Can't ping computer on home network 2

[jsteph]

Hi all,
I have a slightly non-standard network setup, which I believe may be causing the titular issue.

My main router, a Linsys, is hardwired to my main computer. This Linksys is the WAN router that's wired to my wowway.com (My ISP) cable connection, it also acts as a dhcp server.

My daughters computer is upstairs, and it connects wirelessly to a Dlink wireless up there that is *not* a dhcp server. This Dlink is hard-wired directly to the Linksys downstairs. So this Dlink serves as bascially an access point.

The Linksys's address is 192.168.1.1; the Dlink's address is 192.168.1.253. My daughter's computer shows up in the linksys dhcp client table as 192.168.1.104.

She can get internet, she can ping my computer. However, I can't ping her computer either via computername or typing the ip address in directly.

I've been fighting this problem for months--sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. It seems to do with wowway.com, which insists on appending that dns suffix. I don't understand much about that whole 'suffix' thing, btw. But ipconfig/all on hers shows the .104 address, and the connection-specific suffix "wowway.com". I even tried to ping 192.168.1.104.wowway.com and still nothing.

Anyway, I hard-coded some widely known DNS servers (4.2.2.2 and 4.2.2.3) into both mine and my daughters dns entry in the network tab--ie, I unchecked the 'Obtain DNS automatically' and hardcoded these--for the express purpose of getting away from wowway's annoying DNS servers (if I do the 'obtain dns automatically', I can sometimes not even ping google, and I can almost never ping my own or my daughters or other kids' computers using wowway's dns).

So anyway, I'm so tired of fighting this. I just want to be able to have total connectivity and I don't understand why it has to be such a pain. Again--she gets internet, she sees my computer, but I can't see hers, even though the router I'm hardwired to has her ip address in it's dns clients table. I don't see where the disconnect is.

Can anyone help?
Thanks,
--Jim

 

[North323]

are you using the dlink at a router or switch? meaing, do you have anything plugged in the WAN port of the dlink?

 

[stduc]

This might sound obvious but is your daughters machine in the same workgroup and have you checked that any firewall she is running is permitting ICPM responses?

 

[burtsbees]

OK---first off, it does not have to be in the same Windows workgroup to ping.

Second, you don't even go through the router to ping---you're on the same network, so it does not cross a layer 3 boundary (router).

Third, ICMP is two-way---something is obvious blocking ICMP (NOT ICPM...lol).

Trun off your daughter's Windows firewall, and if you are still having problems, Wireshark both ends.

Also, try Google's free DNS server at 8.8.8.8 or 8.8.4.4

http://code.google.com/speed/public-dns/docs/using.html

/

tim@tim-laptop ~ $ sudo apt-get install windows
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
E: Couldn't find package windows...Thank Goodness!

 

[jsteph]

Thanks everyone, I will try the firewall thing.

I'll check the workgroup...it may be different but like burtsbees said it should still ping...especially when I have the ip address. It's the firewall that's looking like the likely suspect--I normally turn it off on all my an my kids' computers because I have a 3rd party virus/firewall (Vipre, but I haven't set Vipre up on hers yet so I'm thinking windows' firewall might be on).

North, I'm not sure what the precise role of Dlink is--I consider it an access point because it's the wireless point where my daughters computer connects, but it does not get the internet or dhcp from that router--the downstairs router has my daughter's ip address and name in it's dhcp table and there is no other wire into the DLink--just the single ethernet from the wall to the back of the router--and it's plugged into one of the random 4 ports, not the wan port. That wire comes directly from the downstairs Linksys.

FWIW, the reason her computer doesn't connect to the existing ethernet in the wall where the Dlink is, is because, well, she's female and *had* to have her desk on the other wall and neither she nor my wife would put up with a cable running across the baseboard...so that router was put up there to accomodate that as well as her ipod-touch and the laptop that she and the other siblings occasionally use upstairs.

 

[stduc]

I've re-read your first post jsteph. A bit more carefully. If my understanding is correct then I think you have two routers. Am I right?

If that is the case then they need to be on different subnets, router protocol (such as RIP) needs to be on for both of them and both using DHCP.

So, for example, set your one to 192.168.0.1 subnet mask 255.255.255.0 and your daughters to 192.168.1.1 subnet mask 255.255.255.0 default gateway 192.168.0.1

You may also have to manually add each to the others routing table - but RIP should sort that out.

[navy]When I married "Miss Right" I didn't realise her first name was 'always'. LOL[/navy]

 

[jsteph]

stduc,
Yes, I have two routers, but my thought was...and this is where I may have gone wrong...that the upstairs 'router' wasn't really performing a router's role, but just acting as a means of connecting my daughters computer to a hardwired device.

So in my head, I looked at the upstairs 'router' as a more of a NIC--it was just hardwired to the downstairs router using a normal lan port. I guess the problem is that this router has it's own address as well as my daughters's wireless NIC address, so looking at it that way it must peform some sort of routing.

So I will try the different subnet as well,.
Thanks again,
--Jim

 

[Noway2]

You should be able to wire into the LAN port and use the router as a switch. Just make sure the incoming connection from the other router is also on the LAN port and not the WAN port. Then if DHCP for the router/switch is off, everything should pass through to the one router that is the DHCP. This should work for both wired and wireless.

As a matter of fact, this is the setup I use at home. My main router that has the cable modem is an FVS318. This distributes wired ethernet throughout most of the house. In one location I use a regular switch to connect multiple PCs and a printer. In another location I use a WRT54G and put everything on the LAN port. All the wired devices, such as the Xbox and Tivo as well as the wired devices get configured from the DHCP and DNS.

The important part is that everything acts as a switch and not as a router and there are no conflicting DHCP servers.

 

[burtsbees]

If you have the switchport wired to your daughter's comp on the wireless router, you still set the internal LAN ip address to 192.168.0.x/24, on the same subnet as the main router. Do not connect anything to the "WAN" port of the wireless router. Connecting it to the switch part and putting that into the same subnet as the actual routing router will make it a simple access point.

/

tim@tim-laptop ~ $ sudo apt-get install windows
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
E: Couldn't find package windows...Thank Goodness!

 

[jsteph]

burtsbees,

Connecting it to the switch part and putting that into the same subnet as the actual routing router will make it a simple access point.

Exactly--that's how I intended it, and it's how I think I have it set up. DHCP is off, the downstairs router wire is in one of the lan ports in the back of the dlink, and it's on the same subnet.

I just can't ping...but I haven't had time to check the firewall yet...it's a busy week with graduations coming up, etc. I'm leaning towards thinking it's the firewall that's on on her machine...I usually turn them off but I may have missed that.
Thanks, I'll post the results tonight when I should get time to dig into it,
--Jim

 

[burtsbees]

Yeah---like I said, since you can ping one way, then it is not a routing issue. I figured you had it set up correctly. Keep it simple. Yes, the firewall is the likely suspect. If that does not work, let's do some packet capturing to see what is wrong instead of guessing all day.

/

tim@tim-laptop ~ $ sudo apt-get install windows
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
E: Couldn't find package windows...Thank Goodness!

 

[jsteph]

Thanks everyone...it appears to have been the firewall.

But I still see the wowway.com as the "connection specific dns suffix".
Is this ever a problem? The reason I originally suspected this is because sporadically I've been unable to ping other machines here with the firewall definitely off.

What happens is that I'll ping the machine name, and the repsonse is some completely random address; ie, "Pinging 65.33.22.48 with blah, blah", and that's why I changed the DNS addresses to the 4.2.2.2 and 4.2.2.3; yet the wowway.com suffix remains.

I made up that address but it was something like that--not an internal 192.168 address. I'd googled and found it was an address related to wow (the isp). So that's why I'm wondering if the wowway.com suffix will hurt, and academically, I'm wondering what the suffix's purpose is in the first place.
--Jim