Network grief

My network consists of 4 desktops and 2 laptops, all running XP Pro. All machines are connected through an ADSL 4xport router, which then loops to another hub that feeds two distant machines. None of the computers is more than 6 metres from the others, all computers have a unique name, all are members of the same workgroup, all have full sharing, all show their respective C drives with the 'sharing hand' icon.

And yet I still have problems connecting to several of the machines from my main pc. If I open 'My Network Places' and click on 'Entire Network', and then on the Familyford workgroup name, it just stalls and goes nowhere. But if I go to either of the two distant pcs and try to get back to my main pc, it'll work.

Is there any smart software that would help with a diagnostic? Or can anyone think of a tip?

Thanks

Later: Just went into My Network Places on my main pc and tried to open my Familyford network. After about 2 minutes this popup showed:

"Familyford is not accessible. You might not have permission to use this network resource. Contact the administrator of this server to find out if you have access permissions. The list of servers for this workgroup is not currently available "

I'm the sole user and Administrator of this PC. So I dunno.........

 

Can you tell me the ip addresses of each computer?
If you can then ping each computer and advise

DrD

 

Hi DrD.

The addresses of the four desktops are:
Me: 192.168.1.5
Subnet: 255.255.255.0
Gateway 192.168.1.1

PC2: 192.168.1.4 (all else same)

PC3: 192.168.1.7 (all else same)

PC4: 192.168.1.18 (all else same)

LTop1: 192.168.1.2 (all else same)

LTop2: Not available to test.

Later: Weirder still. Just ran a ping on PC3: 192.168.1.7 (which is one of the two distant computers that I can't reach through 'My Network Places' ) and it responded in less than 1ms. So I tried pinging PC4 on 192.168.1.18 and that works too. Sheesh :-(

 

Browsing the network on a peer to peer network is always problematic as it relies on NetBIOS broadcasts and master browsers. A more reliable process is to access each computer directly by name. To do this, use either of these paths in your Windows Explorer:

\\computer_name

or

\\ip_address

So to connect to a computer call PC1 at 192.168.0.1 you could use either:

\\PC1

or

\\192.168.0.1

Once you access the PC, you can create shortcuts to the shares in network neighbourhood by dragging a shared folder icon to the root of network neighbourhood.

Also it is not good practice to share the whole of the C drive. Doing so makes it much easier for malware to spread around your network, as all your system files are accessible via that share. It is much better to select a folder to be shared and just share that folder.

 

Sounds good, I'll check it out in the morning (right after we beat France, he he)

I forgot to mention (as I've only just converted it) that one of the two distant pcs is running Vista Ultimate.

So I left my main pc and went into the workshop to see how well the two distant pcs were connecting with each other.

After some fruiting around I got Vista to see XPP but I just CANNOT get XPP to see Vista, even with UAC off and permissions as relaxed as I know how.

XPP can see Vista's Public Folder and that's all. So maybe THAT part of the problem stems from Vista's security?

I'll try your name\ip address suggestion right after the rugby. Good luck against the Aussies!