Can Ping but not see the other PC 2

[IFRs]

I have a small home LAN. CAT5 Wired.
2 Dell laptops. One brand new, one 2 years old.
New one has XP Pro, old one has Win2000
Broadband router shares cable modem with them.
Both have C drive shared.
Both have unique comptuer names.
Both on workgroup "HOME", uppercased.

I can:
surf the web on both
ping both from each other

I can't:
see the other computer in Network Neighborhood. All I see is the PC I'm on when I browse the network.

How can I share resources? I must be missing something simple, but I can't think of what it is!!!

 

[Gersen]

File sharing active? Win XP Firewall turned off?

Also, can you open a Run prompt on one and type \\(name) to view the other's shares? For instance, if they are named BOX1 and BOX2, you should be able to open a Run prompt on BOX1 and type:

\\BOX2 <Enter>

and open a window showing BOX2's shares. Sometimes I can open a machine using this UNC name but can't browse to it. That's just plain old ornery Microsoft networking

Gersen

There are only 10 kinds of people; those who understand binary and those who don't...

 

[bcastner]

On both machines go to the properties sheet for the local area connection, TCP/IP Properties, Advanced, WINS tab, and check the box &quot;Enable Netbios over TCP/IP&quot; and disable use LMHOSTS.

 

[IFRs]

Thanks for you both for your sugestions.

Windows Firewalls are off.
PcCillin's firewalls are off.
Both C drives are &quot;shared&quot;. Both have the service &quot;File and Printer Sharing for Microsoft Networks&quot; installed and checked in the properties if the LAN in &quot;Network Connections&quot;. - is there more to file sharing?

If I open a folder view of Box1's C drive and type \\Box2 in the address field, I get nothing but the typical error screen &quot;Windows can not fine \\Box2...&quot;. I'll try it from a RUN prompt.

NetBIOS from the DHCP server is enabled on both, I'll disable LMHOSTS and see what happens - is that likely to help?

The WInXP is a fresh install, fully updated.
The Win2000 install is also fully updated.
Other than Office XP and PcCillin on both, there is nothing installed.

 

[IFRs]

One more item of interest:

I took the Win2000 machine to another &quot;HOME&quot; network, plugged it in and it saw the entire network and all shares when I went into &quot;My Network Places&quot; and &quot;Computers Near Me&quot;. In addition, the Win2000 machine and shares showed up on the network from a WinXP box.

So I think it's not the Win2000 setup's problem.

Could the Router be blocking PC to PC traffic?

 

[bcastner]

I think you will discover that Pc-Illan is your problem.
You cannot just disable or turn/off the firewall. You need to remove it.

 

[IFRs]

bcaster - If PcCillin is the problem, why does the Win2000 laptop work on my other HOME workgroup?

To summarize:

Win2000 laptop with PcCillin

Works on LAN number 1 perfectly.
Does not work on LAN number 2.

On Lan number 2:
it can see the WWW
it can ping other computers
it can be pinged by other computers.
it can NOT be seen in other computers My Network Places
it can NOT see other computers in My Network Places
it can NOT share resources
it can NOT access other computers shared resources

 

[bcastner]

Checklist:
. same workgroup, unique computer names
. Netbios over TCP/IP enabled. This will not be done by your DHCP server, you need to specify this setting yourself.
. Something shared by all machines: drive, folder, file, printer, something;
. No &quot;blank&quot; or empty passwords. True logons with username and passwords; no hitting escape or cancel at the logon screen.
. Client for Microsoft Networking, and File and Printer Sharing enabled on both computers;
. All username/passwords of computer A made users with passwords on computer B, and vice-versa;
. No firewalls on the LAN side;
. The IP addresses for the computers must be local private IPs, and not external ones. Do an ipconfig /all on both machines to determine that you are getting private IP addresses and not public IPs such as those used by your ISP.

 

[Gersen]

Assuming your router has a small switch (i.e. 4 port) built in, it's not controlling nay traffic between the systems plugged into it. I'm out of ideas.

Could you dump the IP configs to text files and post them?

from a command prompt:

ipconfig /all > ipconfig.txt

 

[IFRs]

First, let me thank you both for taking the time to help me. It is much appreciated. Stars are certain to follow.

The router is a new home built-in broadband sharing router integrated into the house wiring. It has a jack for incoming broadband and 12 jacks for ethernet cables. The cables go to various rooms in the house where two laptops are plugged in. The router does the DHCP and assigns IP addresses to both laptops (192.168.0.2 and 192.168.0.3), and a third that I brought from work (192.168.0.4). IPCONFIG reports the correct IP addresses and the router DHCP table reports the correct IP addresses asigned to the correct MAC addresses. The DNS servers are correct, the subnet masks are correct at 255.255.255.0.

I've set up several networks and never had this problem. I personally think the problem is in the router and will start calling them.

 

[bcastner]

This is a Home Powerline router or PNA? It sounds as if it is powerline, with a limit of 14 devices.

I suspect either a configuration issue (if you are using the DES encryption on all devices) or you have exceeded the 14 device limit.

Please advise. There are &quot;Two wire&quot; PNA versions, and they are quite different.

Could you give manufacturer, model, device name, etc. details for what you are using?

Best,
Bill Castner

 

[IFRs]

Bill - Sorry about the confusion. This is not a powerline router. It is pure Ethernet. No wireless either. All CAT5. I will post the make and model.

 

[bcastner]

Are the ethernet pairs running within the same cable as phone and/or power and/or video in your home setup?

 

[Sekhmet]

I just went thru this! You need to edit your HOSTS file located in your %systemroot%\system32\drivers\etc folder. Open it with notepad and edit with these lines:

127.0.0.1 localhost
IP Address Machine Name
IP Address Machine Name

Example:

127.0.0.1 localhost
192.168.1.100 LION
192.168.1.101 Tiger

I had to do this on both my W2K machine and on the XP, everything works great now. Good Luck

 

[bcastner]

Unless you are using ICS (In which case it makes the HOSTS entries for you) there should be no reason to use the HOSTS file for a local LAN connection.

I have little doubt it can avoid Netbios Name Resolution issues; as would the use of LMHOSTS. But it is decidedly masking the underlying problem.

Enabling Netbios over TCP/IP should, if everything is as it should be, work perfectly well in this setting.

 

[Gersen]

I completely agree that adding a HOSTS file is fixing a symptom, rather than addressing the problem. It hadn't occured to me to ask about using ESC to get past the logon box, since he specified Win 2000 and Win XP, and I know at least in 2000 and XP Pro you can't do that.

IFRs, we're kinda taking blind potshots here. Do you have any networked applications on these machine that can't talk to each other? Or ones that can communicate without problems? Throw a multiplayer game demo on both boxes and see if you can host a game on one and join the game with the other.

The one thing I can still think of is that you have a name resolution problem on your local network, but I can't figure out why. You have no problem resolving Internet names, but obviously your ISP's DNS server won't be able to resolve your local network names. They should simply broadcast and locate eath other that way. If there is something in your router/switch that's blocking broadcasts, that would cause exactly the problem you're describing, but I can't picture that being a switch function.

The way to eliminate that option is to connect the 2 machines with a crossover cable. If you're not equipped to make Cat 5 cables, you can find one at the Best Buy/Comp USA types of stores. Connect the 2 NICs on your machines directly with a crossover cable. If they suddenly CAN communicate, then the problem is with your router/switch. If the problem persists when the machines are connected via the crossover, then it's a machine specific problem.

I forgot the basic rule of troubleshooting at first: Isolate the problem!

G.


There are only 10 kinds of people; those who understand binary and those who don't...

 

[bcastner]

Also, be certain that the DNS entries on the clients are not set to the resolvers of your ISP.

The clients should point to the router and the Gateway IP for primary DNS resolution. If they are now pointing to your ISP DNS servers, you will have serious name resolution issues with Win2k and nearly insurmountable ones with XP.

 

[Gersen]

I guess I get to throw in a question at this point. Can the broadband router resolve names??


There are only 10 kinds of people; those who understand binary and those who don't...

 

[IFRs]

The router is a Greyfox 8 port router #F7559.

The CAT5 cables are single use - just for the LAN.

Here are the IPCONFIG files.

However, the problems tonight were different.

Tonight, neither laptop could get to the web. They could ping the cable modem, and make it dial ( it is one-way ) but no web traffic would go through. The router said it assigned IP addresses to the two laptops and they are reflected in the IPCONFIG files. The laptop broght home from work still has the work DNS there.

Neither can see the other's resources nor do they show up in the other's My Network. Both can ping each other.

Laptop 1, brand new with WinXP, never leaves home

Windows IP Configuration Host Name . . . . . . . . . . . . : ann
Primary Dns Suffix . . . . . . . :
Node Type . . . . . . . . . . . . : Hybrid
IP Routing Enabled. . . . . . . . : No
WINS Proxy Enabled. . . . . . . . : No

Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection:
Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Broadcom 440x 10/100 Integrated Controller
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-0D-56-3B-12-AF
Dhcp Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : Yes
Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes
IP Address. . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.0.2
Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0
Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.0.1
DHCP Server . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.0.1
DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.100.1
Lease Obtained. . . . . . . . . . : Monday, November 17, 2003 9:54:39 PM
Lease Expires . . . . . . . . . . : Tuesday, November 18, 2003 3:54:39 AM

Laptop 2 Win2000, unplugged from work and brought home.
Windows 2000 IP Configuration Host Name . . . . . . . . . . . . : BTROXEL
Primary DNS Suffix . . . . . . . : matrixservice.com
Node Type . . . . . . . . . . . . : Hybrid
IP Routing Enabled. . . . . . . . : No
WINS Proxy Enabled. . . . . . . . : No
DNS Suffix Search List. . . . . . : matrixservice.com

Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection:
Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : 3Com Megahertz 10/100 LAN CardBus PC Card
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-50-04-5B-D2-45
DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : Yes
Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes
IP Address. . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.0.3
Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0
Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.0.1
DHCP Server . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.0.1
DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.100.1
Lease Obtained. . . . . . . . . . : Monday, November 17, 2003 9:58:39 PM
Lease Expires . . . . . . . . . . : Tuesday, November 18, 2003 3:58:39 AM

 

[bcastner]

Gerson,

No, it does not resolve names per se, but most act as a proxy server to distinguish between requests that are LAN-side and those that should be directed on the WAN.