Wireless connection can no longer access network shares nor be accessed

This problem actually arose a few months ago and I had given up on trying to fix it until last night

My current setup:

Sister's PC hardwired to SMC2804WBRP-G router
My PC hardwired to SMC2804WBRP-G router
My Fujitsu S7010D using Atheros 5001X Chipset connected to SMC2804WBRP-G router via wireless connection

For about a year and a half since buying the laptop in 2004, my home network worked flawlessly as I could share files between all 3 computers as well as use a shared network printer on my sister's PC.

Ever since January,

My PC to Sister's PC - shares accessible, pings both ways

My PC/Sister's PC to laptop - shares inaccessible, ping requests time out from both sides to each other

Zone alarm configuration has been untouched from working settings however I have tried clean uninstalling it and after reboot, still same problem

Double checked, all gateways, dns, subnet, workgroup names are all entered correctly, NetBios is set to the first option, windows firewall disabled

Have tried uninstalling and reinstalling wlan adapter driver on laptop, ran home networking wizard on all 3 comps, updated router to latest firmware with no solution

If I hardwire my laptop to the router, network runs perfectly and all 3 computers can see and share each other however once i switch back to wireless, it ceases to work.

Neone have any idea what's wrong? is it my laptop's wireless adapter? or router?

Laptop can still connect to the internet through the router wirelessly, just not able to access the other networked computer shares

Thx for your help

 

Welcome to windowsbbs WMah!

You've done excelent troubleshooting. Now it's time to try substitution, to narrow the problem to the computer's wifi chip or to the router wifi chip. Would try ahother computer, or try inserting a dignal extender in the circuit. If that solves the problem, you'll know wnat to do, e.g., try another connector (like maybe a PCMCIA) for your laptop.

 

Thanks for the warm welcome and tips.

I have now tried using a wireless usb adapter on my laptop and I can view workgoup computers thru my laptop w/o hanging. Pinging is possible between all 3 computers

However, now when i click on my pc from workgroup computers or type in \\pcname or ip address of pc, it pops up a login screen w/ the username grayed out on "PCCOMPUTERNAME/Guest" and prompting me for a password. I never had to do this before to access the pc thru network. On the other hand when i use the pc, I can see the laptop on workgroup computers and can access it w/o a popup prompting me for a password.

any tips on what's going on?

 

What is the OS on each computer? XP, 2K or 98 ?

 

all 3 computers are running winxp pro sp2

 

Cool!

On your laptap

Control panel->user Accounts

Click on the user name you are using then look at the left-top corner.

Click on "Manage my network passwords ".

I think you know how to do the rest.

 

Hello, I don't remember having a username or password to access my home network before do i just make up a username/pass?

EDIT: I checked my other 2 pcs, and they don't have anything set in that field either...

 

No, I meant if there is a username/password, just remove it.

This afternoon, I had three XP pro SP2 in my office, I tried to recreate the issue you met, but unfortunately I did not. Sorry at this time.

Anyway, I am still thinking and searching, maybe someone can help and we can learn from it.

 

some of my friends who are more well versed in networking are scratching their heads even :S

 

First set of issues relating to ping..

Ping failures are the result of cable plant issues, hardware (NIC) issues, or a firewall.

As a new (wireless) adapter resolved the issue, you know no you hav either a failing/failed cable or a failing/failed ethernet adapter.

Second set of issues.

By default XP Pro is set to use the "Simple File Sharing" in non-Domain settings. This is identical to the networking model used in XP Home. Under Simple File sharing all access authentication is done through the Guest account.

See MS-MVP Steve Winograd's HOWTO here: http://www.practicallynetworked.com/sharing/xp/filesharing.htm

What does it mean when your asked to authentic a remote resource as Guest?

It means that the remote site has Simple File Sharing disabled and the Local Policy is set to use as the authenticaton model "Classic -- Users authenticate as themselves "

On each of the three machines:

1. Start, Run, and type in the box: net user guest /Active:Yes

2. Check the Simple File Sharing selector: Control Panel, Folder Options, View, and look nearly at the bottom for "Use Simple File Sharing -- recommended" and make sure it is still checked.

3. Start, Run, secpol.msc

Open "Security Options "
Navigate to "Network access: Sharing and security model for local accounts "
Make sure this is set to "Guest only -- local users authenticate as Guest "

After checking/changing the settings on all three machines do a complete poweroff of all equipment. Then power on modem, router, and the workstations in that order.

.

 

Thanks for the tip! I can now have full access to pc via laptop and usb adapter... i guess it's my built in wireless that is dying... can still access internet but not network usb can do everything now like back in the good ol days

 

You are welcome.

Best wishes.

 

Just a quick note. You can't narrow down the cause of a network problem so far simply on a PING failure. TCP/IP stack problems, routing issues and miss-configurations can also cause ping failure.

For example a simple thing like statically assigning an IP address as 193.168.0.1 instead of 192.168.0.1 will cause failure to ping other PCs on the 192.168.0.0 subnet.

 

TCP/IP Stack Problems
Ping is at the Transport layer in the TCP/IP Model. Remember we are talking ICMP here, not TCP.

Routing Issues
IANA private IPs are not routable.

Mis-configurations can also cause ping failure (with example).
Your example would succeed. At the switch it will use MAC and ARP to resolve the misconfiguration and the ping will succeed.

 

Although TCP is a specific transport layer protocol, it is common practice to use the term TCP/IP to describe the protocol suite as a whole. For example, you use the TCP/IP suite of protocols to communicate via UDP. A UDP communication will not use TCP. Perhaps a better name could have been found, but it too late. TCP/IP is already out there. If you'd prefer to call it the ICMP/UDP/TCP/IP protocol you can, but most people would be confused and you're making extra work for yourself.

Private IP addresses are not routable over the internet. However, there is nothing to stop you routing these addresses within a private network. For example, many large companies use the 10.0.0.0/8 address space and route between departments and branches that use subnets in this address space. They do this within their private network. If routing was not possible in the 192.168.0.0 address space, how would most home network computers find a route to the internet?

No it won't. IP will pass a request for ARP to resolve the IP address. ARP will send out a request (via a layer 2 MAC broadcast) for any PC that uses the IP address to respond. As no computers on the local network have that address, ARP will not receive a response. ARP will report back to IP telling it, that it was unable to resolve that address and IP will report that the address is unobtainable.

For ARP to resolve an incorrect address, it would have to guess at the correct address. A golden rule of TCP/IP networking is that systems never guess.

 

Issue #1 is not about the name, it is about your claims for the TCP/IP stack.
As i said, you have no case.

Issue #2: Way above I said a ping failure could be due to cable plant, hardware plant or firewall.

You are now talking about router failures, and that was covered in my original discussion above of hardware plant issues as a cause of ping failures. Yes you can route on the private LAN. But excluding hardware issues with the router, what other issue is behind this ping failure? An ARP storm?

Fiinally, your last discussion ignores completely the fact that the switch will resolve the path and the ping will succeed. Again, you are ignoring that this is a layer two event on a home network with one switch.

We are not talking about the world here, but a US $30 router. Not multiple routers. Not multiple switches. One stinking SOHO router.

.

 

The TCP/IP stack is the set of protocols that sit between an application and the NIC hardware. If there is a problem with this set of protocols TCP/IP communications via this protocol suite can fail. The PING application uses the ICMP protocol, which is part of the TCP/IP suite of protocols. Therefore, a fault in the TCP/IP stack can cause a PING failure. For example if the fault is at the IP layer.

The classic test for an TCP/IP stack error is to ping 127.0.0.1. This is the loopback test. All TCP/IP devices recognise 127.0.0.1 as their own address. Therefore a ping to this address results in a PING that simply goes down through the TCP/IP stack and back up again.

For example, have a look at this quote from:
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/archive/ntwrkstn/tips/tips1199.mspx?mfr=true

Routers are not the only devices involved in routing. Every PC on a routed network routes. That's why they have a default gateway set.

At the IP layer in the TCP/IP stack on a computer the decision will be made: "is this on my network, or another network ". If the subnet is different to the computers own subnet, the packet will be sent to a different network via a gateway. Usually the default gateway (if no other route is set). The computer has made a routing decision and routed a packet to the default gateway.

If the default gateway address is set incorrectly, or the subnet mask is wrong, a computer can make an incorrect routing decision which will result in the PING packet being sent to the wrong place. The result is a PING failure.

Also routers have to be configured. I would not describe the misconfiguration of a router as a hardware plant issue.

First, switches are by definition layer two devices. They do not use IP addresses in the decision making; only MAC addresses.

Second, if you PING a specific IP address your computer will only send that PING request out if it can resolve the IP address to a MAC address. That is it will ARP before it sends the PING packets out. Therefore, if the ARP MAC address resolution fails the PING packet will not be sent out, and it will therefore not get to the switch. So even if the switch could work out what to do with the packet, it makes no difference, as it would never receive it in the first place.

First I will state clearly that the advice you gave on simple file sharing was excellent and clearly helped the original poster solve their problem.

However, I am conscious of the fact that not just you and the poster read these postings. I therefore think it is right for me to highlight an obvious mistake in your posting so that others reading these postings are not also misled as to the meaning of a PING failure.