Working network now handicapped

[Dean]

After adding a 4th PC to our office network, one of the
PC's (mine!) will not play well with the others. Via
Windows Explorer or My Network Places on the other PC's
my PC shows up in the workgroup, but no one can access
it. From my PC I do not have a My Network Places on my
Start Menu like I used to, but going through Control
Panel -> Network Connections or Windows Explorer I cannot
access the workgroup at all.

From the command prompt I can ping all the other PC's,
they can ping each other and themselves, but they can't
ping me and I can't ping myself. No physical changes
were made to the network other than adding the cable for
the newest PC. I have checked everything that I can
think of to confirm that all of the settings are alike on
all of the PC's.

My network consists of 4 PC's all running XP though a
Netopia hub/DSL modem. All of the PC's can access the
internet and retrieve email. The problem lies solely in
our internal communication.

I'm stumped!

 

[Chuck]

After adding a 4th PC to our office network, one of the
PC's (mine!) will not play well with the others. Via
Windows Explorer or My Network Places on the other PC's
my PC shows up in the workgroup, but no one can access
it. From my PC I do not have a My Network Places on my
Start Menu like I used to, but going through Control
Panel -> Network Connections or Windows Explorer I cannot
access the workgroup at all.

From the command prompt I can ping all the other PC's,
they can ping each other and themselves, but they can't
ping me and I can't ping myself. No physical changes
were made to the network other than adding the cable for
the newest PC. I have checked everything that I can
think of to confirm that all of the settings are alike on
all of the PC's.

My network consists of 4 PC's all running XP though a
Netopia hub/DSL modem. All of the PC's can access the
internet and retrieve email. The problem lies solely in
our internal communication.

I'm stumped!

Dean,

Try swapping network connections (hub port AND network cable) with another pc.

Do any of the computers have a software firewall (ICF or third party)? If so,
you need to configure them for file sharing, by opening ports TCP 139, 445 and
UDP 137, 138, 445, and / or by identifying the other computers as present in the
Local (Trusted) zone. Firewall configurations are a very common cause of
(network) browser, file sharing, and pinging, problems.

Cheers,
Chuck
Paranoia comes from experience - and is not necessarily a bad thing.