basement box." Previously, I had no problem viewing files
between these two computers; now I can't. The only change I can
determine is the router (a Trendnet TEW-432BRP) I added in the
office so that I could also put the printer and tivo on the
network.

A proper network will have only _one_ router and that would be the one
that is connected to the cable modem. If that router does not have
enough LAN ports for your network, then you should add _switches_, not
more routers. You can make a router act as a switch, however, if you
leave the WAN (internet) port unconnected and connect only to the LAN
ports. Before doing this, you should also disable the DHCP function in
that router so that only the router directly connected to the cable
modem has a functioning DHCP server. Most new routers will auto-sense
direction but if you have older routers, you should use a crossover
cable when connecting LAN ports of one router to LAN ports of another
router.

HTH,
John

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

My house has eight ethernet ports in different rooms. They end up in
a box in my basement. I connect from that box to a couple routers,
one of which is connected to my cable modem. I also have a couple
routers that are connected on the "room side" of the box. For
example, I have an office with an ethernet port that connects to the
box and router in the basement. In the office, I have a cat5 cable
coming out from the wall and connected to a router, which is connected
to a pc, a printer and a tivo in the office. I have another room with
a pc that is connected directly to the ethernet cable in that room,
which is looped back to a router near the "basement box." Previously,
I had no problem viewing files between these two computers; now I
can't. The only change I can determine is the router (a Trendnet
TEW-432BRP) I added in the office so that I could also put the printer
and tivo on the network.

Then I completely misunderstood what you were doing and your level of
knowledge. Sorry.