Workgroup member can't be seen

Hello All....

I have a home network with 3 PCs, internet access is via
cable connection with a Motorola modem. Attached to that
is a Linksys router. Cat5 cable runs to 3 areas in the house.
Two of these areas are in use, both with hubs.
Computer A and C are attached to one hub, computer B to
the other.

Computer A and B are win XP, they see each other and
share with no problem.

Computer C is win 98se. It has disks and printers shared
but they can not be seen by either A or B.

all 3 are in the same workgroup.

I'll leave B out for the moment since it acts the same as A.

I can ping from C to A, but from A to C, ping times out.

If I change the computer name of C and then refresh, I get
A seeing the new name of C but if I right click and then
properties on the new name it says "the server could
not be found on the network ".

any suggestions on what the problem might be??
thanks

 

I wonder if i can solve a third networking problem using the same basic text.....

I suspect that this is a NIC auto negotiation problem.

In the Device Manager for each box find the NIC, right click and select properties. Under the advanced tab there should be some options for you to change. Look for one called "media type" or possibly "transport type ". This option will offer one or more of the following choices:

Auto
10BaseT
10BaseT FullDuplex
100BaseT
100BaseT FullDuplex
1000BaseT
1000BaseT FullDuplex

Now you have to choose the best one for the network that you are connected to. I am feeling too lazy to list which media type you should use based on your network type so just try them all until one works. 100BaseT Fullduplex is the most common type on modern networks so start there.

 

thanks for the reply Rdzien

I started doing this on the win98 pc with 100 full and it
seemed to cause me to loose the internet connection to all the
pc's sp I backed it off and will try again later tonight.
The NIC cards I have all only have 10 and 100 baset so
I won't be trying the 1000 baset.

One other thing I noticed in getting this setup, was when I
right click the win98 pc icon under network neighborhood
and then select properties, it lists my workgroup and
login domain as the same name. Is this a problem?
If yes, how do I get rid of the domain?

thanks again......Garyb

 

garyb,

if you tell us the exact model name of your router, between us we ought to be able to find out what its capabilitys are. Do remember that you should set the transport type on all of your PC's.

As for the domain/workgroup being the same. As i recall this is exactly how you should have it, although i must confess i haven't used a Win98 box for around 3 years now, my win98 knowledge has rusted a little in my mind through lack of use!

 

Rdzien
it's a linksys router.....model BEFSR41.
Garyb

 

GaryB - you are dealing with 2 or 3 possible issues here. All are easily cured.

Speed / duplexing
The switch portion of that router (or any other switch) can certainly handle 100Mbps Full Duplex (100baseT). If the network card will allow you to set it, the card will as well.

The hubs, however, will not. Any PCs connected to a hub should be set to 10Mbps Half Duplex. As I understand your setup, the PCs all connect to hubs (which I assume connect to the switch) so 10baseT half duplex is what you need to set the cards to run.

Can't see each other, sorta
XP, along with all the other NT based operating systems, will only allow connections if it 'knows' who is trying to connect. This requires that all 3 PCs have the user logging on with username and non-blank password. After you get all three set with username & password, you can use TweakUI to automate the logon if you want.

The next part of telling XP 'who' is trying to connect in a workgroup setting like yours can be done one of three ways - in order of increasing security from least to most.
- have each username & password identical. This is case sensitive so I really mean identical.
- have each username & password different and have the guest account on XP enabled. It is enabled at install time by default on XP-home and disabled by default on XP-pro.
- have each username & password different and set up a local account on both XP PCs for all username/passwords in use.

transport
This one is a maybe. I can't remember if the DHCP on that router takes care of NetBIOS or not. If you still have connection issues, go into each NIC and under the TCP/IP settings will be a place you can tick to Enable NetBIOS over TCP/IP.

 

thanks for the psot Newt....

I've started doing some of your suggestions, couple questions
though to make sure I get this right..

Speed/duplexing
I've checked this and it's set to AUTO and the pc's all talk to the
internet. Is this ok??

Can't see each other, sorta
if the xp pc's are called PCA and PCB and the win98
pc is PCC, does your instruction about requiring the user logon
mean that I need to setup userids on the XP pc's for PCA,
PCB and PCC and that they have to be logged each
XP for this "seeing" to work?? anything need to be done on
the win98 side??

transport
netbios over tcpip is enabled.

thanks again...Garyb

 

Auto should work but often causes problems. I always hard set the speed & duplexing that is needed. The room I'm in right now contains over 75 servers and all of them have at least two and some have three network cards. Every one of them is fixed at the best speed possible for the connection they have. Our switches are smart and have more settings than a home / SOHO switch does and all the switch ports are set to match the NIC speed. It was a pain in the hindparts to manually set about 350 devices but it was well worth the effort.

Just set all your network cards to 10Mbps Half-duplex and you'll be fine.

PCA & PCB do need the PCA/PCB/PCC accounts put in. And all three require that their username/password be used at logon. If you want to just use one username and password, that will work fine and no additional work would need to be done as far as adding accounts but the new account on XP would use different My Documents, favorites, etc. so probably would take longer to change all that than it would to just add an account.

Enabling the Guest account would also allow any logon to another PC to be used for sharing but there are some built-in limitations to what a Guest account can do so that if PCA was using a share on PCB via the Guest account rather than having the PCA account in users on PCB, there would be things it could not do.

PCC works differently but I seem to remember when you set up a share you have the option to allow the entire world or just certain devices. Either way will be fine since 98 isn't fussy (and security on that OS is a bad joke anyway - it wasn't originally designed to be secure).

 

This may or may or may not fit in your case but just something that I ran into..

I had the reverse.

I could ping from A: ( XP Pro ) to B: or C: Both with 98SE

Pings from B: or C: to A: would time out.

A game on B: or C: would not connect to a listening A: But A: would connect to a Listening B:

Shut down the software Firewall on A: and all is now quite well.

it's a linksys router.....model BEFSR41.

That is the one I was working with at first. Changed to a D-Link DI-704UP. No changes till I shut the Fire wall down.

I do not ( as yet ) really blame the Firewall ( Kerio ) as I have the same on the other machines. I think it is either the wrong version for XP ( checking on that ) or Ol' BillyBob here stuck his fingers in the pie too often and spoiled it. ( He has been known to do that )

I have conpletely un-installed Kerio on A: and will make an attempt at re-installing ( a newer version ) and see what happens.

BillyBob

 

I have a stupid question.
Why do you have hubs in line anyway?
If you have to have multiple machines on one run of cable use a switch. They cost no more than a hub and allow everything to run at 100 Mbps Full Duplex.
I was really puzzled why you have Machine "C" on a hub when it has it's own segment of cable from the Router/Switch.

 

Newt....I've set things up as you suggested without much
luck, I'll work some more on it over the w/e.

BillyBob....The firewall might have some merit in my case too,
I was using that win98 pc as a backup for my job and I believe
there was a firewall installed but I didn't think it was active but
I will check.

ssmith10pn....to be honest until I started reading some of
the problems of others and Newt's comments that the hubs
were running slower. Can you recommend any particular
switch or are they all the same??
The reason for the hub on machine C is we use to have a second pc in that office and both needed connections to the internet.
I will look in to the switch.

thanks all!!! garyb

 

Here ya go.

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProdu...-111-009&catalog=30&manufactory=BROWSE&depa=1

 

Hi Gary: Sounds like you have all the hardware. Just not "talking" with each other properly. The solution is to make sure all the computers have the same configurations in "Local Area Connection Properties" (In fact, at this stage of the game, it might be easier to start over and disregard the current setup.
But let's not do it just yet, OK?)
ssmith10pn has a good point about the extra hubs. the Linksys model has 4 ports and should be sufficient.
You need multiple IP addresses (paid) for a switch to function if you use a cable modem. Use a hub or router.
Let's review shall we? 1. all PC network settings identical 2. Try just using the Linksys 3. all PC network settings identical. OK?

 

I have the D-Link DI-704UP which is a four port Router/Switch with USB Print Server.

Installed the Printer Server Software on each machine and it prints very nicely with out my machine being on the way it used to be.

BTW. The Ping problem I spoke of earlier WAS DUE to a miss-configured Kerio Firewall. I un-installed and re-installed it and LEFT IT ALONE it works just fine.

Three machines. One ISP account. All can be on at the same time too.

But one or two facts about the router than I believe have not been mentioned. The Router is a HARDWARE Firewall ( incoming only ) And it keeps the LAN and the Internet separated.

BillyBob

 

thanks everyone for the replies...

over the w/e I did some digging on the win98 system
and did find a firewall that I had used for business
when I was using the desktop as a backup. When I
disabled that, I could see the two XP systems and they
could see the win98 system.

I also picked up the D-Link switch and replaced the one
hub and removed the other hub. big difference!!

thanks again everyone.....garyb

 

Thanks for the good news report.

BillyBob