Peer to peer network is a peer to peer notwork

[Guest]

Hi all

I have a fair bit of experience with networking but almost exclusively
domain and server based. My experience with peer-to-peer networks is not
great. I have a 2 PC network at home connected through a wi-fi router.

My ability to connect to either PC from the other has always been a bit
'patchy' as the wireless laptop never had a great connection speed. Because
of this whenever I needed to move file(s) between PCs I've tended to use a
USB memory stick.

I have now bought a new Netgear SuperG router and am getting a much better
signal and speed (108mb) to the wireless laptop. I thought it was about time
to try the workgroup network again. Unfortunately I get the "workgroup" is
not accessible message suggesting I don't have the required permissions.

I am running WinXPPro (SP2) and have re-run the 'Home or small office
network' wizard and set both PCs up with the same workgroup name. I have
enabled 'file and printer sharing' on both PCs and switched on 'simple file
sharing'. Still no joy. It does not matter whether the laptop is connected
via wireless or ethernet I still get the same message.

The only possible cause I can think of that may have caused the problem is
that I took the laptop to my office a couple of weeks ago and connected to
the domain there. I usually connect to my office with a VPN connection from
home. I have changed the network type back to a 'workgroup' before running
the wizard again.

I am logged on to both PCs with administrator access rights.

Pinging from PC A and PC B to the router works fine but PC A cannot ping PC
B (or vice versa).

Thinking this was a firewall issue I have disabled the Windows firewall on
both PCs. Still no ping. I have connected the PCs together via a X-Over
cable and set the IP addresses manually. Still no ping.

Thanks in advance for any suggestions you may have.

Regards, Norman

 

[Chuck]

Hi all

I have a fair bit of experience with networking but almost exclusively
domain and server based. My experience with peer-to-peer networks is not
great. I have a 2 PC network at home connected through a wi-fi router.

My ability to connect to either PC from the other has always been a bit
'patchy' as the wireless laptop never had a great connection speed. Because
of this whenever I needed to move file(s) between PCs I've tended to use a
USB memory stick.

I have now bought a new Netgear SuperG router and am getting a much better
signal and speed (108mb) to the wireless laptop. I thought it was about time
to try the workgroup network again. Unfortunately I get the "workgroup" is
not accessible message suggesting I don't have the required permissions.

I am running WinXPPro (SP2) and have re-run the 'Home or small office
network' wizard and set both PCs up with the same workgroup name. I have
enabled 'file and printer sharing' on both PCs and switched on 'simple file
sharing'. Still no joy. It does not matter whether the laptop is connected
via wireless or ethernet I still get the same message.

The only possible cause I can think of that may have caused the problem is
that I took the laptop to my office a couple of weeks ago and connected to
the domain there. I usually connect to my office with a VPN connection from
home. I have changed the network type back to a 'workgroup' before running
the wizard again.

I am logged on to both PCs with administrator access rights.

Pinging from PC A and PC B to the router works fine but PC A cannot ping PC
B (or vice versa).

Thinking this was a firewall issue I have disabled the Windows firewall on
both PCs. Still no ping. I have connected the PCs together via a X-Over
cable and set the IP addresses manually. Still no ping.

Thanks in advance for any suggestions you may have.

Regards, Norman

Norman,

The "workgroup not accessible" aka "error = 5" error can have numerous causes.
<http://nitecruzr.blogspot.com/2005/06/mysterious-error-5-aka-access-denied.html>

Check carefully for misconfigured / overlooked firewalls (not just ICF), and for
registry setting restrictanonymous, on each computer. What antivirus products
are you using? Look at name resolution too.
Misconfigured / overlooked firewalls:
<http://nitecruzr.blogspot.com/2005/05/your-personal-firewall-can-either-help.html>
Registry setting restrictanonymous:
<http://nitecruzr.blogspot.com/2005/07/restrictanonymous-and-your-server.html>
Name resolution:
<http://nitecruzr.blogspot.com/2005/05/have-laptop-will-travel.html#Resolution>

If you have a WiFi LAN (with one or more mobile computers), be aware of the
implications regarding the browser and Network Neighborhood:
<http://nitecruzr.blogspot.com/2005/04/nt-browser-or-why-cant-i-always-see.html#Problem>

 

[Guest]

Thanks Chuck, you've given me a bit of reading there

I'm not sure that any of these issues would prevent me from 'pinging' from
one PC to the other though, and if I can't ping then I can't connect.

Off to do some reading now ....

Cheers, Norman

 

[Guest]

Chuck

Thanks for the links. One of them made me have a look at my VPN client
(Checkpoint). I disabled the Checkpoint binding in LAN Connection Properties
on both PCs and all is now well. I can ping from either PC to the other and
browse the shared files on both PCs.

I think that when the Checkpoint client software is installed it notes the
IP address and subnet and performs some sort of filtering or firewalling. I
will now have to re-install the client software to see whether this cures the
local browsing problem between PCs on the LAN. It's going to be a bit of a
pain to have to remember to disable the binding every time I need to use VPN
to my office LAN.

Thanks again for your very useful suggestion and web site.

Norman

 

[BobC]

Chuck

Thanks for the links. One of them made me have a look at my VPN client
(Checkpoint). I disabled the Checkpoint binding in LAN Connection Properties
on both PCs and all is now well. I can ping from either PC to the other and
browse the shared files on both PCs.

I think that when the Checkpoint client software is installed it notes the
IP address and subnet and performs some sort of filtering or firewalling. I
will now have to re-install the client software to see whether this cures the
local browsing problem between PCs on the LAN. It's going to be a bit of a
pain to have to remember to disable the binding every time I need to use VPN
to my office LAN.

Thanks again for your very useful suggestion and web site.

Norman

The vpn client likely sets up a remote default gateway. That remote gateway
does not know anything about your lan so you therefore can not access local
resources nor get to the Internet through your local router.

 

[Chuck]

Chuck

Thanks for the links. One of them made me have a look at my VPN client
(Checkpoint). I disabled the Checkpoint binding in LAN Connection Properties
on both PCs and all is now well. I can ping from either PC to the other and
browse the shared files on both PCs.

I think that when the Checkpoint client software is installed it notes the
IP address and subnet and performs some sort of filtering or firewalling. I
will now have to re-install the client software to see whether this cures the
local browsing problem between PCs on the LAN. It's going to be a bit of a
pain to have to remember to disable the binding every time I need to use VPN
to my office LAN.

Thanks again for your very useful suggestion and web site.

Norman

Norman,

VPNs are a factor which I haven't yet started to document. Any findings that
you get from this experience, if documented here, might help the next guy.

Thanks for the update, and for your feedback.

 

[Guest]

The vpn client likely sets up a remote default gateway. That remote gateway
does not know anything about your lan so you therefore can not access local
resources nor get to the Internet through your local router.

I would agree that that is possible but I have been able to access the web
and to ping any remote address and the router even when the client is 'bound'.