Replies

Thanks Joe

Alas, the NAS appears to be not set up to use MSG. There is only a field to enter the names of the “Error Handling Pop-Up Machines” & nothing I enter there results in a message on my PC. FWIW I have attached a copy of the error message option screen for the NAS.

Looks like I will have to install one of the various SMTP server packages. Have been trying to keep this PC as lean as possible by avoiding add-on utilities etc wherever possible.

Had seen the Steve Schofield blog post. Currently I’m leaning towards Afterlogic Xmail Server or lighter weight option, miniRelay , with the two mentioned by Steve Schofield as the next alternatives. Or possibly Mercury Mail Transportation System (may be a bit heavy duty / complex?). User feedback on any of these options would be appreciated.

I am still a little concerned as to whether adding an SMTP server may affect my normal email activities. At this point I am happy with my existing email set up (Outlook direct to ISP) and do not want to change that / have my normal email going through a local mail server. Presumably I just set up a new account in Outlook which checks the local mail server, while my Oulook email existing accounts continue to check my ISP’s pop3 server?

Had hoped there may have been a purely intranet SMTP server option; ie. with no links beyond the local network.

At last it seems I have the problem licked (cannot be certain. BACKUP has been powered down for the night. Will confirm truth tomorrow)

Problem turned out to be “not unrelated” to the node type problem of c.6 months ago. And to something I mentioned in the first post earlier today – specifically the “IIRC, the IP addresses for OFFICE & Backup were previously reversed” bit. Yes they were previously reversed.

###

Before I found THE solution to the previous problem, I added the IP addresses for BACKUP & OFFICE to my LAPTOP Hosts file as an interim fix (allowed me to access the PC’s by name rather than by IP address only). When I eventually fixed the node type problem properly (thanks to Rory), I left the BACKUP & OFFICE entries in the Hosts file as a “backup” measure!! Alas, I had long forgotten this.

During my recent 4 day absence, normally only BACKUP was powered up each morning. Under this changed circumstance, it seems the router decided to reallocate the .100 address to BACKUP.

With LAPTOP back in the network on my return, OFFICE was .100 in the laptop Hosts file, but now .101 in the broadcast received from OFFICE – hence the “duplicate name exists on the network” error message. Conversely, BACKUP was .101 in Hosts, but broadcast as .100.

With the “stray” Hosts entries deleted, OFFICE access from LAPTOP is now fast & robust. Got the old solid feel about it, so I am reasonably certain the problem is fixed.

Many thanks for your assistance though Stuart. It did help – esp my confidence in using some of the configuration commands.

David

Thanks Stuart

‘Tis true that OFFICE “long ago” used to have ICS (was the network gateway for the internet before I got the router). Hence OFFICE has two network cards – only one now live. Anyway, the network previously operated flawlessly (apart from a node type issue a year or so ago – now long since resolved. Node type problem arose after I connected the laptop to a corporate network for internet access).

After running NBTSTAT -R, clicking on OFFICE (under “My Network Places”) lists the shared folders on OFFICE. But clicking on any of those shared folders results in a error statement “Officefolder not accessible … The network path not found”.

But I can now access folders of BACKUP.

Running NBTSTAT -c on LAPTOP still yields

BACKUP UNIQUE 192.168.1.100 582
OFFICE UNIQUE 192.168.1.100 147

ie. both machines still showing the same IP address (OFFICE should be .101 – see below).

Running ipconfig /RESET (and /REGISTERDNS) on OFFICE made no difference.

How can I reset the IP Routing on OFFICE (ie to not enabled) ?

####### Hmm – I just rebooted LAPTOP (after the above).

Very odd. I can now access folders on OFFICE, but not on BACKUP !!!!

Re-running NBTSTAT -c on LAPTOP yields

BACKUP UNIQUE 192.168.1.101 497
OFFICE UNIQUE 192.168.1.101 457
(plus GEOFFREY x2)

Now both PC’s show as .101 !!!!!

Also puzzling – there are a couple of other PC’s now live (“kids” home). They show in Windows Explorer, but not when NBTSTAT -c is run on LAPTOP ???

Frustrating. Networking normally works flawlessly & is fantastic, but how I dread it when it goes wrong. So many complications

David

####### IPCONFIG FOR OFFICE #######

Windows IP Configuration

Host Name . . . . . . . . . . . . : Office
Primary Dns Suffix . . . . . . . :
Node Type . . . . . . . . . . . . : Unknown
IP Routing Enabled. . . . . . . . : Yes
WINS Proxy Enabled. . . . . . . . : No

Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection 5:

Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : CNet PRO200 PCI Fast Ethernet Adapte
r #3
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-80-AD-72-20-54
Dhcp Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : Yes
Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes
IP Address. . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.101
Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0
Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.1
DHCP Server . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.1
DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . : 203.96.152.4
203.96.152.12
Lease Obtained. . . . . . . . . . : Thursday, 23 March 2006 3:57:23 p.m.

Lease Expires . . . . . . . . . . : Friday, 24 March 2006 3:57:23 p.m.

Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection 6:

Media State . . . . . . . . . . . : Media disconnected
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : CNet PRO200 PCI Fast Ethernet Adapter #4
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-80-AD-72-29-70

Brilliant work Hans – worked a treat.

Would never have got there by myself, despite many attempts with Google.

Many thanks
David

Further to above:

? Selection.Characters.Text (in the immediate window yields)
TF20010324_M6.8_50km

Which is what I need. But

SheetName = Selection.Characters.Text

yields “SheetName” = “” and causes the following line to fail.

Can this, or similar be made to work?

David

re: “Have the option buttons been created from the Forms toolbar? … names such as Option Button 2.”

Originally yes, but creation now via macro lines

For lCount = 4 To lShtLast
lTop = lTop + lInc
ActiveSheet.OptionButtons.Add(lLeft, lTop, 150#, 14#).Select
Selection.Characters.Text = Sheets(lCount).Name
Selection.OnAction = “Macro7”
Next lCount

That works well.

“? Selection.Name” in the Immediate window yields “Option Button 72” because have created lots of buttons. That name will keep changing each time I change the data & create new buttons.

Now trying to get “Macro7” to work. Hoped to use same Macro for all OptionButtons, as could have up to 30 sheets or so (= c. 30 OptionButtons) – actual number will vary. Each sheet is a result from another (Fortran) program. Buttons created automatically via the above code after results of several analyses have been assembled into a new workbook, Hoped that I would not have to create a macro for each button as well.

Code in “Macro7” is just:

SheetName = Selection.Name ‘ This is problem line – want “SheetName” = selected option button name
Sheets(SheetName).Select
Range(“A1:I1”).Select
Range(Selection, Selection.End(xlDown)).Select
Selection.Copy
Sheets(“Data”).Select
Range(“A1”).Select
ActiveSheet.Paste
Sheets(“Plot”).Select
Range(“A1”).Select

Guess I am needing the OptionButton caption text?

David

Edited by HansV to reduce huge screenshot in size (it caused horizontal scrolling). Please don’t post images over 640×480 pixels in size.

Novice VBA here

Have an OptionButton group, with one OptionButton for each data sheet in a workbook. Each OptionButton has the name of the datasheet it refers to (eg. if sheets are “D1”, “D2”, “D3”, then the OptionButton names(? text) are “D1”, “D2”, “D3”. See actual example attached

Have a macro that scans the sheet names & generates the OptionButtons accordingly. Done that, works fine (via “Add Option Buttons” in example).

On selecting a particular OptionButton, I want want the assigned macro to go and get data from the same named sheet & paste it into another (“Data” in the example. The data is plotted in the chart on sheet “Plot”). ie. using the OptionButtions to change the data displayed in the chart.

Bit I am stuck on, is getting the name of the OptionButton so that the macro can select the correct sheet; eg Have tried various options such as

Sheets(ActiveSheet.OptionButtons.Name).Select

and

Sheets(Selection.Characters.Text).Select

etc to no effect. Also tried

Dim SheetName As String
SheetName = Selection.Characters.Text ‘ ie I wont this to be the name of the OptionButton that was selected
Sheets(SheetName).Select

Still no chop.

Any suggestions?

Thanks – all makes sense when you know what is going on.

David

Brilliant work Rory.

Computer Browser had startup type of Automatic and was Started.

Was no entry in NetBtParameters for NodeType, but was one for DhcpNodeType (see attached).

Deleted that as you suggested & re-booted. NodeType has now changed to “Unknown” (which is the same as my desktop).

Networking (both from & to Laptop) now appears to be working 100% (just need to eliminate my entries in HOSTS to make sure). [Now confirmed]

A couple of Qns:

– why NodeType “Unknown” rather than “Peer-Peer” ? (given it is a peer-peer network)

– how would the change have occurred (if it did change) – when I attached to the corporate network in Japan?

(while I never had problems linking out from my Laptop, I could not previously connect from my desktop to my laptop. That makes me wonder if the setting was always wrong, but has only shown up now, possibly because of a Windows update “fixing” something?). Being able to now connect from desktop to laptop will be a big +.

I see my backup PC has a NodeType of “Mixed” rather than “Unknown”. Have had networking issues with that machine in the past, though it seems to be working OK now. Would it be best to follow a similar process on that machine to change NodeType to “Unknown” ?

Anyway, MANY thanks for taking the time to fix this annoying problem. You achieved in a few paragraphs what 3+hrs of MS technician time + talking to half a dozen others had failed to do.

David

BTW – now checked other PC’s & see that they have a node type of “Mixed”. They have a DhcpNodeType value of (4) (laptop had a value of 2).

Perhaps that would have been a better mod (ie. change value to 4, rather than delete the key ???

Peer-peer

What is Computer Browser service ? !!!!

See IP Config below.
“Lease Expires” ???
IP Routing Enabled. . . . . . . . : No ???
WINS Proxy Enabled. . . . . . . . : No ???

One thing I discovered though. When I saved the results of ipconfig /all in TextPad, I was able to drill down from Workgroup in the Save As dialogue. Still only able to access the PCs listed in Hosts though. Still, the ability to drill down in the Save As dialogue means that I have restored most of the network functionality by using Hosts.

David

###############

Microsoft Windows XP [Version 5.1.2600]
© Copyright 1985-2001 Microsoft Corp.

C:>ipconfig /all

Windows IP Configuration

Host Name . . . . . . . . . . . . : LAPTOP
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 . . . . . . . . . . . : Broadcom NetXtreme Gigabit Ethernet
#2
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : ##################
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 . . . . . . . . . . . : 203.96.152.4
203.96.152.12
Lease Obtained. . . . . . . . . . : Friday, 26 August 2005 10:04:24 p.m.

Lease Expires . . . . . . . . . . : Saturday, 27 August 2005 10:04:24 p.
m.

Ethernet adapter Wireless Network Connection:

Media State . . . . . . . . . . . : Media disconnected
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : HP WLAN 802.11a/b/g W500 #2
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : #####################

Tried that to no avail, but thanks for the suggestion. Also tried with & without “Enable LMHOSTS lookup” to no avail (perhaps not surprising, since LMHOSTS is empty. Using HOSTS – not that I know what the difference actually is).

What I have done for now is add the names & IP addresses of a couple of the networked PCs to my Hosts file. That allows me to ping by computer name; enter the PC name in a Win Explorer address field; & most importantly, means that printer drivers on the laptop now work (the 2 PCs I put in the Hosts file are my work & backup PCs & have printers on them) .

Net View Name1 now works
Net View Name2 does not work (“System error 53 has occurred”)

where Name1 is one of the PCs in the Hosts file & Name2 one of the other PCs

Still cannot drill down to a networked PC from “My Network Places” in Win Explorer though; ie. get error message ( “… The list of servers for this workgroup is not currently available”) when eventually click on “Workgroup”. Of course access by Hosts file names:IP association will fail if IP addresses assigned by our router change; use the laptop on a different network; … ; or etc.

David

Alas, WinsockxpFix.exe made no difference to the problem. Still only able to connect via IP addresses.

David

I have a very similar problem, so I am very interested that in the fact “WinsockxpFix.exe” may be the solution.

In my case 5 PCs (all XP Home) & 1 laptop (XP pro) on a peer-peer network. The PCs are linked to each other via 2 hubs. One of those is linked to a router & then onto the internet (via a cable modem). Normally router sets IP addresses.

All worked fine till I was in Tokyo 2-4 weeks ago. There I connected my laptop: 1. to my hotel broadband internet (100Mbs via RJ45, purely browser interface, no setup whatever – worked perfectly); & 2. to a corporate (server) network (internet access only – worked, except I could not send oullook email via my NZ account). I suspect the latter may have affected my network settings though? (I had been on the same hotel internet system 6 months earlier with no ill effects).

When I got back home (NZ), I could no longer access other computers on our network from the laptop & vice versa. All other PCs on the network can still see each other as per normal. Also, I still have full access to the internet from my laptop (& other computers).

After several days of fluffing around, discussing with other people (& several more just ignoring the problem), I eventually bit the bullet & paid MS their fee (NZ$35) for technical support. Fairly nominal (esp this case!!), but after over 3 hours on the line to with a technician, the problem remains unsolved. Tried everything short of a reinstall (or rather, “new folder install” which they say is the only option left). That I would dearly love to avoid, for the present at least. Did reset Winsock though; removed the router; ran HijackThis; manually set IP addresses; ….; and lastly did a repair install of Windows. Still no chop.

I did discover 1 interesting point though with the aid of MS tech support: I can fully access the network directly via IP addresses. It is only access via computer name & Windows Explorer that does not work. eg; typing 192.168.1.100 into “Run” correctly brings up a Windows explorer with all shared folders on my “Office” PC. “Runing” Office fails. Similarly can successfully ping “192.168.1.100 ” but not “Office”. Same applies in reverse (ie. other PCs can access the laptop via its IP address – whether auto set, manually set, or set by the router).

Does the above give any clue as to the cause of the problem? (DNS?? or Winsock)?

In the meantime I am going to give “WinsockxpFix.exe” a go – must be less painful than a “new folder install”?

If that fails I will work via IP addresses for now. Fortunately, I found this morning that Win Explorer “My Network Places” has retained the IP address links to my “Office” desktop, making it fairly easy to connect via IP addresses.

Any alternate suggestions?

David

To follow up on my earlier reply, the solution is in fact very simple, entirely within Access.

Its just that it does not seem to be well known – I have searched the Help in vain in the past for guidance on controlling the number of dp in exported data. I have also asked others who are much more experienced in using Access, equally in vain.

The solution is as outlined in the link that Hans pointed to. The details there initially looked daunting to me as a relative novice with Access, but as indicated in the attached, it is very straightforward. Just create a Query with the full Table in it (or whatever parts required) & use a formula to specify the number of dp. eg. in the example illustrated, field has been replaced by the formula (specifies between 2 & 5 dp, depending on the precision of the data). Pity the articles do not include examples as per the attached. Would be helpful to many inexperienced users.

The importance of the above is that the csv export respects the format set by the formula, whereas it does not respect formatting set via the field properties (which is tha hard part to understand).

David

Save Formatted option box ?? Compare attached examples: 1. Save Formatted; 2. a csv file as needed.

Where is the mystery? They do not remotely look the same animal.

Quite apart from the layout, the former is 5x the size of the latter. Not nice when the latter can be several hundred MB.

Hard to see why a problem with the number of dp’s. If formatted as 5dp, then output 5dp. If the number of dp not specified, then output all available precision for each value; ie as per 2. attached (csv output from Manifold, with text qualifiers stripped). Excel seems to manage; Manifold manages.

David