networking question

K

Kenny

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South Africa.
I have the following setup:

SMC wireless/wired ADSL Modem/Router with built-in 4 port switch
2 computers and D-Link 8 port switch connected to it.
Other 3 computers connected to D-link switch.

All 5 PCs have access to internet, but none of them can see each other
(i.e. cannot see shared printers, shared folders), cant even ping each other (timeouts).
All PCs running windows XP.
So far I tried to switch on/off windows firewall, it didnt help.

What could be the problem ???
Please help me !
Thx.

P.s.
1. IP addresses are assigned by DHCP server built in to SMC ADSL modem/router
2. switch connected to the router with crossover cable
 
you don't have a dns server, so you need to setup a hosts file and install it on each pc.

In the hosts file create an entry for each pc as well as your adsl router. It would also be best to assign an IP address to each device rather than using dhcp
 
If all 5 PC's are setup to the same Workgroup, then you shouldn't need DNS, as NetBIOS should pass the names around using netBIOS broadcasting. The question is though! Can you ping their IP addresses? If not, turn off your Windows Firewall on all machines and try again. If still not, then check the router for a firewall, although this shouldn't come into effect for the 3 machines on the switch. Verify that all the machines have the same IP range etc.

I assume you have File and Printer sharing activated on all the machines and have some shares set up?
 
bekdik said:
you don't have a dns server, so you need to setup a hosts file and install it on each pc.

In the hosts file create an entry for each pc as well as your adsl router. It would also be best to assign an IP address to each device rather than using dhcp
Click to expand...

Thx for the advice, will try this, although it sounds a bit old.... I remember setting up hosts files on NT 4 machines, since then i never used it.....

BTW, i tried changing from dhcp to static, manual addresses - didnt help either.

but thx anyway !
 
Set the routers ip as preferred DNS server on all machines and yes make sure they all belong to the same workgroup
 
graviti said:
If all 5 PC's are setup to the same Workgroup, then you shouldn't need DNS, as NetBIOS should pass the names around using netBIOS broadcasting. The question is though! Can you ping their IP addresses? If not, turn off your Windows Firewall on all machines and try again. If still not, then check the router for a firewall, although this shouldn't come into effect for the 3 machines on the switch. Verify that all the machines have the same IP range etc.

I assume you have File and Printer sharing activated on all the machines and have some shares set up?
Click to expand...


all pcs are in the same workgroup, cant ping other pcs - timeouts, tried to turn off the firewalls - no effect, verified ip address ranges - all within 192.168.2.*, will double check firewall on router - thanks !!!
 
maybe your cabling is not correct?

using the wrong cable for certain things

if you setup all the pc's with their own ip addy and you the default gateway into each pc, can everyone get internet?

bekdic im sure pc's have come along way man, i doubt that really much use considering how easy networking is
 
LAN vs WAN issue I think :/

Gateway setting needs to be set on your Router. And make sure you reboot everything. This way each PC recognises the Internet as a Gateway and treats LAN seperately. If your setup allows this

hmmmmm otherwise I don't know that switch you are using and not too clued up on how this works but could it not be something to do with "uplink" ie maybe the last port on the switch has a different function and you should have the Router plugged in there. But I could be talking BS here :p
 
Can you ping the router itself. The fact that they can all browse the net, but not ping each other is rather strange. make sure they all have a gateway, which is set to the router, and the DNS settings are set as the router as well. If this doesn't work, try hard coding IP's as suggested above. Once IP's are hard coded, then try pinging. Because once IP's are forced, all within same subnet, then they should see each other. The only thing that will stop them then is either a firewall on the machines or a firewall on the router or switch. I doubt the switch has a firewall. Try pinging from a machine connected to the switch, not the router, and ping another machine connected to the switch. Basically take the router out of contention. If this works, but you cannot ping others, then firewall on the router.
 
Do as Graviti says and only do 2 pc's and then add others on as you get things to work.

Looks like either firewall or a print/file sharing has not been enabled.

Did you try using the network wizard to create a network disk ? which you can then use to setup the other pc's.
 
You don't need a crossover cable to hook up switch to the router...

Are any of the machines also dishing out DHCP IP's? Have you run Internet Connectioin sharing on any of them? If you have, disable it and see what happens. Not being able to ping is a problem. Remember that there could be conflicts between the router and some switches because the switch doesn't release the IP when the router does. Try plugging out and plugging in the switch everytime you change something on the router end. Just until things run properly. Sometimes the router sends info to an IP the switch still thinks belongs to a different machine...
 
Last edited:
thing i've seen:

in the firewall section -exceptions- file and printer sharing must be ticked.

then ICMP (ping) comes alive at least.

then just manually create the shares and u should be OK
 
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