Computers can't see each other on network

[Adrian Tung]

Hi,

Firstly, I'd like to mention that I've already gone through the FAQs and didn't find any relevant information.

Secondly, I know that I probably can get away with it by using NetBEUI, but I want to see if there's any alternate solution for my problem.


Okay, here's what I'm encountering :-


I've got 3 machines connected via Linksys hub - one WinXP Pro, one Win2000 Pro and one Win98SE machine. My XP machine is 192.168.0.1, with XP's ICS enabled. The 2K Pro machine is 192.168.0.3, and the 98SE is 192.168.0.2, both of them have their Gateway and DNS point to my XP machine in order to access the net. This part works perfectly.

They are all part of the same workgroup, and all have unique names. The problem is that they cannot see each other. The XP and 2K machine can find each other by searching (using IP only; searching for name doesn't work). The 98 machine cannot see, or be seen by, the other 2 machines.

On all 3 machines, I only have Client of MS Networks, TCP/IP and File and Printer Sharing. (And the XP machine has QoS Packet Scheduler, of course.) Subnet masks are all set to 255.255.255.0. I have intentionally disabled LMHOST and NetBIOS. They can all ping each other nicely.

I'd like to know if there's anything that I missed out, causing the machines to not see each other normally (i.e. without searching). I'd appreciate any ideas or comments on this setup.


Thanks in advance,
atwl

 

[Daniel]

You tried putting static entries on the client machines for dns that point to the internet instead of the ics machine? Or is that a no no when using ics? Only asking cause I've done it via a proxy and via a router but never used windows' ics before.

 

[oceano]

maybe a wrong set of cable?

crossover cable instead of a straight cable or something like that...
the NICs are all alright?
The cables are all alright?
The hub?

could be lots of things...its hard to say...

the rule is to start troubleshooting from the first layer of the OSI model and them go up...

 

[Tiger]

Like Oceano said check the physical stuff first.
Look fo kinked wire, loose connectors, make sure all the RJ-45's are all the way down in their sockets (listen for the click).
If all of that passes start checking IP addy's.
We built a 20 WS network in my Net+ class. All machines running W2K Pro. Two machines absolutely refused to hang onto their assigned addy's.

If you can see the other machines doing a search then your close and it's usually something simple.

 

[Adrian Tung]

Tiger you were right - it was something simple.

I found out that I had to enable NetBIOS on TCP/IP in order for computers to see each other on the network. The reason I disabled it earlier was because I got a lot of NetBIOS-related alerts with ZoneAlarm, but after doing so I still kept getting alerts (from the UDP ports - probably ICQ). So I re-enabled NetBIOS in my TCP/IP settings and found out that everything works again.

As a side note, I did some readup on NetBIOS and I did find out that NetBIOS exists for this purpose - to allow computers to communicate via name (instead of IP) on the network.

Andy Hui if you are reading this you might want to add this to the FAQ.

Another thing that you may want to add to the FAQ is using Windows ICS without needing to dynamically assign IPs. All the clients need to do is to set their Gateway and DNS to the IP of the host that is running ICS. For Win98, the DNS properties require a host name - just set it to the name of the host machine. I even got Red Hat 7.2 (which is coexisting with Win98 on one of my machines) to access the net this way.

I've only tried this on a WinXP machine, but considering the way ICS works, I'm quite certain that it will work on 98SE/2K hosts as well.


atwl

 

[Woodchuck2000]

<< I found out that I had to enable NetBIOS on TCP/IP in order for computers to see each other on the network. >>


Makes a certain amount of sense Without a name server of some kind, (DNS, WINS etc.) there is no way for PCs to get other names without a broadcast.