Networking questions

  • Thread starter Thread starter Guest
  • Start date Start date
G

Guest

I have 5 identical computers that were donated to the Ronald McDonald House.
The computers have been reformatted and have been installed with identical
Windows XP Pro SP2, etc and have been set up on a simple network. All have
the same problems:

1. My Network Places does not show up on the Start Menu, and there are no
icons in My Network Places via My Computer. However, I can see all the
computers if I go to View Workgroup Computers and select the workgroup. I can
ping all the computers and I can access the shared folders through this
convoluted screen process. How do I get My Network Places (and icons) to
show up in the Start Menu?

2. This is a simple stand-alone network system used about twice a year at
our charity auction events. There is no connection to the Internet. I have
turned off Win Firewall, we have no VP but all disks are scanned, and Auto
Updates is also turned off. Now I get that funky icon in the task bar that
pops up periodically with the warning about "computer at risk". How can I
get rid of this from the task bar?

3. The network icon in the task bar has the little yellow warning asterick.
When I check the details tab it tells me that I have limited capability i.e.
no Internet access. Well like Duh! This I'm not worried about LOL, but it
also says that the network is not receiving the ip addresses of the
computers. If the network is functioning and I can access everything, do I
need to be concerned about any stablility problems here?

Thanks so much for any help on this,

Sandra G
 
HI Sandra

This is a very common problem with Windows XP . However disabling firewallis
one of the solution However, since u mentioned u have formated the system but
what is the file format each system should have NTFS file system and also if
u can explain what kind of networking is been done at your place and that can
help me in providing a much better solution.
--
Thanks & Regards
Gaurav Saxena
XANSA CSD
Infrastructure Support Analyst
Mobile no +(91) 9811903391
Residence +91 01202950990
 
This is one of the most common issues raised in the networking newsgroup, so
it obviously affects a lot of people.. While there are undeniably problems
with name-resolution (the process that allows computers to 'see' each other)
these problems are exacerbated by the use of file-sharing arrangements which
maximise the number of links between computers.

Basically, my standpoint (which not everyone might agree with) is that
peer-sharing is a Bad Idea for many reasons, not is that for your network it
creates the need to make five TIMES four shared folders work. (and the number
goes up by the square of the size of the network - a 25-user site would have
500 possible sharing failure-points.)

Much better is to allocate one computer as the data store, and place all
shared documents on that. Then, create a logon-script which will make the
shares(s) on the 'server' appear as extra drive-letters on the workstations.

Although this makes the one computer a mission-critical item, it reduces the
number of potential link-failures to one per computer, and makes finding
shared data far easier for users. It also makes it very much easier to ensure
that data is backed-up regularly.
 
All 5 computers were reformatted using NTFS. The 5 computers are networked
via a new Acer 8 port NW Hub.

These computers are used strictly for processing auction sales at our
charity events (like a check-out counter LOL). Each computer runs very
limited software: Win XP Pro and MS Office 2003, mainly Access 2003. One
computer Me1 is the database server where the Access RMHC auction database
resides, Me2, Me3, Me4, and Me5 are workstations that have access to the
shared database files on Me1. Me1 and Me5 each have a local laser printer
attached and perform as print servers for the network. These are older
printers with no NW cards so I could not set them up as direct NW printers.

That's about the extend of it, and everything is functioning properly except
for the missing NW icons in the browsers. If I can get the network to show
up properly in the browser I would be a "Happy Camper"!

Thanks,

Sandra G
 
All 5 computers were reformatted using NTFS. The 5 computers are networked
via a new Acer 8 port NW Hub.

These computers are used strictly for processing auction sales at our
charity events (like a check-out counter LOL). Each computer runs very
limited software: Win XP Pro and MS Office 2003, mainly Access 2003. One
computer Me1 is the database server where the Access RMHC auction database
resides, Me2, Me3, Me4, and Me5 are workstations that have access to the
shared database files on Me1. Me1 and Me5 each have a local laser printer
attached and perform as print servers for the network. These are older
printers with no NW cards so I could not set them up as direct NW printers.

That's about the extend of it, and everything is functioning properly except
for the missing NW icons in the browsers. If I can get the network to show
up properly in the browser I would be a "Happy Camper"!

Thanks,

Sandra G
 
Back
Top