Wierd XP Pro SP2 Networking Problem

[sota35]

Hi Everyone

I am really hoping you can help me with an issue I am having with my wireless network. I have tried everything I can find on forums across the globe and nothing seems to work so far.

I have a Belkin Wireless Router Modem with my main machine cabled in to the router and I have another machine which is connected to the router wirelessly.

My problem is that I can't share files between machines.

Both machines are running Windows XP Pro with SP2.

Initially when I set up the wireless machine although the Router could see the computer and automatically assinged it an IP address the computer couldn't seem to get the IP address so connection was not working. I then moved on to directly putting the IP address, Subnet, Gateway and DNS info into the wireless machine, this worked OK and the Wireless machine was then able to access the Internet.

But my problem is that the two computers can't seem to see each other, I have tried every sort of network set-up wizard option with no avail, I have also tried pinging each machine and it times out. I have tried Regedit fixes and gpedit.msc fixes and nothing seems to work.

Any help you guys can give me in sorting this out would be really appreciated.

Thanks

 

[Admiral Michael]

are they the same ip setups (192.168.1.xx) and what is the gateway set to?

 

[sota35]

Hi

Thanks for your reply

The gateway is 192.168.2.1
The main Computer is 192.168.2.2
The Wireless Computer is 192.168.2.3

The subnet is 255.255.255.0

Thanks

 

[Moonwraith]

*you sure you've allowed sharing and,
*made sure both computers are on the same workgroup?

 

[mooo]

check to see if you can ping each other.. then i forgot the command again but i asked a question a while ago. i think its like //computer name/folder

 

[sota35]

Sharing is enabled on both computers, I have the default Shared Folder shared on the wireless machine and the main machine has several other folders shared as well. Printer and file sharing is enabled.

I have just disabled Simple file Sharing to see if this makes any differance but still can't access each computer from the other.

I seem to be getting intermitten ping results.

If I ping the wireless machine from the main machine I get a time out, however if I ping the main machine from the wireless machine all packets are returned.
I can then immediately ping the wireless machine from the main machine again and all 4 packets are returned OK, wait 5mins and try to ping the wireless machine from main machine again and it times out again.

This is really starting to confound me.

thanks

 

[mooo]

do you have the firewall turned off? windows sp2 has it auto enabled so you might want to check there

 

[sota35]

Yes Windows Firewall is switched off on both machines and also have switched off ZoneAlarm which is also running on both machines until I get networking up and running properly.

 

[Tweakfiend]

Have you copied the 2 key files from the Windows CD which enable sharing ??
These are netnbf.inf ( copy to Windows/Inf ) and nbf.sys (copy to Windows/System 32 /Drivers)
You need to "show hidden files and folders" to access the "Inf" folder.
This will enable the protocol of Netbui to be installed from "install" in network properties.

 

[fitz]

when you ping, are you pinging by IP address or by computername?

Also, minor pet peeve of mine but weird is spelled WEird.. not WIerd..

 

[LeeJend]

Verify adequate (Good or Excellent) Signal Strength, if bad move wireless pc into same room for testing. If this fixes it google "windsurfer antenna".

Uninstall Zonealarm (yes, I had a problem with this), turn off Windows Firewall

Reset router and wireless card to factory default settings. Use DHCP Assigned IP Addresses.

Set wireless lan card and router wireless securtity to NONE for testing.


Setting up your network should involve 2 steps:
1). Plug in hardware straight out of the box
2). Turn it on
If it does not work on the first try you either screwed the settings by trying to manually do setup or there is a hardware issue (which can be crappy signal strength).

After you do a simple install and everything works then you can start messing with maunual settings.

 

[PanhandlePatriot]

It looks like it has been a few weeks since the last post but I was curious if you have solved this issue. My thought was another device (the router) has the same IP address. First turn off the wireless machine and run a ping test from main machine. Try using another address on the wireless machine (192.168.2.5) then run a ping test. Best advice for a clean setup is to follow what LeeJend wrote. Best luck, let us know what happens.