Unable to connect to other computers on LAN

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I’m tearing my hair out trying to resolve a connectivity problem on my home LAN. I have a total of 5 computers connected, two running Win98, one running Windows 2000, and two running Windows/XP Professional. All are connected either directly or through a switch to a Linksys router which is connected to a highspeed direct broadcase wireless modem. All computers can access the Internet fine. The Windows 2000 and Win98 computers can all see each other. However, the Win/XP computers can’t see other computers on the network and the other computers on the network can’t see them. What’s frustrating is that everything worked at one time. The Win/XP computers are laptops, though, and they travel and sometimes connect to other networks. Perhaps something broke on them because of a dial-up connection. The Win98 and Win2000 computers never dial up.

I’ve run and re-run the network setup wizard in XP to no avail. I’ve compared TCP/IP and other network settings between the XP and the Win2000 machines and confirmed all the settings are the same. I’ve made some progress by reading http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?…b;en-us;Q314067, titled “How to Troubleshoot TCP/IP Connectivity with Windows XP .”

What I’ve found is that I can ping the IP addresses of any computer on the network from any other computer on the network, including to and from the Win/XP PCs. I can ping the loopback address (127.0.0.1) TO “verify that TCP/IP is installed and correctly configured.” I can ping the IP address of the computer I’m on. I can ping the default gateway (192.168.1.1).

What I can’t do is ping the name of another computer on the network from the Win/XP PCs, or ping the names of the XP PCs from the other computers. The Q314067 article says this about that: “Ping uses name resolution to resolve a computer name to an IP address. Therefore, if pinging by IP address succeeds but pinging by name does not succeed, the issue is host name resolution, not network connectivity. ”

OK, I’ve got a host name resolution problem. Why? Where should I look next?

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I’ll reply to my own posting to add one more detail. If I use the Windows “Search” facility and search for “computers or people”, and enter the IP address of another computer on the network, it’s found and I can access the resources on that computer. Searching on the name of the computer, though, doesn’t work.

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Is the MS firewall turned off on the XP machines?

Since the XP machines were on another network, are the computer names and WORKGROUP name correct?

The other network may have been a “Domain” type and they are still looking for that domain and not the workgroup.

DaveA I am so far behind, I think I am First
Genealogy....confusing the dead and annoying the living

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Hi Dave,

Yes, the XP machines have the MS firewall turned off. I’ve run across that problem before! And, the computer names are correct in the “Computer Name” tab of “System Properties”. The Workgroup is set to “WORKGROUP” which is the same group that all the computers on the network are on.

I appreciate your quick reply…I’m still puzzled, though!

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Have you turned on any of the files (drive) and printer sharing?

Also do you have ZomeAlarm or such on the other machine blocking the XP machines?

DaveA I am so far behind, I think I am First
Genealogy....confusing the dead and annoying the living

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Yes to drives and printer sharing. In fact, I can connect to drives on other computers from the XP computers if I search for the other computers (in the Windows Search dialog) by their IP addresses. I can see and browse drives on the other PCs by doing this. Also, the Win98 and Win2000 computers can all see and share each other’s drives.

No Zone Alarm on any machine on the network. I figured I didn’t need it since I have a router.

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“I figured I didn’t need it since I have a router” VERY WRONG, the router stops in coming but nothing about the OUT going. Get the ZoneAlarm free version and install it on ALL machines.

You are saying that the other computers can see the drives (shares) of the XP machines but, the XP machines can NOT see the NON XP machines shares?

You said up front about a router and a hub, which are these machine plugged in to the hub or router?

DaveA I am so far behind, I think I am First
Genealogy....confusing the dead and annoying the living

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Dave, I have two computers running Win98, one running Win2000, and two running XP. The Win98 and Win2000 computers can all see each other and share with each other. They cannot see the XP machines.

The XP machines can’t see each other, or any of the other computers on the network, unless I connect to the other computers using an IP address. For example, when I use the XP machine to search for 192.168.1.102, it finds the computer in my son’s room. On the other hand, if I search for the computer named “Danny” (or “Danny”) his PC isn’t found. On the Windows 98 or Windows 2000 computers, though, I can connect using the computer name “Danny”…I don’t have to use an IP address. (All computers are in a workgroup named “WORKGROUP”.)

So, it looks like something is wrong with some kind of name resolution on the XP PCs.

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Dave and others…FWIW, here’s the output from a IPCONFIG dump on one of the XP PCs:

C:Documents and SettingsJim>ipconfig /all

Windows IP Configuration

Host Name . . . . . . . . . . . . : THINKPAD
Primary Dns Suffix . . . . . . . :
Node Type . . . . . . . . . . . . : Peer-Peer
IP Routing Enabled. . . . . . . . : No
WINS Proxy Enabled. . . . . . . . : No

Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection:

Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : D-Link DWL-650 11Mbps WLAN Adapter
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-05-5D-D6-65-37
Dhcp Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : Yes
Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes
IP Address. . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.104
Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0
Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.1
DHCP Server . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.1
DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . : 24.221.192.5
24.221.208.5
Lease Obtained. . . . . . . . . . : Saturday, January 26, 2002 8:31:46 PM
Lease Expires . . . . . . . . . . : Friday, February 01, 2002 8:31:46 PM

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Have you tried enabling netbeui on your NICs. Search this forum for recent postings on netbeui, and read KB Q301041

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moniq, Yes. after scanning the other posts here I did install the NetBEUI protocol. Still no luck…

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Any Norton products running on the XP, other than Norton 2002 anti virus?

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Yup. Norton Systemworks 2002.

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I am intrigued by the kludge you mentioned in the first post:
A switch? Is this a hub?
A router, or a hub/router?
The XPs travel
There was some sort of dial-up encounter?
It once worked!

Woody has written about his traveling configuration, two XP laptops (Woody’s XP for Dummies – page 702), wherein he carries a short crossover cable and hooks the two laptops together, peer-to-peer, to swap/backup files. You might try this on your traveling laptops to see if they talk. The crossover cable costs about $5US.

Re Norton system works on the XPs, do you really need this?

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Hi moniq,

Let’s simplify and say I have just one XP laptop on the LAN. When at home, this laptop connects to the LAN through a wireless access point, which is plugged into a hub, which is connected to a router, which is connected to a Sprint broadband wireless modem. There’s a nice picture of my setup at http://216.188.127.10/HomeNetwork.jpg. It’s not really a kludge, it works quite well. While debugging, to eliminate any possible problems caused by the 801.11b wireless connection to the laptop, I connected it to the LinkSys EFAH08W hub using a wired connection.

Since this is a laptop, and since I travel away from home every week, it also connects to the Internet through both a) a modem connection to Earthlink, and to LAN connections in hotel rooms and sometimes in office buildings. It’s not always part of the same network, in other words.

Why do I need Systemworks? Why do you ask? Do you think it has something to do with my problem of not being able to resolve computer names on the network? I like Cleansweep, Norton Utilities, AV, and Ghost.

I never travel with two laptops, and don’t need to swap files between them. I just need to connect to a) my home network; the Internet through a dial-in connection while on the road; and c) the Internet through a LAN connection in hotel rooms and office buildings.

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A quick look at your configuration shows it is no kludge. It ought to work.

As for Norton S-W2002, I have no experience with it, but got burned with S-W2000 and Norton Personal firewall on W2k before I upgraded, so that ended that chapter.

I support three different workgroups with similar router/hub configs and mix of PCs, except that none are wireless. So am mystified why yours worked, then stopped.

Netbios? On the XP you might explore Network Connections>LAN nic, right click>Properties>Select TCP/IP then Properties>General Tab>Advanced>WINS, then check that LMHosts Lookup is on, and check the options for Netbios.

Good luck.

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Remember the LMHOST file in the absence of a WINS server this will do.

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Yes, no luck with the two slashes except when I search for the computer I’m on. Search for the name of it, with or without the back slashes works, but I can’t find any of the other computers on the LAN.

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Hello
I have not read all of the postings. I hope this will help. Make a network disk. them name the workgroup mshome on all of the computers. I use WinMe and XP Home and Pro and ADS and Server and all of the computers setup with a network wizard during the install process. there is the time to name the work group. You can do it later also in the network properties.

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Jim:

I am responding because I experienced almost the same exact problem last week and am looking for a resolution. We were trying to network a Win 98 and Win XP Home machine ( a new Dell Dimension 4400). Once file sharing was turned on on the XP machine and once the C: drive was shared, the 98 machine saw the XP machine with no problem. The problem was that the XP machine could not see the 98 machine. The only way it saw it was using the ip address, which is an impractical solution, to say the least. The situation got even uglier when Dell tech support (their pay service) tried to resolve the problem and failed miserably. They are replacing the user’s new machine.

If this issue ever gets resolved, I’d sure be interested in hearing the solution! Thanks.

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WSC, I’ve been out of town for a couple of weeks so haven’t had a chance to do any further debugging. I’ll let you know what I discover if and when I finally get this nailed!

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Prior to installing Windows XP on my main PC at home, I was able to connect my office laptop (Win2K), to my home network (Win98) and perform sundry tasks.

Enter Windows XP, and the main PC and office laptop could not see each other. After struggling with the problem for a few weeks, I was finally able to get them to see and talk to each other. What follows, is a stepped process that brought me success.

Here’s my environment (names modified to protect the guilty):

A router (Netgear RT314) that acts as the gateway to the Internet (ADSL modem attached) and has 4 ports servicing 3 computers and a print server.

A Netgear print server providing the link to a printer.

Attached to the router are:
– Wife’s PC, named “WIFE”, running Windows 98.
– My primary PC, named “HOMEXP”, running Windows XP – Home.
– My secondary PC, named “HOME98”, running Windows 98.

The three PCs can talk to each other behind the router’s firewall as there is one single workgroup (named US) and file / print sharing is turned on for each of the systems. Appropriate drives and or folders are identified as “share” on the systems as required.

Enter my office ThinkPad… named “IBMTP”, attached to a domain… called “COMPANY” and running Win2K-Pro.

When I want to attach the office laptop to the home network, I disconnect my secondary PC and hookup the ThinkPad to the freed port,

My initial efforts to change the ThinkPad environment to a workgroup called US (thus removing the domain link). did provide for some one way, but not two way, communication. However, that action caused problems when returning to the office environment. (Tech Support would have to re-establish my rights in order to get me reattached to the office environment. After the second support effort, they were threatening to take the laptop away)

Enter the solution…

1) Connected the ThinkPad to the home network, signed on with my office account name, entered the appropriate password and left the domain name as COMPANY.

2) My primary PC was already running.

3) Neither PC could see the other.

4) The ThinkPad already had file sharing turned on for drive C: named C$ (the $ sign to hide access from other office beasties)

5) In my primary PC, I mapped a network drive (W to “IBMTPC$”. Windows XP then asked me for an account name and password belonging to the ThinkPad. Entering “IBMTPoffice account name” with the appropriate password… didn’t want to work. However, “IBMTPadministrator” with the administrator’s password, did the trick. The entire ThinkPad environment was available to my primary PC.

6) Then turned on file sharing for my backup drive (physical drive D in my primary PC) and named it “Backup$”.

7) In the ThinkPad environment, I then mapped a network drive (H to “HOMEXPBackup$” and the ThinkPad could now see the Backup drive located in the Windows XP environment.

All is well with the world!!!

Hope this helps someone out there.

The WinXP machine has Norton SystemWorks 2002 and ZoneAlarm – Pro. Just adding that as some parts of the thread thought that those two products might be part of the problem.

Cheers,

Bob

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This may not be relevant but… I have a small LAN, two tower systems running XP Pro and a laptop running 98SE. When I was setting up XP I had no trouble configuring the laptop to see the XP systems and vice versa, but the laptop (98SE) couldn’t see the shared printers, although the XP systems had no trouble.

The solution was to change the “Share name” I used for each printer so it didn’t have any blanks in it.

For example, I changed “DeskJet 895” to “DJ895” and “LaserJet 2200D” to “LJ2200D” and the laptop picked them up correctly.

I had no trouble with the actual computer names, although I did change the default Workgroup name.

Probably no help, but you might check the shared printer names in case changing them might have some effect on your problem.

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Jim,
I have a very similar problem (See the thread under Networking). If anything works out for you-please let me know.
SixActual

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I hate to keep asking this question in different posts, but have you disabled SIMPLE FILE SHARING? As I understand it, that’s the only way you can get all machines to have visibility on a LAN.

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I have a similar problem to this post, but not quite. I use a Linksys BEFW11S4 Wireless Access Point Router to connect to my cable modem. My primary desktop is cabled to the router and the secondary desktop is connected by a Linksys USB Wireless Adapter. Both computers are running Windows XP. Both are relatively new, with plenty of memory etc. While both can access the Internet through the router, they can’t now talk with each other. The Linksys information on the router does not help at all and while I have connected one of the desktops to my laptop via Laplink, and understand something about the addresses protocols, I am unsure how to go about setting this all up. The Windows XP wizzard does nothing, and I follow the router’s instructions, but we get to the point in my mind of whether I should set separate fixed addresses for the two desktops. That would seem reasonable but would like some confirmation as this forum seems to be full of helpful knowledge. The Linksys setup configuration instructions tell me to set the (TCP/IP) to obtain an IP address automatically. Now the router is at one address (192.168.1.1/) and I guess I will try to increment the last digit and see it they will still access the Internet and if they will see each other. Do I need to enter the address via the Browser or not? While I screw about with this, if anyone has constructive suggestions, I would appreciate them.

CBS

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Any results? Our office is currently having similar problems with one of our 2 XP Pro laptops…

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I found several things relative to connecting with wireless Linksys systems. The wireless access point, a Linksys USB wireless connection, could not be configured to accept Client for Microsoft Networks, and File and Printer sharing. I went to the Linksys home page and downloaded the latest version of the driver for this program, the version I have, WUSB11 ver 2.5 driver didn’t work but the ver 2.6 driver fixed the problem. I also found that I had to disable Zone Alarm Pro on both computers and let them connect, then re-enable Zone Alarm again and everything works fine now. I also had the access problem with my Linksys cable modem which I fixed by downloading the latest revision of the driver for that unit (in its latest revision, not the revision I had).

CBS

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You may have to create a user account the same as used to log onto W95/98 system so XP can identify it other than the computer name.
Just a thought. Will delve into this in next few days as I have a system to deal with having the same problems.
Let you know if I am successful
Dax

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Yes, I got all my computers connected although I am not certain what will work on other systems. First, I got the latest updated driver from Linksys. This is something that I had to do with the cable modem and the wireless as well. The drivers were not identified with my units, but were for the latest version of the things, so look for a later revision driver. Also, I have a Windows 98SE laptop which I connected with a PCM card and which works fine. That was the thing which made the difference. In the System Properties, I had to make sure that the network name was the same on all the computers. MS makes doing all this coordination exceedingly difficult. But my experience is that the LAN works fine now. I suspect that this is a fertile field for someone to create software which will make the coordination bulletproof as there is no reason for such difficulty in setting up your own LAN, when you have supervisor access to all the computers.

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