Yep, tried turning windows firewall off on both computers. Subnet is 255.255.255.0 on both. Computer B is also on same subnet, and can ping A and C with windows firewall on or off on either computer.
Main Topics
Browse All Topics
Loading Advertisement...
Question
Cannot ping computer in a workgroup home network - times out
I am finally stumped on this networking issue so am hoping someone here can help me.
I have 3 WinXp computers in a home network on a common workgroup. I'll call them Computer A,B,C. Computer A is acting as my always on file server and is wireless. B and C are wired. All the computers were able to connect to Computer A until about a week ago, at which point Computer C could not connect to shared folders on Computer A. I'm not sure what happened other than I did mess with my IP settings to try to get a Linksys gaming adapter to work (and have RMAd). Not sure if that's related.
Anywho, I have valued this as many points as possible because I am technically versed and have tried many things already, which are below.
I made all my IPs static to start with to make troubleshooting eaiser. I first narrowed the problem down to the fact that C cannot ping A. However, B can ping C and C can ping B. Strangely, B can ping A as well. Only C cannot ping A.
I then noticed when clicking Microsoft Windows Network iin Windows Explorer, it would hang for about a minute, eventually show my workgroup (named "GROUP"). When I clicked "GROUP", it would also hang, eventually producing an error that "GROUP is not accessible...The list of servers for this workgroup is not currently available"
After much research, I tried turning Computer Browser service off on B, and C, but leaving it on A only. That had no effect.
I then tried reseting the TCP/IP stack to installation defaults on computer C by typing "netsh int ip reset reset.log" in a command prompt. I also reset WINSOCK entries to installation defaults by typing "netsh winsock reset catalog". After a reboot, the hanging stopped and I could click my "GROUP" workgroup and see A, and B from C, but A was still not pingable.
I installed Network Magic Pro on A, B, and C to see if anything interesting would show. On computer A, I did notice that it supposedly saw C, but the IP was wrong in Network Magic. How could that be? So I tried the resetting trick above that I did but now on A, rebooted and then the correct IP was displayed. Still could not ping A <-> C.
I tried Winsock Fix at http://www.snapfiles.com/g
No luck with that either, could still see computers in the workgroup but could not ping.
Lastly, I tried changing the workgroup on A first to "MYGROUP", rebooted. I then changed it to "MYGROUP" on C and rebooted. Now, the hanging issue is occuring again when clicking on "My Network Places". Computer Browser turned on all of them again as well.
I'm really am stumped, thinking of trying LMHOST files instead, but I shouldn't have to. Simple File Sharing and Workgroups has always worked for me. What's really irksome is that B and C can share folders and ping fine. And B can share folders and ping with A. But A and C cannot. I have AVG 8 and Malware Bytes on all 3 computers, only XP Firewall is on and an exception for File Sharing is on.
Any ideas?
This Question has been solved and asker verified All Experts Exchange premium technology solutions are available to subscription members.
Subscribe now for full access to Experts Exchange and get
Instant Access to this Solution
- Plus...
- 30 Day FREE access, no risk, no obligation
- Collaborate with the world's top tech experts
- Unlimited access to our exclusive solution database
- Never be left without tech help again
Trusted by hundreds of thousands everyday for fast, accurate and reliable tech support.
- "The time we save is the biggest benefit of Experts Exchange to Warner Bros. What could take multiple guys 2 hours or more each to find is accessed in around 15 minutes on Experts Exchange." Mike Kapnisakis, Warner Bros.
- "Our team likes having a resource that is more secure than just using Google and most experts using this service really know their stuff. It's nice to look here first versus using Google." Dayna Sellner, Lockheed Martin
- "Anytime that I've been stumped with a problem, 9 out of 10 times Experts Exchange has either the accepted solution or an open discussion of the potential solution to the problem." Kenny Red, eBay Inc.
See what Experts Exchange can do for you.
Got a question?
We've got the answer.
Experts Exchange has been collecting answers to technology questions since 1996…3 million and counting! If you have a question, chances are we already have your answer.
Need individual assistance?
Our experts are ready to help.
If you can't find the exact answer you're looking for, ask our exclusive community of 50,000 experts. You’ll get a personalized answer from a trusted professional.
Want to learn from the best?
Read articles from industry experts.
Thousands of free tech tips, tricks, how-to’s and tutorials are available in our peer reviewed articles section. See for yourself how smart our experts are, no login required.
Working on a long term project?
Store your work and research.
Save solutions to your questions, answers you’ve discovered through searching plus helpful articles in your personal knowledgebase for easy future access.
Access the answers to your technology questions today.
30-day free trial. Register in 60 seconds.
What Makes Experts Exchange Unique?
Members of the expert community talk about why the experience at Experts Exchange is different than what you will find anywhere else.
Trusted by the world's most respected brands.
Faithfully serving IT professionals since 1996.
Try it out and discover for yourself.
30-day free trial. Register in 60 seconds.
Free Tech Articles
-
WARNING: 5 Reasons why you should NEVER fix a computer for free.
It is in our nature to love the puzzle. We are obsessed. The lot of us. We love puzzles. We love the challenge. We thrive on finding the answer. We hate disarray. It bothers us deep in our soul. W...
-
SCCM OSD Basic troubleshooting
SCCM 2007 OSD is a fantastic way to deploy operating systems, however, like most things SCCM issues can sometimes be difficult to resolve due to the sheer volume of logs to sift through and the dispe...
-
Migrate Small Business Server 2003 to Exchange 2010 and Windows 2008 R2
This guide is intended to provide step by step instructions on how to migrate from Small Business Server 2003 to Windows 2008 R2 with Exchange 2010. For this migration to work you will need the fo...
-
Create a Win7 Gadget
This article shows you how to create a simple "Gadget" -- a sort of mini-application supported by Windows 7 and Vista. Gadgets can be dropped anywhere on the desktop to provide instant information, ...
-
Outlook continually prompting for username and password
There have been a lot of questions recently regarding Outlook prompting for a username and password whilst using Exchange 2007. There are a few reasons why this would happen and I will try to cover t...
-
Backup Exchange 2010 Information Store using Windows Backup
There seems to be quite a lot of confusion around the ability to backup Exchange 2010 using the built in Windows Backup feature. This stems from the omission of this feature prior to Exchange 2007 s...
Cloud Class Webinars
- Avoiding Bugs in Microsoft Access
Alison Balter takes and in-depth look at avoiding bugs in Access. In this webinar you will learn about using the immediate window to debug your applications, invoking the debugger, using breakpoints to troubleshoot, stepping through code, setting the next statement to execute, ...
- Top 10 Best New Features in Visio 2010
Scott Helmers gives live demonstrations of the top 10 new features in Visio 2010. This webinar will teach you how to create compelling diagrams by adding shapes to the page with a single click, linking the shapes in a diagram to data in Excel (or SQL Server, or SharePoint), ...
- IT Consultant Business Secrets Revealed
Michael Munger, Experts Exchange tech pro and IT consultant, pulls back the curtain on his very successful businesses and answers question on every IT consultant and business owner should know about. He shares secrets on what he did to solve the 5 most common problems in IT, ...
- Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity
Quest CTO, Mike Billon, gives an overview of the steps involved in building a dunamic disaster recovery plan. Through case studies and an examination of software/hardware tooles for monitoring and testing, you'll gain a better understandin of where you are, where you want ...
- Organize Your Visio Diagrams with Containers and Lists
Scott Helmers uses cross functional flowcharts, wireframe diagrams, data graphic legends and seating charts to teach you: how to ustilize all three new structured diagram components in Visio 2010, the best practices for organizeing shapes in previous version of Visio, how to organize ...
- How to Us Objects, Properties, Events and Methods in Microsoft Access
Alison Dalter gives an in-depbth look at objects, properties, events and methods in Microsoft Access. In this webinar you will learn about using the object browser, referring to objects, working with properties and methods, working with object variables, understanding the ...
Join the Community
Give a Little. Get a Lot.
Join the community of experts here and help other tech pros by answering question in your area of expertise. You can earn FREE access to all Experts Exchange's premium features and resources.
Answers
Coral, the router being the problem is an interesting thought. Before I tried doing a hard reset of the router, I unboxed the gaming adapter and plugged it into Computer C ethernet port. It's a WGA600N Linksys Gaming Adapter. It works sporadically but drops constantly hence I'm sending it back.
When I used the WGA600N to access internet and plugged into Computer C, Computer C can now ping Computer A and access shared folders. So there's a big clue, just not sure what it means yet or where the issue is. I might try the router hard reset and see what happens.
>> When I used the WGA600N to access internet and plugged into Computer C...
ooooooh... my head...
any way you can tell if the Linksys was WiFi'ing to Computer A directly or through the router?
>> I did notice that it supposedly saw C, but the IP was wrong in Network Magic. How could that be?
Sounds like you had 2 routers going at the same time, not a bad thing in itself, but it likes to do strange things with IP addys, and add wifi security settings, and it can get interesting.
Coral47: The linksys is wifi'ing through the router for sure - I assigned it an IP in the range the router handles and forced it to connect to my access point. Logging into the router confirms the Linksys is being handled by the router (a D-Link router btw). Only one router is installed with a DSL modem.
ChiefIT: Netbois over TCP/IP is the one enabled.
I found something that worked, though I can't explain why. When I had first installed the WGA600N device , I gave it a fixed IP of 192.168.0.101. After hooking up the device again to C and seeing that C could ping A again, I had a thought to change the IP of C to 192.168.0.101. I removed the WGA600N, change the IP on C, rebooted C and A and the router, and disabled Computer Browser again on C. Now C can ping A and share files no problem. I'm scared to change it back to something else and break it to understand why this worked. Strangest problem I've ever come across on a home network. Anyone want to take a stab at what happened here?
>> Anyone want to take a stab at what happened here?
Nope. If it's working, don't even breathe hard. ; )
Just be sure to write down that config info, or at least the steps that fixed it.
Some things I would look at:
- Lease Times used by the different devices.
- Static and DHCP addy ranges
- if the different "hosts" assigns addys from top-to-bottom or bottom-to-top.
Yes,
Netbios is not a routeable protocol. It will not go through nat, over a vpn tunnel or across a firewall easily. It will also not go over a vlan on different subnets. by removing the nat router and directly connecting to it through a the same subnet, you took out that equation. I have helped many people overcome this.
Unlike NSLookup, Ping is a multiple communications protocol troubleshooting utility. If you ping by IP address, you are performing an arp ping, if you ping by netbios name you are troubleshooting netbios, if you ping by fully qualified domain name you are troubleshooting DNS. Ping can also be used to troubleshoot your netbios name resolution, and mtu (maximum transferable units).
I have no doubt you couldn't get your netbios ping or file and print sharing to work because you were between subnets, over a firewall or somethint that wouldn't allow netbios broadcasts to propogate from one computer to another.
Like I said, if you want your router in there again, we can fix this. Adding an LMHOST record between your small workgroup OR enabling a WINS server will do just fine. Also a port query between the computers will allow you to see if the ports are blocked between each computer.
The ports used for file and printer sharing as well as a netbios ping are:
WINS and Netbios broadcasts:
WINS/Netbios ports 137 UDP/TCP
Netbios datagram port 138 UDP
Netbios datagram port 139 UDP
Simultaneously Windows will use SMB or netbios over SMB to share files and printers. those ports are:
SMB port 445 UDP and TCP
as well as Netbios datagram port 139 UDP.
As stated above, netbios is not routeable without a WINS connection or all computers having an LMhost record. If you wish for more information, google search "domain master browser chiefit" or just ask.
Alright everyone, I still didn't figure out a final solution to this. I do agree that the issue probably resided in the D-Link router. This whole issue reminded me how much I dislike wireless, so I just hard wired my pc's to Cat6 for gigabit transfer speeds. I also installed a windows server which I had been wanting to do for some time anyways to eliminate the d-link router. I still have the wireless, but only for guest wifi.
I am splitting this one as I do think ChiefIT gave the most detailed response of how to fix this, and Coral pointed me to the router in the first place.
To fix this, you need a WINS connection or to configure a LMHOST file between the two subnet's domain master browsers. This explains how to get netbios broadcasts routeable. It's called the WINS/WAN configuration of the master browser service.
http://www.microsoft.com/r
3 Ways to Join
Business Accounts
- Perfect for organizations
- Multiple users
- Save over 36%
- Create a Business Account
Answer for Membership
- Earn free access
- Showcase your knowledge
- No credit card required
- Sign Up to Answer
Loading Advertisement...
by: CCI_ITPosted on 2009-04-16 at 02:44:39ID: 24155851
Try these 2 things to start.
1) turn off windows firewall
2) make sure the Subnet mask is the same on all computers since you entered them statically.
See if A can ping anything.