Problem Networking XP Pro for file/printer sharing thru WRT54G Router

[phaedrus06]

Sigh...

This is ridiculous. I realize that most likely the problem, like most all of my problems, will end up being something simple that I simply overlooked but if anyone can help me then by all means PLEASE suggest something.

Anyhow my problem is this. Three computers are needed to be networked and all are running Windows XP Pro. The two laptops connects wirelessly behind a Linksys WRT54G Router, and the Desktop connects via an Ethernet cable from the router. First I tried the easy stuff:

1) Used Network Wizard and shut off all firewalls. I even uninstalled a couple.
2) Set all workgroups generically to MSHOME (I used DAS_CASA first but then reconfigured them to run under MSHOME thinking that a more generic name would work better).
3) Enabled simple file sharing on all PC's (tried without it too).
4) Picked different folders for file sharing. No go.
5) Tried to see if the Epson CX3800 printer was available on the network. No go.
6) Registry cleaned, virus scanned, etc. No go.

Basically after all that I could not see any of the computers in My Network Places. I click on My Network Places ==> MSHOME and then the explorer is blank with nothing in the network share. Oh, all computers were of course online and restarted after all this. Then I was sure to double check some setting in the group policy menu and turned off local password access so no password are required.

Then after that I tried to Manually set the workgroup name and file sharing settings. No go. I tried uninstalling and reinstalling TCP/IP. No go. When I ping the computers IP Addresses they show up in the CMD Prompt no problem but I still can't see them in My Network Places.

I tried the program Network Magic by Pure Networks and that worked flawlessly so I know the computers can see each other but why it does not display in my Network Places I don't know.

After reconfiguring one of the laptop PC's it should up in My Network Places and shared everything no problem but only to the other wireless laptop and not the wired desktop. However, the other wireless laptop and the wired desktop were still not showing up in My Network Places. Weird I know. Obviously the router I do not believe can be the cause since on PC is working fine, but what about the others? Is there something I missed under the Group Policy? A built in restriction? Anything? Help appreciated and thanks in advance.

-Fred

 

[brw02005]

I not really familar with your router but sometimes the wireless and wired networks are kept separate on purpose. Try hard wiring a notebook and see if you can network with the desktop. If that doesn't work then try going to network palce click on the address bar and type \\IP replace IP with ip address or \\hostname replace hostname with hostname. If this still doesn't work go through this article it's worked pretty good for me.

http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/content/view/24421/53/

good luck

 

[phaedrus06]

Remember only one out of three is sharing properly (more or less). Laptop A (wireless) lets call it is the one that is sharing on the network, Laptop B (wireless) is not sharing but can see and get files from Laptop A, and then there is the desktop that doesn't do anything.

Thanks for the advice though. Will try it.

 

[phaedrus06]

Yeah...no go with the guided help. Thanks for trying though. I may simply just have to reinstall.

Any other ideas people?

 

[brw02005]

Update router firmware and drivers after that I'm out of ideas

 

[phaedrus06]

Router's been good. Updated a while ago. Thanks again though.

 

[jakaspaka]

just a few details. I've got same issues using Linksys wrt54gc.

I have several xp pro computers on the network and all are sharing files without any problem. Except for one.

It all started when my DSL line borke down and I connected modem directly to the computer to do some error diagnostics. And after error hunting was over I connected back to the network.

And here is the problem - at least in my opinion. I used the Network connect wizard in XP. I've done this many times and this time it went as smooth as any other time.

Except that after wizard finished in My Network Places there were no sharing folders. No matter what I did I could not connect to any of the network computers. Exactly as described in first post.

Only difference from previous state where sharing worked was a new icon in Network connections named "Internet connection". It was basically an Internet gateway like those when you share a modem connection on a network or similar. This one is actually a Linksys router that presents itself to the windows network as a computer giving its Internet connection to others as a shared connection. A brief exploration on properties showed that I could even control some of the advanced router functionality such as port forwarding etc on the Linksys. Nice, but useless...

This might be some plug-n-play feature Linksys has to ease network connectivity issues, but in fact it makes things worse.

The solution in my opinion would be, to somehow disable this magic functionality and connect to your network without any wizard, Linksys CD or other action that would make use of this plug-and-play thing Linksys is using.

Try using some 'non friendly' switch to connect to other computers first and then go set up your Internet and Linksys.

Hope this helps.