Lost file sharing, XP pro

[Ed]

I've had file sharing working for a long time but now it doesn't.
Since I don't use it daily
I don't know what I did that might have caused it to stop. Two or
three things come to mind.
One, I turned on the AVG Firewall. I had been running without because
I use a firewall router
but decided to use the AVG so I could be sure some program wasn't
connecting to Net without
my knowledge. Two, I used the laptop (DavidXP) in a hotel network and
had to fiddle with it to
get connected.

Both DavidXP and GoliathXP are running XP Pro SP2.

Here are the ipconfig /all reports:



Windows IP Configuration



Host Name . . . . . . . . . . . . : davidxp

Primary Dns Suffix . . . . . . . :

Node Type . . . . . . . . . . . . : Peer-Peer

IP Routing Enabled. . . . . . . . : No

WINS Proxy Enabled. . . . . . . . : No

DNS Suffix Search List. . . . . . : scbglobal.net



Ethernet adapter Wireless Network Connection:



Connection-specific DNS Suffix . : scbglobal.net

Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Belkin 11Mbps Wireless
Notebook Network Card

Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-30-BD-4D-94-76

Dhcp Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : Yes

Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes

IP Address. . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.0.6

Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0

Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.0.1

DHCP Server . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.0.1

DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . : 68.94.156.1

68.94.157.1

206.13.30.12

Lease Obtained. . . . . . . . . . : Thursday, January 03, 2008
11:46:33 AM

Lease Expires . . . . . . . . . . : Sunday, January 06, 2008
11:46:33 AM

And for GoliathXP:



Windows IP Configuration



Host Name . . . . . . . . . . . . : goliathxp

Primary Dns Suffix . . . . . . . :

Node Type . . . . . . . . . . . . : Unknown

IP Routing Enabled. . . . . . . . : No

WINS Proxy Enabled. . . . . . . . : No

DNS Suffix Search List. . . . . . : scbglobal.net



Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection:



Connection-specific DNS Suffix . : scbglobal.net

Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Linksys LNE100Tx Version
2.0 Fast Ethernet PCI Card

Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-A0-CC-37-F0-10

Dhcp Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : Yes

Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes

IP Address. . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.0.2

Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0

Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.0.1

DHCP Server . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.0.1

DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . : 68.94.156.1

68.94.157.1

206.13.30.12

Lease Obtained. . . . . . . . . . : Thursday, January 03, 2008
9:40:11 AM

Lease Expires . . . . . . . . . . : Sunday, January 06, 2008
9:40:11 AM

I notice that the Node tyoe for GoliathXP is unkonwn while DavidXP is
Peer-to-peer.

I've done some reading on this newsgroup and links provided, but don't
seem to be getting anywhere.

Help will be appreciated...
TIA

Ed

 

[Hans-Georg Michna]

Node Type . . . . . . . . . . . . : Peer-Peer

Ed,

this is usually a problem. Check http://winhlp.com/wxnet.htm for
the solution.

Hans-Georg

 

[Ed]

Thanks, Hans. I did the fix on P-to-P in regedit on the laptop
(DavidXP). Now it shows up on GoliathXP under
MSHOME, but still says inaccessible.

Ed

 

[Hans-Georg Michna]

Thanks, Hans. I did the fix on P-to-P in regedit on the laptop
(DavidXP). Now it shows up on GoliathXP under
MSHOME, but still says inaccessible.

Ed,

I'd go back to http://winhlp.com/wxnet.htm and fill in the form.

Hans-Georg

 

[Ed]

Hans-Georg,

I did fill it in. that's how I got a bit closer to the solution. the
Peer-to-peer did go away.

I'll try again and see if I get a bit further. Also sent a note to AVG
tech support.

It was so easy to get my network set up under Win98. I totally
frustrated by that "wizard"
in XP... no way I can see what is actually set to what. But I also
suspect that security
in general has gotten more intense (for good reason) and file sharing
is antithetical to
security.

Thanks. I do appreciate what you are doing.

Ed

 

[Ed]

Got it fixed!

Here is an account of the ordeal:

I had developed problem with file sharing. Could not see shared
directories on the laptop (DavidXP)
from GolithXp (my desktop) and vice versa. This was after return from
a hotel where I used
DavidXP, and later turning on AVG Firewall.

After 2 days of trying and posting at the MS newsgroup
windowsxp.network_web
it started working. I believe there were two problems. First, the
encounter with
the hotel network seems to have changed DavixXP to a Peer-to-peer
connection, which is a known problem
according to Hans-Georg from the windowsxp.network_web newsgroup. I
fixed the problem by
following instructions at http://winhlp.com:80/wxnet.htm. Here's the
procedure give there :

"First check the node type by opening a command line window and typing
the command

ipconfig /all

This command reports the node type, among other information. It should
be Hybrid or Unknown, but not Point-to-Point (p-node, actually a
mistaken interpretation of Peer-to-Peer), because that would work only
when a WINS server is present.

If the node type is P-t-P, you can use regedit.exe to go to

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
\System
\CurrentControlSet
\Services
\Netbt
\Parameters

and delete any of the two values NodeType and DhcpNodeType if they
exist, forcing Windows to fall back to its default node type, which
should be Hybrid. Reboot."

The second problem is while at at the hotel I had changed the AVG
Firewall profile
to "Computer-on-the-move". This profile changes the AVG firewall
protection level
so as to block all attempts to file share by other network-enabled
computers that
might be lurking around the area. When at home, the profile has to be
set to "Stand-alone-
computer." That allows file sharing. This is easy to demonstrate. On
davidXP Just open AVG,
select Firewall, click on the Configuration button, click on the
Profile switch
tab at the top, then put the cursor on the Assigned profile to the
right of "Belkin wireless card interface."
Use the drop-down menu to select "Computer on the move." Click OK on
the pop-up dialog,
then click on Apply. Back out of AVG and try to access DavidXP shared
directories from Goliath.
After a minute or tow of the hourglass you will be told that DavidXP
is not accessible. Switch
DavidXP back to Stand alone computer and the shared directories are
accessible.

There was one final problem, one that is a bit embarssing. After
fixing the above issues, still
no file sharing. After an hour or two of head scratching I discovered
I had not installed
the wireless card in DavidXP!

Thanks to Hans-Georg.

Ed

 

[Hans-Georg Michna]

Ed,

thanks for your detailed report! Everybody can now learn from
such an experience.

The general problem is that there are often many things that can
go wrong, and it is then difficult to find the culprit.

Generally spoken, third-party software adds to the variety, so a
general recommendation is not to install more software than you
really need.

That said, AVG seems to be fairly good.

Hans-Georg

 

[Ed]

Hans-Georg,

Thanks again for your helpful Web page. I just made a small
contribution.

Ed

 

[Hans-Georg Michna]

Thanks again for your helpful Web page. I just made a small
contribution.

Ed,

great! Thanks! That helps to maintain the web site.

Hans-Georg