Microsoft Network

I set up a network (the microsoft network thing) between an XP Pro machine, an XP Home, and two win98 machines. The network worked for two days or so but then I could no longer connect to other computers in the work group. It just cant find any other computers! I know that the hub/router and all the NICs work because I still get ADSL on all the computers. The other day I played around with the settings (without knowing what I was doing at all) and two of the computers could see each other again. 5 days later the icon to connect to the computer just disappeared (while I was staring at it).

I have no idea what is causing this.

OK thanks. I think that I am file sharing over the workgroup. The workgroup name would be HOME. I did what you said but it still doesnt work. Now I get this error when i try to open "entire network":

Unable to Browse Network
Network is not accessable

ok, i have:
- 1 xp pro desktop: can see and access all computers
- 1 xp home laptop: can only see itself on the network (lol)
- 1 win98 desktop: the one I just disabled browser service on, cannot see any computer on network
- 1 win98se desktop: can not see/access any computers on the network

IP assignment is automatic through the Alcatel Speed Touch Pro router/modem (which I am using for my ADSL). I tried assigning IPs but that did not fix te problem.

I cannot ping any computer on the network, except if I do it from the XP Pro Desktop (which can access all the computers anyway).

<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by backflash001 on 03/06/03 01:21 PM.</EM></FONT></P>

The internet (ADSL through the router) works on all machines. I can ping the router (10.0.0.138) from all machines. The IP address of each machine is (when i ping from the XP Pro desktop):

- 1 xp pro desktop: 10.0.0.1
- 1 xp home laptop: 10.0.0.10
- 1 win98 desktop: 10.0.0.4
- 1 win98se desktop:10.0.0.2


EDIT: Is this what you mean?
<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by backflash001 on 03/06/03 02:29 PM.</EM></FONT></P>

The router is at 10.0.0.138, so I am guessing that the gateway is the same (?).


I think that all the machines are on dhcp but i really dont know.
When i telnet to the router I get:

[dhcp]=>status
DHCP Server Status: Running
Current configuration:
Address Range: 10.0.0.1 ... 10.255.255.254
Netmask: 255.0.0.0
Lease time: 7200 seconds
Gateway (default router): 10.0.0.138 (auto)
DNS server: 10.0.0.138 (auto)
Domain name: lan
Policies:
Verify first: no
Trust client: yes
Spoofing: no
Start as client: yes
Spoofing parameters:
Failure timeout (!DoD): 4 sec
Failure lease time (!DoD): 60 sec
Temp. lease time (DoD): 10 sec
Start-up client parameters:
Timeout: 20 sec
Tracing: off
Memory usage:
Leases: total: 36, in use: 4 free: 88 %

I always thought that the subnet was 255.255.255.0, but I don't know. I have looked under my network settings on the working machine but I cant find it.

oh thanks man,
i ran the ipconfig utility on the windows xp rig that works fine and can access all the machines, and it says that the subnet mask is at 255.0.0.0.
Since this works on this pc, shouldnt they all be set at this?

ok, wait a min. I am going to restart everything
<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by backflash001 on 03/06/03 03:38 PM.</EM></FONT></P>

I rebooted and still get the same errors!
Every computer has the subnet mask set at 255.255.255.0 now.

If you are trying to ping machines by name you will have issues since there is no WINS server.

People tend to get confused easy with a Class A IP range for their network. If you can try configuring your router/gateway to assing a 192.168.1.X type of range with a net mask of 255.255.255.0 (so compared to your current router config make the range 192.168.1.2 - 192.168.1.254, Netmask: 255.255.255.0) Give the router an address like 192.168.1.1 (default gateway) Just remember that from now on you are going to telnet to that new address.

If you dont feel comfortable with doing this than leave it the way it is. However you will need to set the mask back to 255.0.0.0 with that type of IP range.

Your machines by default would probably be set to DHCP. IF you want to have some fun I would manually specify the IP's of each machines. Then for netbios networking you can add entries in LMHOST files with machine names to IP addresses. This is where a WINS server is nice since it takes care of that for you. However if you had no idea what I just said maybe thats not a good idea, just yet

Just remember to view your current IP settings from the command prompt just type ipconfig /all for XP/NT machines.
If you can ping 127.0.0.1 and get a reply, TCP/IP is working.
First thing first. Try getting your IP issues worked out and being able to ping each machine by IP address and not name. Personally I would revamp the routers settings to have a 192.168.1.X address range and mask of 255.255.255.0 as it makes it a little easier to understand.