File Sharing in XP tempremental?

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Hello all!
All right, I’m hoping someone around knows the answer to my problem. I’ve been reading through the posts for a few weeks now (off and on) and have heard of my problem being mentioned, but to date have never found an actual solution to what is happening.

I’ve got 3 computers, all running XP Pro, all recent “clean” installs (within the past two months). Since the beginning I have been having trouble connecting all these computers for file sharing. For descriptions sake let’s just call these computers A; B; & C. Computer A is my primary computer (daily worker, etc…). Computer B is my second computer, use it for graphics, games…. Computer C is my sisters’ computer.

Now I don’t think I’m a total idiot, but you guys may very well prove me wrong :). When I’m working on my primary comp, (A) I can connect to my sisters (C) no problem; but computer (B) does not show up on the network at all. Of course since I can’t connect to (B) from my primary computer, I also can not connect to computer (A) from my (B) computer. …. Don’t lose me know, even as I’m rereading this it sounds a bit confusing…. Another weird quirk about this is even though I can connect to my sisters computer (C) from my primary computer (A), she can not connect to mine; kind of like a ‘one-way’ street.

Before posting here I went through my settings (about a hundred times) just to make sure that it wasn’t something stupid like that, even though in the end it will still probably end up being a setting! All three computers have the following:

- XP’s ICF = off
- ICS = off
- File and printer sharing = checked on
- Workgroup = ATTBI.COM (all exactly the same).
- All have simple file sharing enabled and all hard drives are being shared (through properties and the ‘sharing’ tab).

I’m sure there are more settings that you’d like to know about, but I’m just at a loss for the moment on what else to include. Let me know and I’ll be happy to repost. The only thing that I’ve been suspicious of is my cat 5 cabling. I’ve crimped them all; I don’t really know if there’s a specific color code that I have to follow to make them all work properly, but lately I’ve been thinking that it could be a potential problem… all three computers share my cable connection just fine, so it would ‘seem’ as if the cables are working…. Either way, any suggestions any of you may have I would be really appreciative of.

Thanks in advance, hope this post wasn’t too long! Hehe =)


-Matt M.
 
There is deffently a color scheme that you must follow when it comes to the cable. If they were all done correctly and still haveing the same problem try to disable all firewalls on all machines including the one that comes with XP (just to test).
 
Yup, all the firewalls have been disabled, including the one within XP. As for the color scheme though as I understand it so long as the wires are in the same locations (in terms of pin #'s) on each side of the cable it should be ok... i.e. orange wire pin1 to pin1; orange w/ stripe pin2 to pin2, etc, etc....

If that's incorrect does anyone know what the 'correct' wire scheme is? I'll go through and rewire everything if I have to
:eek:

Any other ideas?! :)


Thanks again.
 
Are you using a personal firewall on any or

all of the computers ?? (like Zonealarm??) If so make sure you add your network to the Trusted zone. (Just enable the range
XXX.XXX.1.100 to XXX.XXX.1.255 or whatever IP range your computers have been assigned.:D Just a thought.

Also, are you using tweakXP ?? Certain settings I had used kept my network from working properly.
 
I'm probably going to get scolded in my own right just for saying this, but I don't have any firewalls installed what-so-ever. Nothing built into my hub, nothing like zonealarm, and all of XP's jazz is off. Yikes, after posting this I'd just better leave my computer OFF from now on! :D

As for tweaking programs, I've got Powertoys XP installed, but I don't think it's the problem as only one computer has it installed. The other two are still having issues sepearte from Powertoys.

Hmm, puzzled yet :confused:

I am. :p
 
I had similar problem...

but with Win98se not being seen by 2 XP based systems and vice versa. It turned out to that I needed to log on to the Win98se system with user name and password.
Now both (1 xp & 1 98se) pc's share the printer installed on the main system (my XP PC), and all is good in the world now.

Hope this helps...
 
Thanks for the info....

I tried setting up passwords for the computers I had been having trouble with to see if that would help. I wish it had, still no luck. I also setup different accounts, just to see and still no connection. :(

I've been pondering this for a while now and I'm still wondering if there's a setting somehwere that I don't know about that's in the wrong place. With my cable connection my provider has me setup on DHCP, I wouldn't think that anything special would be needed for this, but any ideas?

I've been all around on 'network setup' guides on the internet to see if I could find any more pointers there any each one covers all the settings that I've already done and calls it good. Maybe I got a defective copy of XP! LOL ;)
 
You say that all of the computers are able to get out to the internet and that you are using a hub and not a router. How exactly do you have the 3 computers networked together through the hub and to all connect to the internet at the same time. As a side thought. Even though NetBeui is not installed with XP it is on the disc. You could use it as your internal network protocol through your home network and TCP/IP (of course) for the internet setup.
 
Yes I've got all three computers connected directly to the hub. Using NetBEUI is a good idea, I don't think I've tried that one yet, (I'll let you know how it goes) but with XP should I really 'need' to do that. I thought they were trying to phase out NetBEUI for Tcp/Ip? Do I need a switch/router for Tcp/Ip to work properly over my LAN?

Thanks to all for the advice so far.

-Matt
 
:D
All right, so installing NetBEUI worked!!! Everything seems to be back in order now; I'm really thankful for all the help on this one; don't know why I didn't try that before! :p

The one thing that still does puzzle me though is with the problem that I was having Tcp/Ip was still 'kind' of working. I could connect to one computer, but not the other, if anyone does every come across an answer I'd still be interested in knowing what was going on, but for now I'm extremely happy!

Thanks again! I hope this thread helps anyone else who's been experiencing the same prob.

-Matt = :D
 
Your problem could be caused by any number of things. If you provide some more info it would help. Starting from the bottom would be best.

For starters:

1a) can you ping the other computers on your network by thier IP address?
1b)can you ping them by their NetBIOS names?
2) list the IP addresses and subnet masks of each machine.
3) is "netBIOS over TCP/IP" enabled on each machine?
4) are the Workstation and Server service running on each machine?
5) You said all the systems connect to the hub, but what does the hub connect to? Is it connected to the cable modem directly, or to a PC with dual netork cards?
 

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