Can't Get My Home PC's to See Each Other on the Network - Help

[nasttcar]

I have 6 home PC's, 3 are desktops, and 3 are wireless. They all run XP Pro. I am using Linkysys wireless router and switch for the network.

I have DSL which goes first to the standalone modem, then to the router, and then all is routed through my CAT5e wiring in the house.

The internet works just fine. When I set up my network on each, I named my home network HHOME. I set each of them up for sharing.

Some PC's see no other computers on the network and some only see 1 other computer.

Incidentally, some of the units using wireless have bridged connections and some don't. Needed to do this just to get the internet to work.

What in the world have I done wrong?

If there is an excellent link you could point me to do, that would be appreciated.

John

 

[GoatHerderEd]

first, get rid of the PC router. If you already have the wireless router, use that. That will help a LOT! Second, remove all of he bridges. Those are usually made by XP for bridging firewire to ethernet, but it servs no purpose, remove those, bridges are worthless. third, see if you can get the computers to ping each other. to get the ip address of the computer, go to start, control panel, network connections, and double click the local area connection. then go to the support and its right there. to ping, from another computer on the network, go to start, run, "command" and push ok. type int "ping 10.0.0.1" if your computers ip address is 10.0.0.1. if they can ping, go to run, type int "\\10.0.0.1" and enter, that will show you all of the shared drives and stuff on that computers ip address. make sure the computers are all getting an IP address from the routers DHCP server, that may help. if you need any more help, just ask.

oh, for the router, if you need to set it up, go to the routers IP address from a computer on the network within a internet browser. type in the user and pass (if you havnt set it, your manual will tell you what they are, i think linksys is administrator for both, but im probly wrong). there, you can set up all of the DHCP and DSL user and pass if you need it. and there are a bunch of other goodies in there too.

 

[jackschmittusa]

I think he says there is only one router/switch (wireless). Most DSL setups use PPPOE, which is setup on the router. DHCP should also be enabled on the router. Settings on the PCs should include: obtain ip adress automatically, DHCP enabled, and Windows firewall turned off (my preference). Most of the other default settings on the router should be ok unless you want to enable special features. And yes, shouldn't need to bridge connections.

 

[GoatHerderEd]

oops, i read it wrong, thought it was the first computer, my bad.

 

[nasttcar]

Got all of them working. Here's the story for future help on this subject.

I noticed that only the computers where I had added a 1394 port showed the bridge. Therefore I did not remove the bridge.

I run Norton on some of the computers and Panda Antivirus/Firewall on 2 others. I found that the ones with the Panda could see other computers on the internet, but not the ones with the Panda firewall.

I went into Panda and configured the firewall to see all the computers on the network. 192.168.1.100, 192.168.1.101 and so forth. Guess what, I could then see all the computers on the network.

While Linksys provides firewall protection, I find that the Panda software is very good about telling me about a potential intrusion and asks me if I will allow a website to access my computer.

Hope this helps everyone.