One Way Ping problem

Hmmmm.

Since I got the result I posted on a PC at work, the domain stuff may have persisted even though I unplugged the network cable and flushed everything before trying that. But I really thought the hosts file triggered the name display when pinging by IP and using the -a switch. I know I got the name returned when I had a hosts file and did not when I removed it. It also worked (well, returned the name) of a totally bogus computer I put in there.

I'll try again from home where I have a small peer LAN and see if it does the same there as here. If so, we may be looking at a problem with your TCP/IP load. Or something.

Hmmmmm.

While I know this has to be frustrating for you, I do want to thank you for posting a very interesting problem. Sorta fun to work on (as long as I'm not directly affected, anyway ).

 

Hi, Newt,
What I'm finding is that using the -a argument with the IP does not resolve to the host name. That is within or without the LAN. That even includes my own machine pinging itself.

Oddly, if I ping host names on the LAN it finds them and gets timed out the same as if I pinged the IP. So it knows the names of the LAN machines.

I'm in fiddle mode on Saturday so I'll post any more oddities that I find. Don't knock yerself out, Newt, this is just some weird configuration thing that I ******* up - no doubt.

But hey, if you don't mind checking back once in a while I don't mind trying things out that you happen to think of. ~Paul

 

Newt, I just tried what seems to make no sense but I did it anyway: I swapped IPs between the two machines, changed the hosts files to match and checked to see if there was any difference. Nope.

I did notice that 98 browses much more quickly when its browsemaster. Of course, I have browsemaster shut off on XP when I do that. It seems to make no difference to XP as far as pinging 98 though.

Later ..... ~P

 

Just a thought - are both NICs forced to the same speed and not set to Automatic or Auto-sense?

 

Rambler, thanks for the input. Both NICs are on autopilot at 100mbps. What do you suggest because the duplexing issue is something I'm unfamiliar with. ~Paul

 

I should have thought of that - thanks rambler.

He's going to suggest fixing them all at 100mbps full duplex rather than letting them autosense that setting. Sometimes the autosensing caused problems.

Duplexing is fairly simple.
- Full Duplex means that the devices can send & receive at the same time.
- Half Duplex means they can either send or receive but not both at once.

Full duplex is faster and doesn't cause problems if you can use it. Newer network cards that can run at 100mbps can all run full duplex. Any switch can also handle full duplex traffic.

It's only if you have a hub rather than a switch that you will probably be forced to run 10mbps half duplex. A very few high end hubs were made that could do full duplex but at about the same time, switch prices started dropping rapidly and since they do other things better than hubs can, everyone began changing over to switches. Full duplex hubs are about as common as hen's teeth.

 

The reason I suggested it is because I've seen many apparently inexplicable problems caused by auto-sense, especially when different brand NICs are used. Network technicians I know NEVER use auto, unless it's absolutely necessary. My own home network (with a 10/100 Netgear hub) had difficulties with one (cheap) NIC running at 100Mb full-duplex on a 30-yard CAT cable. I tried that one half-duplex, but finally admitted defeat and set it to 10Mb full, with the other two necessarily on auto-sense to allow 100Mb between them. Most of the time there are no problems, but strange hang-ups and delays occur. For example, I copied a file to the 10Mb-connected PC yesterday, and the copy hung at 0% for over 5 minutes before suddenly bursting into life

I use an intranet chat program (Intranet Chat) which occasionally reports that it's lost contact with the 10MB PC, but reconnects within a second or two. Clearly a packet is getting lost - and the "handshakes" are small ICMP packets, like PING.

 

Hi Ramber and Newt,
Well I tried. I set both NICs to do 100mbps at full duplex. No more auto detection or setting of the speeds, etc. It didn't help though.

Right now (after restarting) the 98 machine is having a lot of difficulty finding the network neighborhood, but I suspect that will clear after it finally does find everything. I remember that this seems to happen after making certain kinds of changes and restarting. It might do that for 20 minutes.

Thanks again for your suggestions. I've added this speed and duplexing issue to my list of things to try in future networking situations.

I think I might try going back to auto for letting the modem select the IPs for the stations. We got away from that before but I think when I was set to auto I could ping from XP to 98. I don't suppose it would hurt at this point.

Any thoughts about that or perhaps browsemaster issues? I have the 98 machine browsemastering and XP turned off. That was the only configuration I could get to work. Actually, that shouldn't affect ping anyway. Just thinking. ~Paul

 

Paul - my thought at this point would be to accept any working config that suits you and let the no-ping remain a mystery for a while - or forever.

If other things start to go sour so that you don't have a functional network/internet, there are some ways to rip out the entire TCP/IP load from all systems except XP and to reset XP to a clean load and one of them might take care of whatever is causing the problem. But I'm really not sure I'd suggest messing with that at this point.

 

Newt, good thought. It's not worth it to chase after ghosts in the night like Bill Murray unless you just like the chase. This isn't worth it, for whatever arcane problem is the root of this malfunction.

Thanks for your time and patience. I'm going to try going back to DHCP and see what happens, but that should be about the last straw. Every camel has a limit to the size of its hump!

~Paul