Cannot access my desktop PC

[bobolito]

I have tried pinging my desktop by IP address. Since I'm using IP addresses directly for testing this problem, NBTSTAT, NetBIOS, etc. have nothing to do here.

Both my laptop and my desktop are wireless. I have always been able access my desktop from my laptop and viceversa. But I lost the ability to access my desktop in ANY WAY (no pinging reply, no response from \\COMPUTERNAME, no response from \\IP_ADDRESS) a couple of days ago. I am not sure if it has to do with my running Tune Up 2007 which cleans up the registry, but that's about the only thing I've done in the last few days. But the strange thing is that I've also ran Tune Up 2007 in my laptop and did the same cleaning procedures and my laptop is still accessible.

I have tried using a third and fourth computer. The third computer connected wirelessly, the fourth connected through Ethernet cable to my wireless router. Neither the third or the fourth computer can ping the desktop computer or contact it in any other way.

The desktop computer hosts a printer, so this problem means I can no longer print from any of the computers in my home network and I can no longer use Remote Desktop to my desktop computer. The desktop, however, can access all other computers on the network and the internet just fine.

All firewalls are disabled in all computers. I am not running any other firewall software in any of the computers. I checked everything that Tier 1 tech support would suggest, "Simple File Sharing" is unchecked, have tried rebooting, disabling/enabling the wireless adapter, rebooting my router, etc. renewing IP addresses, etc. I even checked that all computers are connecting to my wireless router only (just in case it had jumped to my neighbor's open router), and also wireless signal strength is excellent on all wireless computers. I also tried resetting TCP/IP using the command netsh int ip reset [log_file_name] and netsh winsock reset to no avail.

To put it another way, my desktop computer is in "one way mode" where it can connect to all other computers, but all other computers in my local LAN cannot connect to it. This means I cannot connect to any shared folders on my desktop from any other computer and also I cannot ping my desktop from any of the other computers.

I am thinking that somehow the TCP/IP stack is messed up on Windows and might require a Windows complete re-install. However, we all know how that sucks and will be my last resort if I cannot figure this out. I need to be able to print from the other computers like I used to before. This is very frustrating.

By the way, the desktop CAN ping itself. In other words, my desktop's IP is 192.168.2.11 and from my desktop I ping that address and it replies. However, from any other computer I cannot ping that address.

Here are my IP addresses:

Desktop = 192.168.2.11 (wireless)
Laptop 1 = 192.168.2.13 (wireless)
Laptop 2 = 192.168.2.12 (wireless)
Computer 1 = 192.168.2.10 (wired)

All computers are running Windows XP Pro w/SP2

 

[rphips]

bobolito

Good Day.

Question - Have you tried removing the wireless card and all software associated with it - rebooting the system to ensure it is gone then doing a complete reinstall of the wireless card?

Sounds to me that something got corrupted in the wireless software - (a rights issue in the registry) -

Try this first before you blow away the OS

Also you might want to check if you can connect via hard wire - this will let you know if it is the wireless card that got corrupted or windows.







bob

"ZOINKS !!!!!"

Shaggy

 

[bobolito]

Thanks rphips. I had precisely done this last night. I removed the wireless card driver and reinstalled another version of it. Still no cure. I've also connected the desktop via Ethernet cable and the same problem persists.

 

[rphips]

Well bobolito I hate to be the one to tell you the bad news but it seems you have tried everything and you are correct in that it is a windows mafunction (due to the software removing a ned registry key) -

since it is xp pro did you set restore points - if so then you can go back to before you ran that program - if not you are looking at a reload of the OS.

Also check what rights you have on the laptop vs the desktop and try and find out why it worked so differently on the desktop (could be you are set as a debugger on the laptop instead administrator)


And if you find the answer - please post it so everyone is aware of the problem.

good luck


bob

"ZOINKS !!!!!"

Shaggy

 

[bobolito]

I tried going back to a previous restore point. That was an excellent suggestion, by the way. I had not thought about that. I selected to go back about 2 weeks ago which is a time I am fairly certain things were working ok. However, when Windows rebooted after supposedly restoring back, it said that it could not go back to that date without any explanation.

I'll just reinstall Windows, save myself headaches and be done with it. It's just far easier reinstalling everything from scratch than going through everything I went this week.