Networking HELL

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bismay

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Ok i hope someone can help me with this!

Server- W2k
IP: 192.168.6.18
Subnet: 255.255.255.0
Gateway: 192.168.6.1

Client-WInXP
IP: 192.168.6.15
Subnet: 255.255.255.0
Gateway: 192.168.6.1

W2k server has shares for every client. Every client has it's own account in which his documents are stored. On the client side, they have mapped network drives to access that share.

All the Pc's run with no problem, accept the Client PC above. It looses the network connection. It still browses the internet but i'm unable to even ping the server or any other PC in the network.

I've used one of my personal Pc's aswell and it does the same thing.

After a while the machine just looses connection with the server for the mapped drives- obvious reason is because it's unable to reach the server ( unable to ping)

I had no ideas left.

Any ideas on what can be wrong?????
 
bismay said:
Any ideas on what can be wrong?????
Click to expand...

Any number of things - I've had networking nightmares on windows that really make no sense at all.

Bottom line, windows networking suks really badly.

Check the following :-

Software firewall - make sure XP doesn't have it's firewall up for the network connection, or that a third party firewall like ZoneAlarm isn't preventing access on the LAN

Tasks - there's an XP tweak somewhere that prevents windows XP checking to see if any "tasks" are running on other windows boxes on the network - by default, before connecting, XP scans the network for this which can cause problems

Obvious one - check that you have the correct network components installed, in this case, "file and printer sharing for microsoft networks"

That's about all I can suggest, aside from praying.

I've had so much **** networking windows boxes I've decided it's a "black art" and you need some kinda degree in black magic networking - microshaft being the Evil Empire of course ! :D

Amazingly enough, in Linux, I edit 4 lines in an smb.conf file, start Samba and windows sees the Linux box immediately - takes 10 seconds.

Windows XP on the other hand uses a series of GUI's that are so "Dumbed Down" they are counter-productive.


You have to remember, windows is actually a terrible operating system - it got where it is today due to Bill Gates and co. business tactics and massive tie-ins with OEM releases on new computer sales.

As an OS, it's just a series of patches on top of patches on top of patches that never truly hide the "swiss cheese" design.
 
Shouldn't the client pc gateway be set to the server pc ip? Dont know exactly what setup you have but when you use windows ics (internet connection sharing) for the internet on that server pc the client gateway and dns server should be set to it (the server ip). Just a thought, I could be completely wrong here, but that is how I do it at home...
 
Have you tried removing the card and re-installing it? Usually does the trick for me. Although - the other day I was having huge problems with a slow and Xp share and it turned out that it was a beta version of Skype. You couldnt even tell by looking at the processes but as soon as I updated Skpye everything worked fine!

bb_matt - OsX also uses Samba and I was ages before I could get windows behave itself, probably made the same changes. Loved the swiss cheese analogy though:) If I didnt need something to stop my papers from blowing away I'd prob get rid if it!
 
Network

Alkine> The Gateway is the Router's IP. Thus when the link between the server and CLient goes down, these is still an internet connection.

I have tried different Network cards, updated drivers, one of my own Pc's and still the problem is the same. I've disabled the Mapping timeout in the registery, but the error is still there.

This doesn't make sense at all.

I cannot be other programs on the Pc because of the other Pc i installed. Only software on it was Windows and Office 2003. That's it

And yes the Windows XP and office is legal so it's not a dodgy copy.
 
bb_matt> Tasks - there's an XP tweak somewhere that prevents windows XP checking to see if any "tasks" are running on other windows boxes on the network - by default, before connecting, XP scans the network for this which can cause problems

I think your pointing to this in the registry:
Local Machine\software\microsoft\windows\current version\explorer\remote computer\namespace\d6#####################

If this gets deleted, windows does not scan the whole network the whole time, which will make the network much much faster!
 
Many moons ago I had a similar problem with a new user machine on the company network. In desperation, I finally made a ghost image of another working machine with the same hdd and ram config, and dumped it on the problem unit - problem solved! If I can remember correctly, I left the network settings of the new machine the same as the old working one, and changed the IP of the old working machine instead. All I then had to do was to wipe the unwanted apps, and install the required apps for the new machine, checking all the time to see if the network connection remained up after every delete/install, which it did. Weird, but that's the consequence of using Winblows...
 
bwana said:
Have you tried removing the card and re-installing it?
Click to expand...
This reminds me of a story about three computer geeks travelling in a car down a mountain. Suddenly the brakes fail and the car crashes off the road and into a tree.

"I think I better strip down the brake assembly and find the problem before we continue," say the hardware engineer.

"Hold on, that seems like a big exercise and we may not be able to isolate the problem. Let's just replace the entire braking system," says the hardware technician.

"Guys, slow down," says the Microsoft call centre agent. "Let's take the car up to the top of the hill, drive down, and see if it happens again."
 
OK then so it seems like im not gonna get an answer to this question. Im gonna throw that pc and server out of the window(s).

Its just not possible for a pc not to ping the server after a few mins, even if a different pc gets used
 
dude just reinstall windows get a motherboard with onboard lan and set it up correctly

i heard someone say windows xp networking sucks ummm no it doesnt. also do you have service pack 2 on both pc's or just one?
 
I have re-installed the OS already and have tried a other machine with a fresh copy of XP installed aswell. With or Without SP2 it still has that problem.

This thing is killing me
 
killadoob> Thx for the link will check it out just now
 
Hmmm if you've reinstalled the OS and changed network cards there can only be two possibilities :

1. A firewall (as bb_matt suggessted) somewhere along the line is preventing proper access to the server.

2. Faulty hardware. As you've already tried different network cards and PC's it could be a faulty network cable or port on the switch. It could even be interference on the cable by an electric appliance (lights, air conditioner, microwave etc.) close to the cable.
 
I've tried different ports and cables aswell. Firewall disabled helped a bit, but after a while it "disconnected" again ( disconnected > can't ping server or any other pc )
 
bb_matt> sorry dude for thanking Killadoob and not you.. Oops! this networking thing is driving me crazy, because i just have to get this right and it just won't.
 
Yes then the PC does not do anything on the network, even if you restart, it can't ping anything. Even worse than it is with the IP it has ( 192.168.6.15 )
 
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