Home Networking Help please
 

We have seen some high quality help here - so here is a plea from me.

Situation :

3 PCs on Windows Me

Master is the main PC with hard wired Ethernet to a Linksys wireless 802.11 router. The router is connected to a DSL modem

Missie is a PC with a Linksys 802.11 USB thingie for internet sharing and home network

Merlin is the same as Missie.

All of the machines have excellent radio network and connect to the Internet perfectly

Only Missie talks to Master on the Home Network. Merlin doesn't at all. I have tried everything I know to make Merlin talk on HomeNetwork - to no avail. The setups and network links are (as far as I can see) identical on Merlin and Missie and I have even swapped the USB 802.11 units around. Nada.

Any ideas where to look or what to try next ?

MG


PS I have reinstalled everything on Merlin, including ME.

MCP/MCSE - pah!

Don't you relaise that Windows ME is winipcfg?

d'oh

Master Green,

You need to provide more info.

So MASTER is acting as your LANs gateway... it's connected to your router directly via hardwired ethernet. MISSIE has some sort of USB wireless LAN connection, that can talk to MASTER.

My question: where is the switch? or in a wireless environment - the access point?

How is IP setup? does the Linksys router act as a DHCP server? does the Linksys router have an inbuilt wireless hub?

Maybe if I understood how MASTER and MISSIE were interconnected, I might be able to help.

I haven't played with wireless for ages.. but I'm pretty certain it's the same as wire. You've obviously checked the layer 1 connectivity - so they can all get a good signal. Now try layer 2/3, IF you have an access point that is acting as your switch/hub, is MERLIN obtaining an IP lease? or are you using static ips? can MERLIN ping MISSIE? by ip..

More info needed.

Good luck with it..

Lachlan

P.S Sorry I'm not familiar with Linksys products.. only Cisco.

Do you get any error messages when trying to browse the Home Network? If so, what messages are you getting?

Can you confirm whether you have any protocols other than TCP/IP installed on any of the machines and if so, which protcols on what machines.

Can you also check that all machines are set to use the same Primary Network Login client.

I've see a similar problem that was cured by waiting. The Network Neighborhood takes a number of minutes before it discovers all the computers on the network.

You can check the Advanced tab on the network adapter properties ensure that all the parameters are set identically, and also check that the adapter is bound to all the installed protocols on the Binding tab.

I had the same problem when I set up mine.....

Although mine is a linksys wireless cable/dsl router, I had to change the number of Users on the DHCP page to greater than ten for it to work. (Actually, I think if I chose a number that was equal to the number of computers plus 1 it would have worked....)

Additionally, I reflashed the router software after noticing an upgrade at www.linksys.com. It used to hang up ever three days or so, but after the re-flash I have not had a single hangup yet......

On Master go to DOS prompt and type winipcfg, write down the IP number.

Go to the machine you're having problems with and then go to a DOS prompt and see if you can PING the ip number of the MASTER machine. Example: Master machine has an IP number os 172.24.128.80 I would go to the problem machine and go to a DOS prompt and type in:

ping 172.24.128.80


F:\>ping 172.24.128.80

Pinging 172.24.128.80 with 32 bytes of data:

Reply from 172.24.128.80: bytes=32 time=2ms TTL=125
Reply from 172.24.128.80: bytes=32 time=2ms TTL=125
Reply from 172.24.128.80: bytes=32 time=2ms TTL=125
Reply from 172.24.128.80: bytes=32 time=2ms TTL=125

Ping statistics for 172.24.128.80:
Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 2ms, Maximum = 2ms, Average = 2ms

F:\>

You will see I got a response from all - do you get the same? I am trying to prove your network is operating correctly first befoer we start to work out about the config of Windows ME.

B

OK, so all your PC's are able to get onto the Internet via MASTER?

That means they've all got TCP/IP up and running by the looks of things.

What are you trying to "see" on the other PCs? If it's shares, you need to share the drives and you will need NetBEUI installed.

Have a peek in My Network Places first, and see if any of the machines can see any of the other machines, then also check out Control Panel -> Network -> and see what protocols apart from TCP/IP you have installed.

I posted on this a while ago, NetBEUI is the necessary protocol on a small LAN without any WINS server and other kit..... your mileage may vary without it! You should have TCP/IP AND NetBEUI.

Also remember that in order to see other computers you may well need to share something on them (like the C or D drive) in order to make them "visible".

Also, have you got any firewalling software installed? If not, you should have, if you have then well done.... but make sure it isn't blocking requests for the LAN on any of the machines.

Hope this helps

GE :cool:

GE

Not totally convinced that Netbeui is required here. Even with only TCP/IP installed and no WINS server, TCP/IP broadcasts can still be used to discover the NETBios Clients on the local subnet (I think).

True, but.....
 

Tacpot, you're absolutely right, the MS machines can and do use TCP/IP for self discovery (that's the whole point of SMB which is NetBIOS over TCP/IP).

In my experience of setting up LANs of varying sizes, a TCP/IP network will often appear (ie in Network Places) as incomplete or "unbrowsable". Addition of NetBEUI to at least one of the machines on a LAN has cured the problem on more than one occasion though!

Being a TCP/IP purist at heart, it pains me to add another ghastly MS protocol, but if it works then that's gotta be good news!

Try it - it may work!

Of course another reason could be that MERLIN on Master Green's network is not seeing MASTER as a gateway for anything other than the Internet (meaning that "browse lists" are not being updated on the client computers).

Can we get some info on what's in your network settings box?

Let's wait and see if Master Green has had any luck yet with all the suggestions thus far - let us know, MG!

Just back from a trip - thanks for all the input. I will get some reading done and try it out and report back

MG

Thought I'd ressurrect this thread as I'm having similar problems. I have been attempting to link my desktop (Athlon 2000+, 768mb ram, 55Gb free on HDD) with my laptop (Celeron 1.8 Ghz, 256 mb ram, 20Gb free on HDD) via a Linksys WRT54G router CAT5 wired to the desktop and a Buffalo WLI-PCM-L11GP wireless card fitted to the laptop. Unfortunately, neither computer can see the other. The desktop comes up with the message "Mshome is not accessible. You might not have permission to use this network resource. contact the administrator of this service to find out if you have access permissions. The list of servers for this workgroup is not currently available." if I try to 'View Workgroup Computers'. The laptop sees only itself on the network. Win XP Firewalling is disabled on both computers, but Norton Internet Security is running on the Desktop, protecting its USB DSL connection. Both computers are running WinXP Home SP1, with all updates.

Both computers' Network properties use the following items: Client for Microsoft Networks; File and Printer Sharing for Microsoft Networks; QoS Packet Scheduler; Internet protocol (TCP/IP). NetBEUI is not enabled on either computer.

The desktop is set to assign TCP/IP addresses by DHCP, the laptop is set to use a static address as it assigned different leading octets using DHCP (the desktop was 192.168.xxx.xxx, the laptop was using 169.254.xxx.xxx, which I'm told is incompatible?). Both are using the same gateway setting. The NetBIOS settings on both computers are set to 'Default - Use NetBIOS settings from the DHCP server. If static IP address is used or the DHCP server does not provide NetBIOS setting, enable NetBIOS over TCP/IP'. Forcing NetBIOS over TCP/IP makes no difference. I've tried pinging both ways without any joy. I can ping the router from the desktop but not from the laptop. The laptop has an 'excellent' signal from the router and is connected to the wireless network.

Can anyone offer any further ideas?

I've just sorted a LAN with similar problems. The PCs that had the worst of it and weren't sorted until last were XP. The Cure?

Get rid of Norton Internet Security - at least the Firewall part. It destroys the Winsock settings if you are using a Router with DHCP enabled. As soon as Norton IS was uninstalled, the problem self-corrected. The DHCP give out the correct IPs and all was well. I'm about to contact Symantec to tell them about it and see if there is a work-around.

Except for the Notebook with XP Pro; it had quietly formed a Network Bridge and was looking around for its mates on a completely different LAN. Here's the beauty of XP for Administrators. Just deleted the Bridge, right-clicked on the re-enabled normal LAN and left-clicked "Repair". Hey presto!

Try it if only temporarily and get back. I'm still trying to repair the Win2K laptop with corrupt Winsock. I've got all the tools, just haven't figured out how to use them yet. All about UDP packet size not available.

...one hour later. Bless its little cotton socks, this site with this WinsockFix routine is a gem!

http://members.shaw.ca/techcd/VB_Projects/

Obviously use with great care, but it did the trick and the laptop in question is back on the Web. As to what broke it..? Was it D-Link Airplus software, ZoneAlarm or Norton Internet Security? Re-install one at a time and see what happens....

Yup, you got it! Removed Norton IS, repaired the network connections on both computers (including removing the bridge on each) and Robert's yer father's sibling! Now, how do I protect my computers from the net nasties if I can't use Norton IS? I've got WinXP firewall activated, which doesn't seem to cause a problem, but I don't feel that that's enough. Any suggestions?

Well done! If you're prepared to shell out another £30 or so go for ZoneAlarm Pro Ver 4.0. It's a download and will do the biz with the nasties.

I'll try that. Now, my next problem is that I can't get the laptop to access the internet via the wireless LAN and the desktop's DSL modem..... :mad: Should I go back to an abacus and semaphore, I wonder? Any other ideas?

Thanks for the help so far!!:O