XP Home Connectivity 1 Way Only???

[clintonG]

For some reason the computer named CMK (XP Home) can no longer be seen by
other machines on the LAN. A ProSafe VPN Firewall is used as the gateway and
all is well throughout but for the CMK exception. Generally, work that is
done on XP1 (XP Pro) is backed up to CMK. Recently, the past two weeks CMK
has become inaccessible from XP1 so backing up is now at risk. However...

XP1 remains accessible from CMK!

The other goofy behavior is trying to View Workgroup Computers from XP1. A
request hangs for awhile --longer-- than "normal" but then when the view is
displayed CMK is not present. If I keep banging on View Workgroup Computers
and refreshing the view CMK will show up but disallow a connection [1].

What I'm asking for is help understanding these issues:

A.) Do you know if this is a common issue known and documented in the
KnowledgeBase?

B.) How would you continue to troubleshoot?

My theory: one of the network cards is going bad or is gone or drivers have
somehow become corrupt. Since XP1 maintains connectivity with two other
machines on this micro LAN any further concerns in this theoretical
construct must be presumed to be at CMK. I will be searching the web for
"testing an ethernet adapter" and related terms...

...but still, do you have comments?

<%= Clinton Gallagher
NET csgallagher AT metromilwaukee.com
URL http://clintongallagher.metromilwaukee.com/

[1.] You might not have permission to use blah blah
List of servers for this workgroup is not currently available.

 

[Malke]

For some reason the computer named CMK (XP Home) can no longer be seen by
other machines on the LAN. A ProSafe VPN Firewall is used as the gateway and
all is well throughout but for the CMK exception. Generally, work that is
done on XP1 (XP Pro) is backed up to CMK. Recently, the past two weeks CMK
has become inaccessible from XP1 so backing up is now at risk. However...

XP1 remains accessible from CMK!

The other goofy behavior is trying to View Workgroup Computers from XP1. A
request hangs for awhile --longer-- than "normal" but then when the view is
displayed CMK is not present. If I keep banging on View Workgroup Computers
and refreshing the view CMK will show up but disallow a connection [1].

What I'm asking for is help understanding these issues:

A.) Do you know if this is a common issue known and documented in the
KnowledgeBase?

B.) How would you continue to troubleshoot?

My theory: one of the network cards is going bad or is gone or drivers have
somehow become corrupt. Since XP1 maintains connectivity with two other
machines on this micro LAN any further concerns in this theoretical
construct must be presumed to be at CMK. I will be searching the web for
"testing an ethernet adapter" and related terms...

..but still, do you have comments?

<%= Clinton Gallagher
NET csgallagher AT metromilwaukee.com
URL http://clintongallagher.metromilwaukee.com/

[1.] You might not have permission to use blah blah
List of servers for this workgroup is not currently available.

Since it worked well before and now it doesn't, did anything change?
Antivirus updates, Windows Updates, etc.? If you can't determine that,
I wouldn't bother searching for NIC testers because NICs are so cheap.
Since the problem has existed already for 2 weeks, I don't suggest a
System Restore. BTW, if at all possible when you get errors it is better
to not wait to address them for this very reason.

Anything suggestive in Event Viewer? Start>Run>eventvwr.msc [enter]

If nothing appears helpful in Event Viewer, here are a few suggestions
meant for you to try one, test, then try another if that doesn't work.

1. Update the NIC drivers.
2. Swap out the ethernet cable.
3. Change the port on the router/switch
4. Uninstall the NIC and throw in a known-good one.


Malke