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Help with Home Networked Computer

Hello.. here's my problem.

I have a workgroup setup at my house connected to a Belkin Wired network..

Id say over the past month one of my WinXP pro machines has been dropping off the
network (for lack of a better description). Here is what happens.

The other three computers can see each other, share files, RDP etc.. but none of them
can see the fourth machine. When I go to network places all of the Network places saved
for this forth machine are displaying as unavailable. YET when I go to this forth machine
it can see and communicate with all of the other machines just fine??

I can reslove the issue by going into Network Places, and running the "Setup a Home or Small
Network" wizard.. After running this, things are fine for a while and then it just drops off
again.

I have scanned this machine completely for Spyware and Virus and everything is Kosher, I
also have active Antivirus, and the machines is operating fine otherwise. I also check the running
services and all of the Networking services seems to be functioning correctly.

Any ideas or directions you can point me too?
Windows Networking

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Mshine
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Mshine
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Yes all of the MS Networking protocols are installed and configured just like the other
machines.. I even sat down tonight a verified the services settings.

I think I might have found something that could be the cause, and by the name of this
service it sort of sound like it could be the problem. I just do not know enough about
it to be able to tell.

Service Name:
"Routing and Remote Access"

But the description makes me think maybe not:
"Offers routing services to businesses in local area and wide area network environments."

Dependencies made me think this definitely could cause problems with name resolution on
the network: NetBIOS Group and RPC

When I saw that it was enabled and started on another one of my machines, I tried to start
it on my machine, but it failed.. Although I checked on my laptop which is one of the 4 properly
running machines, and it was not enabled.. so maybe this is not it.

I can say that it is not simply a name resolution issue, when I ping the machines IP address it
times out, until it go over the the machine and run the Network Setup Wizard.
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ASKER

Well maybe I was unclear.. Ping works like this.

4 machines on the network connected to the same wired router.
3 of the machines can all ping each other fine, but timeout on the affected
machine. The machine that is having trouble can ping all of them just fine!
Now, once I run the Network Wizard to reinstall all machine ping and communicate
just fine.. for a time, and then it just drops off the network. I have always just done
the Netwrok wizard approach. I have not tried rebooting to see if things come
back online, but I will try that if it might help diagnose the problem. Rebooting is
certainly not the solution.

I just cleared my event logs last night, and I am going to start monitoring them closer to
see if they reveal any further details.

Any other suggestions?
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PeterMac

Just trying to isolate problem, agree re-boot of system is not an acceptable fix. Suspect problem is somewhere in network driver/network card area, if Soft reboot corrects problem, most likely is Network Drivers. If Hard (Power off) reboot corrects problem but soft reboot does not then would start to suspect hardware problem with Network Card.  Fact that you can instigate comms from the system points to a software problem rather than hardware lockup. (Recieve function likely to be reset after Sending)
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ASKER

Definitely CAT5, I wired the network myself.. I also moved the cables around to test if it was problem
with one of the router ports..

I have had connectivity for 2 days now without fault.

When I did a comparative analysis between the working machines processes and
the trouble machines, I noticed some services related to networking were not running.
I'm not sure how they were stopped, but I starte dthem back up. So far so good.

As mentioned above I'm thinking it was the "Routing and Remote Access" service that
may have been part of the issue. I am not exactly sure though. I have noticed a couple
of other odd issues which lead me to believe this problem may be systematic.

Event Viewer was not functioning, I did manage to fix that and get it operational again,
and system restore was not working properly either.

Me thinks a full reinstall might be the best way to go, if I cannot repair these options.

Thanks for you help, I will devide the points for the effort put forth.
Windows Networking
Windows Networking

The Windows operating systems have distinct methodologies for designing and implementing networks, and have specific systems to accomplish various networking processes, such as Exchange for email, Sharepoint for shared files and programs, and IIS for delivery of web pages. Microsoft also produces server technologies for networked database use, security and virtualization.

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