Need help on simple network

cmsbfent · 5 Feb 2006 at 20:55

hello all,

Tryin to set up a small network at home between 4 computers and it turns out i know nothing about networking

We've brought a router with a modem built in to replace our original modem and have got as far as sharing the internet between the 4 comps. All set up as it should be, no problem here..

but, for some reason, either me not knowing enough, or me being stoopid, no matter what i do, i cant get the pc's to see each other. I've ran countless wizards and know that the network name has to be set to the same on each comp, but still cant see the others. On setting up a new network with matching network names and different comp names, the comps restart but when we go to 'My Network Places' we just get a message saying:

'*blah* is not accessible. You might not have permission to use this network resource. Contact the administrator of this server to find out if you have access permissions.

The list of servers for this workgroup is not currently available'

Any one got a clue??

tolien · 5 Feb 2006 at 21:10

Can the machines ping each other?
Firewalls?

cmsbfent · 5 Feb 2006 at 21:56

i've turned off firewalls and as far as pinging, i've typed in the command dos window thing 'ping pc1' and it just says 'Ping request could not find host pc1. Please check the name and try again.'

That is definately the name of one pc and i've tried the names of the others again with no luck..

Any more suggestions?

tolien · 5 Feb 2006 at 21:58

Use IPs, not names.
What firewall is it - Zone Alarm has a habit of not properly disabling.

cmsbfent · 5 Feb 2006 at 22:05

its a norton internet security firewall..

just lookin at the IP numbers assigned and they are:

COMP 1-

ip address: 10.0.0.10

subnet mask: 255.0.0.0

Assigned by DHCP

COMP 2-

ip address: 10.0.0.8

subnet mask: 255.0.0.0

Assigned by DHCP

This dosnt mean a whole lot to me to be honest? I know the ip numbers have to be different which they are..

Is it worth changing them?

sniperpenguin · 5 Feb 2006 at 22:05

same with Norton - nasty habit of being "on" when "off"...

Set static IP addresses on all of the machines. Chances are the router will be set to something like 192.168.0.1 or 192.168.1.1 ... Give the PCs IPs in the similar subnet.

The fact you can SEE the machines, but not get into them is a port blocking / access problem. Make sure they are all up to SP2 and all firewalls are disabled. At the very least, you should be able to see the "Shared Documents" folder of each machine.

cmsbfent · 5 Feb 2006 at 22:12

just tried pingin using ip numbers and i just get 4 timed out messages.

All pc's are upto date with service pack 2. And nope, cant even see the shared folders of any connected pc's??

Nice reply times though fellas, much appreciated!

tolien · 5 Feb 2006 at 22:17

Would be a good idea to change subnet mask to 255.255.255.0 - probably in your router config.
Unlikely it'll fix this issue, but it's still a good idea.

Can the machines ping the router?

cmsbfent · 5 Feb 2006 at 22:51

hhmmmm.. how exactly do i go about pinging the router?

yup, dumb :confused:

tolien · 5 Feb 2006 at 23:10

Same as you would the PCs, but using the router's IP?

benjo plz. · 5 Feb 2006 at 23:14

Sounds like a safecom router tbh.

cmsbfent · 5 Feb 2006 at 23:27

okay, next question then is how do i find the routers ip? And it aint a safecom router, its a sitecom. Is that a bad thing..?

cmsbfent · 5 Feb 2006 at 23:45

scrap that, its 10.0.0.1

and yup, i can ping the router

that mean anything?

benjo plz. · 5 Feb 2006 at 23:59

you can login to it and change stuff, not sure why you can't login if you can ping the router, and all the pcs are on the same subnet :\.

cmsbfent · 6 Feb 2006 at 00:14

wooooo.. sorted it me thinks

it was norton firewall not actually disabling even though i turned it off. Theres an option to allow access to individual ip addresses so after typing the ones in on the network, all is dandy

Thanks for the help boys and girls, much appreciated

sniperpenguin · 6 Feb 2006 at 14:01

same with Norton - nasty habit of being "on" when "off"...

it was norton firewall not actually disabling even though i turned it off

hmmmmmm

benjo plz. · 6 Feb 2006 at 16:37

Yeh, it has a nasty habit of doing things like that. An older norton put a dependancy for it's service in the DHCP service. You can imagine the hell that caused when people removed norton.