Network Connection Issues - 5 PCs

[Dave Cox]

Question:

Hello,
I have 5 computers which are set up in my network
Somehow yesterday I could not access from one computer to another on all
computers in the network. I have computers named Sys1, Sys2, Sys 3 , Sys4 and
Sys5. My problems starting with Sys1



Sys 1 After clicking on my computer under Network drives I only see

drivec on Sys 3 and drivec on Sys 5

drivec on Sys 2 and drive on Sys 4 do not show up any more so I can not
access those computers from the network from Sys 1



Sys 2 is correct, After clicking on my computer under Network drives I see
and can access Sys 1, Sys 3, Sys 4, and Sys 5, which are all the other
computers in the network.



Sys 3 After clicking on my computer under Network drives I see

drivec on Sys 1 , drivec on Sys 2 drivec on Sys 4 and drivec on Sys 5

I can acess all other computers on the network except for drivec Sys 2

drivec Sys 2 shows up but has a red X through it. When I click on it

a window pops up saying, “An error occurred while reconnecting to drive Sys 2

Microsoft windows network. The network path was not found.



Sys 4 all is correct, can access all other computers on network.



Sys 5 After clicking on my computer under Network drives I see

drivec on Sys 1 , drivec on Sys 2 drivec on Sys 3 and drivec Sys 4, which is
all other computers on network.

However when I click on drive Sys 2, a window pops up saying, “An error
occurred while reconnecting to drive Sys 2

Microsoft windows network. The network path was not found. Unlike Sys 3
there was no red X through Sys 2



System OS as follows
Sys1=Window 2000
Sys2=XP Pro
Sys3=Windows 2000
Sys4=Windows 2000
Sys5= XP PRo

Thanks for your help

 

[Anteaus]

-Not the answer you were hoping for, I suspect, but I would suggest you
rethink your network configuration. It makes far more sense to allocate ONE
computer as the place where shared data is put. You then only need to get
four connections working, instead of twenty.

With ten computers that becomes 90 connections, and a hopeless exercise in
'plate-spinning' to keep it all working.

 

[Dave Cox]

Thanks for your response. That may be something to consider, and I
appreciate your suggestions. Let's see if anyone else has anything to offer.

 

[Anteaus]

I could offer a few more hints:

Do not share the whole of the C: drive read/write. This is an
open-invitation to a virus, once a foothold has been gained, to infect every
computer on your network. (It is also an open invitation to a disgruntled
employeee to knock-out all of your computers in one go as a parting-shot!)

Network Places is seldom reliable on its own. If you need to be able to
'find' all other computers, then you need to install a DNS server and
register each computer's name and IP address in your local zone.
Alternatively for a small site you could use WINS, or place a LMHOSTS file on
each computer containing the names and IPs of the other computers.

You might also have an issue with network-card powersave bugs. see:
http://mylogon.net/support/psave/

I might add that the need to share data from every computer may seem
essential to the user who has become dependent that way of working, but kick
the habit and then you wonder why you ever did it! The only reason I could
envisage for doing this is if the computers are laptops which are not always
connected, and must take the data with them. (Even at that, synchronising
with a central data-store may be a better arrangement.) For fixed desktops I
simply cannot think of any reason to do this.

One of the key problems it generates is the sheer difficulty of ensuring
that data is backed-up. If data could be in literally any place on five
computers - and not even necessarily in the "My Documents" folders thereon -
how do you even begin to implement any kind of disaster-recovery plan?

 

[Dave Cox]

Thanks Anteaus. I will let you know what we decide to do.

 

[Dave Cox]

Solution was to go into " Add a network computer " and label each computer.
Starting over from the beginning did the trick. Thanks for the responses.
Appreciate all the help.


Dave