XP Networking Problems

[Guest]

Seems this is a popular subject... I have 3 computers on a wired network
through a Lynksys 4-port router. My box runs XP Pro SP1, my sons' each run
XP Home SP2. When we first installed their XP upgrades and set up the
network it ran flawlessly, as it did when they were on Windows 98. But due
to a couple of crashes and Windows re-installs, now we have chaos. I've
tried setting up the network using a new name and new setups all the way
around, and keep getting varying results. Sometimes I can access #1 son, but
not #2; #1 son can access me, but not #2; and #2 can't access anything. Now
on the most recent re-setup, I keep getting 'you may not have
access...network path not found'. And no one can access anyone. I've run XP
diagnostics on all boxes, and I pass, #1 son passes, but #2 son consistently
fails due to network adapter IP address. He can ping #1, and me, but not
himself. #1 can ping himself and me but not #2; and I can ping #1 and
myself, but not #2. Seems there's a problem with #2, so I called Dell
support and had them run diagnostics on the hardware and all checks out. We
all have flawless internet access, but the network is nuts. I disable the XP
SP2 firewalls, but they seem to keep coming back on by themselves (anyone
know how to do that permanently?) and my XP Pro doesn't have firewall. No
third party firewalls that I'm aware of, so I'm at a loss. Any suggestions?

More info: IP addresses by router, 192.168.1.100 (#2 son); 192.168.1.102
(#1 son); 192.168.1.101 (Mine); Default gateway: 192.168.1.1 The .100
address is the one that consistently fails ping.

 

[Guest]

Did you try adding them all to a Workgroup?

 

[Guest]

They've been in a workgroup all along. Isn't that standard procedure for XP
network wizard? The workgroup is visable--it's just that we can't access the
computers in the workgroup.

 

[Guest]

Hi Don,

Is File Sharing enabled on all PC's ? Have they all got unique names and are
they all in the same workgroup (XP Pro default WG is WORKGROUP and Home is
MSHOME) ? Are all PC's configured for DHCP and collecting IP and DNS from the
router ? Which AV software is installed ? NAV 2005 has a built in 'Firewall'
(Worm Blocker they call it).

Regards Colin.

 

[Hans-Georg Michna]

Seems this is a popular subject... I have 3 computers on a wired network
through a Lynksys 4-port router. My box runs XP Pro SP1, my sons' each run
XP Home SP2. When we first installed their XP upgrades and set up the
network it ran flawlessly, as it did when they were on Windows 98. But due
to a couple of crashes and Windows re-installs, now we have chaos. I've
tried setting up the network using a new name and new setups all the way
around, and keep getting varying results. Sometimes I can access #1 son, but
not #2; #1 son can access me, but not #2; and #2 can't access anything. Now
on the most recent re-setup, I keep getting 'you may not have
access...network path not found'. And no one can access anyone. I've run XP
diagnostics on all boxes, and I pass, #1 son passes, but #2 son consistently
fails due to network adapter IP address. He can ping #1, and me, but not
himself. #1 can ping himself and me but not #2; and I can ping #1 and
myself, but not #2. Seems there's a problem with #2, so I called Dell
support and had them run diagnostics on the hardware and all checks out. We
all have flawless internet access, but the network is nuts. I disable the XP
SP2 firewalls, but they seem to keep coming back on by themselves (anyone
know how to do that permanently?) and my XP Pro doesn't have firewall. No
third party firewalls that I'm aware of, so I'm at a loss. Any suggestions?

More info: IP addresses by router, 192.168.1.100 (#2 son); 192.168.1.102
(#1 son); 192.168.1.101 (Mine); Default gateway: 192.168.1.1 The .100
address is the one that consistently fails ping.

Don,

you can try to use http://www.michna.com/kb/wxnet.htm to solve
these problems. Try to solve them one by one.

Hans-Georg

 

[Guest]

Hi Colin,

Thanks for the reply. File sharing is enabled on all, they all have unique
names, and are all in the same workgroup. I've run network wizard several
times using different workgroup names each time I try something different,
but I make sure they're all using the same workgroup. AV software: Do you
mean the Video board and supporting software? Mine is ATI Radeon, or are you
looking for something more specific? Computer 2 is GeForce, and Computer 3
is a Dell Dimension 2400 running onboard video.

I got to wondering about my Norton 2005 (the others have NAV 2004), so
disabled it and ran network wizard again, but basically the same results.
Every time I set up a new workgroup, I get differing results like now, my
computer (1) can see all three on the workgroup, can print on the printer
attached to computer 2, can access computer 2, but can't access computer 3.
Computer 2 only sees computer 3 on the workgroup but can't access it (no
network path error). And computer 3 (the Dell 2400) continually fails its
ping test, and can't see anything on the workgroup.

Under different workgroup names, these results have been similar, but mixed,
such as my computer sometimes got an error when trying to access the others,
but computer 2 had access to mine. So there doesn't seem to be any rhyme nor
reason for the way it's acting. It's making me mental.

By the way, am I screwing things up by continually running Network wizard
using new workgroup names? I don't know of any other way to 'start over', so
to speak. Is there a better way? Thanks.

Don

 

[Guest]

Hans-Georg,

Thanks for the reply. I saw a link to this site yesterday and went through
it (great site, by the way) for one computer, and I'm still sifting through
the results. I figure I'll need to run through it for each computer on the
network, since I've got different situations on all three. I'll go through
them all and hopefully it'll spot something that's messing me up. Thanks.

 

[Carey Holzman]

You are welcome to email me if you'd like to work on this one-on-one.

(e-mail address removed)