I have three computers that I wish to share files between and to share access to printers on two of them. The physical net consists of a D-link Dl-604 router which is connected to the LAN using a LinkSys ethernet powerline adapter. The router provides internet access through a cable modem. The other computers are connected to the LAN with a LinkSys powerline adapter at each computer. Each adapter "sees" the MAC for the other two adapters on the LAN in the LinkSys software. All three computers have excellent internet access -- average 4.4Mbps for the gateway computer connected directly to the router and a little over 3Mbps for the two that are communicating with the router over the powerline link. On several occasion the LAN has functioned just like it should. Clicking on Start/My Network Places on any one of the three, brings up the icons for the shared folders on all three computers, and clicking on the icon for any one of them opens a page with icons for the shared folders, printers etc. on that computer. That is when it works. The Lan does not work that way most of the time. For no apparent reason, one or both of the icons for the shared folders on other computers will go away. Right now none of the computers are seeing shared resources on any other computer.
The computers are named Gus (my computer), Gail (my wife's computer) and Lab (the gateway computer connected directly to the router). Here is the odd thing. Even though no icon for the shared folder on the other computers appears when I click on My Network Places, I can click on Start\Run and then enter \\Gail on either Gus or Lab and bring up all of the shared resources on Gail. Similarly I can enter \\Gus on either Lab or Gail and bring up all of the shared resourse on Gus etc. So clearly the router is able to resolve the address for each of the computers on the LAN. Things change, and sometimes one of the computers will "see" one of the others in the sense that the icon for it's shared folder will come up when My Network Places is clicked, but then won't come up when I do the same thing later. The LAN is broadband as shown by bandwidth measurements on net, and not noisy as shown by the absence of errors being corrected.
The other strange -- and probably related -- thing is that when I click on View Workgroup Computers only the local computer is shown.
When I started typing this (on Lab) the only icon shown when I clicked on My Network Place was the shared docs icon for Lab. Just now when I clicked on My Network Places to be sure of the wording for View Workgroup Computers, the shared docs icon for Lab and Gus were shown -- but not for Gail
I have been fighting this problem for weeks and it is driving me nuts. Anyone have a suggestion of what the explanation could be.
All computers are running Windows XP.
The computers are named Gus (my computer), Gail (my wife's computer) and Lab (the gateway computer connected directly to the router). Here is the odd thing. Even though no icon for the shared folder on the other computers appears when I click on My Network Places, I can click on Start\Run and then enter \\Gail on either Gus or Lab and bring up all of the shared resources on Gail. Similarly I can enter \\Gus on either Lab or Gail and bring up all of the shared resourse on Gus etc. So clearly the router is able to resolve the address for each of the computers on the LAN. Things change, and sometimes one of the computers will "see" one of the others in the sense that the icon for it's shared folder will come up when My Network Places is clicked, but then won't come up when I do the same thing later. The LAN is broadband as shown by bandwidth measurements on net, and not noisy as shown by the absence of errors being corrected.
The other strange -- and probably related -- thing is that when I click on View Workgroup Computers only the local computer is shown.
When I started typing this (on Lab) the only icon shown when I clicked on My Network Place was the shared docs icon for Lab. Just now when I clicked on My Network Places to be sure of the wording for View Workgroup Computers, the shared docs icon for Lab and Gus were shown -- but not for Gail
I have been fighting this problem for weeks and it is driving me nuts. Anyone have a suggestion of what the explanation could be.
All computers are running Windows XP.