Networking 2 PCs - odd 1-way communications

  • Thread starter Thread starter PaulE
  • Start date Start date
P

PaulE

PC #1 is a desktop with XP Home (up to date SP2) with 10/100 NIC
PC #2 is a laptop with XP Pro (up to date SP2) with both 10/100 NIC and
wireless card (802.11b)
Linksys 54G router connected to Internet with broadband cable.

All 3 connections get IP addresses from the router in the same range and
sub-net address as expected - 192.168.1.100 through 192.168.1.102. All 3
NICs have access to the Internet (if I unplug the wired connection to the
laptop, the wireless connection comes to the rescue). No Internet access
problems at all (Messenger, browsing, email).

But only one can see the other at a time. Only one can ping the other at a
time. It seems that the first computer to boot can see the other one (i.e.,
shared folders for example will appear in My Network Places).

So, I take the wireless card out, just to reduce confusion.

I set Workgroup name on both to "REZ"

I set computer names to "My-desktop" and "Gord-laptop"

I have run and re-run the home networking wizard on both systems.

Both have File and Printer Sharing enabled on the NIC properties screen.

I have tried this with the XP Firewall OFF and then ON. No change.

I have unplugged the cable on the laptop and used the wireless card - same
result.

Any ideas what would be behind this? Any ideas how to trouble-shoot this?

It started when I had a disk failure and had to rebuild the entire XP system
on the desktop from the original system disk, (and then run it through
Windows Update until it was up to date).

Thanks for any tips.
 
But only one can see the other at a time. Only one can ping the other at a
time. It seems that the first computer to boot can see the other one (i.e.,
shared folders for example will appear in My Network Places).
Click to expand...

Paul,

probably a computer browser problem.

Check http://winhlp.com/ for possible solutions.

Hans-Georg
 
ARGH. I found the problem. A Network Bridge had somehow appeared on the
desktop computer (which has only one NIC) and when I deleted that,
everything was fine.
 
ARGH. I found the problem. A Network Bridge had somehow appeared on the
desktop computer (which has only one NIC) and when I deleted that,
everything was fine.
Click to expand...

Paul,

thanks for reporting back. Yes, this is a well-known problem,
pointed out by the Network Problem Solver
( http://winhlp.com/wxnet.htm ) and other sites.

Hans-Georg
 
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