home network is broken and I'm stumped

[insightdriver]

I have a four-computer home network that is connected to a Netgear FR114P firewall/switch. The switch is connected to cable modem. I've done something to screw up the network. It used to be all the computers could see each other and we could share files, transfer files and print to the USB printer connected to my computer.

I have an Nforce2 chipset motherboard. I've checked to make sure the Ethernet firewall for the chipset is turned off. I have checked and confirmed and double-checked that Windows firewall is turned off. I've gone into my switch configuration and defaulted it just in case (Its default is to allow local network sharing). I have McAfee security suite and it has management software. All the computers have the management software installed and on every computer, in Mcaffee I can see every other computer. In network places on my machine I an see the one computer I now have on a home network with a different name (changed for troubleshooting) from the default MSHOME to MSACWA. The computer I can see cannot see me.

I've run Windows home networking setup and created a setup disc on my computer when I saw the other computer. I ran the netsetup on the other computer and rebooted it. It still can't see my computer.

My printer is shared. In control panel, network, it shows as being a network share item. In windows Explorer my computer shows as being shared. I'm sure I checked some other things that I've forgotten to say as I am typing this.

I'm stumped and don't know what else to check.

Any ideas?

 

[asusman]

Make sure file and printer sharing is enabled, and allowed in the windows firewall.

 

[blue68f100]

Make sure you McAfee FW is allowing your subnet. Turn off the FW to test.

 

[insightdriver]

Thanks for the tips Blue68F100 and Asusman. I already made some progress. I did add my subnet to the allowed IP's and now both computers see each other. I do have XP file and printer sharing enabled on both machines. I'm not quite there, yet, and I'm working on figuring out what McAfee is up to. I'm pretty sure that is the issue now. Although we see each other, we can't access each other's files and the other computer can't see my printer, yet.

 

[blue68f100]

Most all firewalls can be a pain. But once you define your subnet as a safe zone you can get through them.

Good luck, if you need more assistance just continue this post.

 

[insightdriver]

Thanks Blue68F100.

Currently I'm wrestling with it because the newest version of McAfee is partnered with Comcast cable and is a complimentary subscription for customers of Comcast. I installed the suites on all the machines in my network. There is a monitoring agent that allows every machine to be monitored from one machine. I am a bit ticked off at McAfee and Comcast for putting this out but not making it easy to fix the networking issues.

I've spent an hour or so looking at the help files. I'm going to resort to asking McAfee for help.

 

[blue68f100]

I had it when I was with Comcast, then moved over to Verizon FIOS service. I discovered that moving over to free services were just as good with out all of the extra overhead. McAfee in the most case was a pretty good product when I used it. Will never touch Symantic Security products after the screwed up and never admitted they released a bad virus definition. MCAfee did to but they acknowledge thay had a problem and it would be fixed with the next release.

I moved to Comodo FW and Avira AV, have never looked back.

Your Switch/NAT device is a strange bird. It almost sounds like you have a security setting in the switch, some times it refered to as clinet privacy not set correctly. Or McAfee firewall rule has been changed not allowing the local sub net. Remember when it comes to rules they are processed in the order listed. So it you have a rule blocking it before it is allowed it's BLOCKED.