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Welp, I know that there happens to be a fair number of bright folks who frequent this forum when it comes to computers, so I thought this might be a good place to ask for some help.

I have a home PC-based network that consists of three computers with Ethernet cards, a laptop with a built-in wireless adapter, and an HP Laserjet connected to the network via a print-server box. They're all connected to a new Netgear router, which is hooked into a cable modem for broadband Internet access.

All the PCs are able to access the Internet, and all of the PCs are able to print to the HP printer via its print-server "box" (a nifty little piece I bought at the same time I bought the Netgear router).

Previously, I'd been running a Netgear router, more or less the same model, but its WAN port died after a couple years of use, so I bought the new one.

It used to be that I could share files across all the computers, and previously I had one configured as a print server, but decided to go with the new stand-alone device instead so I didn't have to boot that machine just to print something out.

Three of the PCs, including the notebook, are runnign XP Home. One, and older 667Mhz machine, is running Win 2k. I used to have Win 98SE on that machine, but the OS got corrupted, and I decided to install Win 2k on it instead, since I had a copy laying around not getting used, and since it was supposed to be much more stable than 98SE to boot. This old machine used to be the print server.

After installing Win 2k on that older machine, I wasn't able to access files on it anymore from other machines (something having to do with permissions? even though I configured it for access from all users?), but I was still able to send print jobs to it, and I was able to access files on the other three machines from it.

But over time the connectivity degraded. And I don't have any idea why. Now, I cannot access any machine from any other. I have file sharing turned on on all the machines. I'm running Zone Alarm on all machines as well, and have the IP addresses for the home network listed in Zone Alarm's "trusted zone" on each machine.

I've doublechecked that the name of the workgroup matches on every single machine, including the router. All the computers have the same network services protocols installed, which were installed and configured by using the Network setup wizard on each machine.

I bought a "Networking for Dummies" book, trying to get to the bottom of this, but it was scant help. And now I find that the book has been misplaced, and where it is now, I haven't a clue. Maybe it disappeared to the same place where all the connectivity went

Okay, I think I've hit most of the high points. Got any ideas?

Best,

Michael

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Live to Play, Play to Live

Michael

You need to turn on file sharing on the win2k PC. and set permissions for access.I will try and tell you this right, but I am doing it from memory because I dont have a win2k box near.
go to windows explorer on the win2k machine, find the drive or directory you want to share i.e. "C:" drive, hilite that drive and right click and go to sharing,set check box for share this drive,then in the tab marked permissions add the everyone group to the access list,this will give everyone on your network access to see the shares.
you also might want to check the printer and see if it is shared the same way.
If that works then you can add each user to each machine and change permissions to just those log-in ID's

I hope this helps
Jim

I also have a way to remote troubleshoot any PC on the internet if needed

Hi Jim,

Thanks for your comments. I have already enabled file sharing on the Win 2k PC, and set it to "everyone" (or whatever it's called). There are no separate users set up on that machine, we all log in as "admin." As I mentioned, this is a home network, and none of us want to bother with having to log into any of the machines. If I could get rid of the log-in interface on the Win2k machine, I would. But I haven't figured out how.

The Win 2k machine is not a network server. This is a peer-to-peer network, so even if there were something whacky with the Win2k machine, it still doesn't explain to me why the other machines won't see each other on the network.

The printer is no longer hooked to the network via a 'puter. It's connected now using a print server, kinda like this one, but a different brand. The printer works fine, and I can print to it from all PCs.

Best,

Michael

_________________
Live to Play, Play to Live

Michael,
   This will sounds stupid, because it is stupid. But I have 2 recommendations.

1. Reboot the router. Pull the power let it set for a few minutes and plug it back in. I have to do this with my Linksys router about once a month.

2. Shutdown all the machines (order isn't important), then once you get them all shutdown start them back up. Just start with the one you shutdown first.

I'm not a network IT guru guy. I'm a software engineer. So I'm out of my element on advice here, but I know this has worked for me in the past. I think there's something in the way Windows does networking that causes headaches when you add/remove computers/routers/firewalls/etc.

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nay

My blogs
Hand Made Gutar
Woodworker++

Hi Nathan,

Your suggestions are not stupid. I've always felt that there's more than a little black magic and mumbo-jumbo involved in Windows networking. Maybe I need to sacrifice a chicken or something.

And guess what? Even though nothing's changed, now, at least I can view the network. And two of the machines can actually access each others' resources. But one of 'em still isn't cooperating. That one sees only one of the other two machines, and can't access its resources. Both the other machines can see it but cannot access its resources. It's my daughter's PC. Guess I'll have to go kick her off it and see if I can figure out what's different about hers. All these machines are the XP ones. The Win2k machine is off right now.

What fun.

Best,

Michael

_________________
Live to Play, Play to Live

Hi Michael

To logon automatically download Tweakui from Microsoft.

It will allow you to set up an automatic logon to all of your PC's.

As far as accessing the network shares, in a Windows 2K
environment the computer hosting the share will check the credentials of the logged on user on the remote PC to decide whether to allow acces to the share.

The easiest way around this is set up an identical user with an identical password on all of your PC's and make sure you log on as this user.

Now this should work but if you are getting desperate try adding the ANONYMOUS LOGIN user the permissions on the share. Not a good security option long term but may help you in troubleshooting this.

Are your hard drives formatted using NTFS or FAT32?

If NTFS you also have security permissions on the directory that you are sharing, as well as the sharing permissions.

I would also disable Zone Alarm while you are troubleshooting this and r-enable it after you get it working.

Hope this helps

Cheers

Bob

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Bob Connor
Geelong, Australia

Just another thought Michael.

The way that Windows does peer to peer networking is by something they call the Browser Service. And it's really horrible.

Microsoft themselves will admit that it can take up to 9 minutes for a computer to appear if you go into Network Neighborhood or My Network Places whatever it is called.

A better way to do this is to map a network Drive on each of your computers to the shares you want to access.



Go to

My Computer
Tools
Map Network Drive


And to check that the shares are working go to:

Start - run and type in what is called a UNC path to the share. This is in the form of:

\\computername\sharename

eg \\bobspc\music

This bypasses that terrible browsing stuff that Microsoft have concocted.

I hope this works on XP Home as I've not had too much to do with it. I work as a Systems Engineers and Lecturer at a College here so most of my work is with XP Pro in a Domain.

Get back to me as I'm sure I can get this working for you in one way or another.

Cheers

Bob

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Bob Connor
Geelong, Australia