Cannot see computers in domain across subnet

[Akio63]

I have a small network running with 8 PCs connected to one PDC. I am running Windows NT 4.0 Server on the PDC. I am also running Windows 2000 Professional and Windows XP on the workstations. They are all connected via hubs and one Cisco Catalyst 5000 switch. They are connected to a cable router that gets them out on the Internet. Life is good.

However I recently connected an SMC wireless router to the Cat 5k to connect my wireless laptop. The SMC picked up an ip address from my domain network and is itself acting as a DHCP server for the wireless network. All PCs and the laptop on the wireless network can reach the Internet, ping the other PCs on the domain network and even open shares on these PCs via the PC's admin account if I type the ip address in the browser.

When I try to view them in Network Places they do not show up. Only the PCs on the wireless network show up. If I try to login to the domain via a Windows 2000 PC, I get the error that the domain is not available. I can take that same PC that is connected into the SMC that is in turn connected to the Cat 5k and connect it directly to the Cat 5k without the SMC and I have no problem seeing the other PCs.

Is there some port that the SMC router is not allowing to pass? Domain network is 10.0.0.0 and SMC wireless network is 192.168.2.0. I even added NetBEUI to the wireless network PC. Any ideas? Thanks in advance.

 

[SilviaS]

Had a similar problem to this once, turned out to be WINS.
What is your wins setup and any static wins mappings?

 

[Akio63]

Yes, I didn't have WINS running anywhere. I added a static mapping to WINS running on my web server that was running on the domain network. I then added a WINS address (ip address of the web server running WINS) to one of the PCs on the wireless network. I can ping that web server fine from it. But I still cannot see any PCs. That was only about an hour ago but it should have propogated across the subnet by now, correct?

 

[SilviaS]

Are any of the PC's in the WINS database?

 

[PHILANDO]

You have a very small network, why dont you keep it simple? I would give the cable router a static (LAN)address and disable dhcp services. I would also disable dhcp from the wireless router and also give it a static lan address so its just an access point. Making sure that all machines are on the same subnet with the correct mask.
I would turn on WINS on the PDC. I would also check event log to see if another machine is trying to be the master browser. On the windows2000 cd in Support Tools there is an executable called BROWSTAT.EXE. You can use this to check on each machine who it thinks is the master browser (where its trying to get the browse list from).
I think if you do this you will solve your problem. Good luck.

 

[Akio63]

Well, there are no PCs listed in the WINS database on the web server. I discovered that WINS was actually running already on the PDC. Only one entry, (itself), was in the database. I checked the event viewer and there was a browser election forced some 3 weeks ago. But that was the same day I had to shut down and restart the server due to a power outage from an electrical storm. Also, I don't have my Win2k cd to try the BROWSTAT.EXE command, but I'll get it.

However I did try to put the same subnet on both the LAN and WAN interfaces and disable DHCP. Nah-uh. I don't think it liked that because I wasn't able to reach the router anymore after that from either the WAN or LAN side. It took the rest of the night but I finally learned the procedure to reset the router to factory defaults.

I don't mind running DHCP, actually I want it. I don't want to have to worry about what IP address to give someone that brings over thier laptop to join a LAN game or whatever. Let DHCP manage that. Also I want to know why this isn't working. I'm doing this also to learn. This is my network lab.

So if anyone can tell me what would prevent me from seeing the PCs across the router, thanks. Or point me in the right direction. Any good books on WINS, if that's where the problem lies? Thanks for the ideas so far though.