Network Setup - Nervous Breakdown Coming!
 

Sod me! Everything in the FJJP household was going swimmingly network-wise until a few days ago when the laptop decided, without intervention, to stop connecting to the home network.

Setup is: 1xhigh spec PC hard wired to a D-link wireless router (connected to broadband). 1xhigh spec PC wireless linked to the router and the high spec laptop also wireless connected.

The link from laptop to router and thus the www is working fine. However, I can no longer poke around in the shared hard drives of the 2 PCs. My forehead is pounded flat from banging it against the brick wall. I admit to being stumped. I'm obviously missing something along the line with the setup, and as usual, Windows 'Help' isn't.

Anybody got any likely thoughts, pleeeeeeease!

What is your OS? WinXP?

Can you see the other computer in My Network Places etc?

Is there a Firewall? This maybe preventing access.

Been there.

Can the laptop "see" the network at all?

Start - My Network Places - Entire Network - Microsoft Windows Network.

Can you see your network named there?

If so, double-click it.

Does the "other" computer(s) appear?

If so, click it.

If you get that far, and then get a message about access being refused, it's a sharing permission that's got changed, or it's something in the Administrative Tools section in the Control Panel.

If you get there and it lets you browse the other computer, try opening a folder there, and if that works go back and see if the problem has gone away.

Let us know what the results of the above are, and someone is bound to know a next step.

FJJP,

You could delete the shares on the drives and create new shares. You can also disable simple sharing, which gives you more options to add users and give them levels of sharing.

Take Care,

Richard

P.S. Looks like I crossed posts with Keef.

wow,......had the same thing myself two weeks ago. called a nerd mate who helped out.

check basic communications. open up icon for your network connection. on the tabs you'll find the ip address. open a DOS window and type ping followed by the address of the other computer. this is the definitive answer as to wether they are communicating or not.

my problem was fixed by uninstalling my firewall and restarting the computer. auto settings had taken over.haven't tried to put the firewall back in (zone alarm) due laziness, but must have a go soon.

Sorry guys - it was a long emotional night...

Laptop on XP, wired PC on 2000 and wireless PC on 98.

Norton firewall disabled - no effect. Can't see other computers when network selected in explorer. I get the access refused message.

Did the ping thing and that appeared to work.

Could be our old friend a broken Winsock.

Winsock Fix

Happens to me regularly when changing Networking hardware or most recently adding a Belkin Serial/USB adapter. What seems to happen is that the DHCP'ing by the Router is destroyed and the PCs/Laptops give themselves IP addresses outside of the Workgroup range.

Download it HERE or Google for it yourself.

Got me out of hole many times.

On each PC try "ipconfig" in a command prompt window. You'll soon see whether the IP addresses are the problem.

Lastly don't rule out the possibility of hardware failure (ie the laptop ethernet adapter).

My network died a few weeks ago - I had to replace a multiport switch after which all was fine and has been since.

if it is pinging and you are getting a reply then you are half way there. the connection exists...they are just not talking.

now have a look at which protocols (languages) are being used for networking.

if they are pining then i would not lean towards hardware failure.

Simple start - but if you get the green light on each NIC (Network Card) then you have the physical layer sorted - I.e. correct cable, voltages etc.

So down to software.

Thanks for your ideas, everyone. Problem solved - I cranked the firewall setting from medium to low and that instantly cured the problem. Why that should work is beyond me - it was working perfectly well on medium before!

FJJP,

That is great news. :ok:

Take Care,

Richard

FJJP: Glad to see prob. sorted but just for good measure I would also set my firewall to allow access to/from ALL of my internal network devices - on ALL ports.