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Help! Phone Line Networking problems....

T

Trevelyan

Diamond Member
Ok, here's my problem:

There's one computer running Windows 98 with a cable internet connection. There's also two other computers running Windows 98, a fourth computer running Windows95, and a fifth computer running WindowsXP.

I bought 5 Diamond HomeFree phoneline networking cards to network them together and share the internet, but I CANNOT GET IT WORKING! The "Link" light on the back comes on for two of the computers (the win95 and win98 one w/ internet), and I managed to get them to see each other ONCE, but never again.... I don't get it, it's like none of the computers can even see each other.. what's the dealio????

Can someone PLEASE help??!?!?
 
I've often had weird problems like that. Solutions have included:

* Making sure I hadn't reversed the wall and phone jacks on the homepna cards.

* Unplugging and replugging the phone cords. Lord only knows why it works, but it often does.

* Powering equipment down and then back up again.

* Make sure all computers are in the same workgroup. (In general, make sure you've followed whatever directions came with the cards.)

* If possible, try to avoid sharing the same jack between 2 or more machines -- sometimes it works ok for me, but other times it seems to create problems with the machines seeing each other.

Also make sure all machines are on the same phone line -- if different phone lines, you might get lucky and have it work, but it is not guaranteed.

If two of the machines are close enough, you could just connect them via a phonecord -- it doesn't have to be an active line to work. You probably don't want to do this long-term, but at least you can see if the system will work under optimal conditions, and then go from there.

I don't know how you are doing your internet sharing, but if possible forget about it for now and just see if you can get the machines to see each other. Once that is ok you can worry about the internet sharing next.

Good luck. Let us know what your magic solution is -- maybe it will solve a problem for me someday.
 
Okay, THEY ARE SEEING EACH OTHER NOW!!

-- BUT ---

They only see each other... well, off and on... When I ping one of the machine sometimes I get no loss... but once I got 25% packet loss. It's weird, but the first pinging will be like 150ms... and then the next three will be 1ms or 2ms...

So basically it's really slow, but internet sharing REFUSES to work!!! The computer can all communicate w/ each other (through pinging), and they can share files... (but it's kinda slow... ~50kb/s transfer), but absolutely NO INTERNET SHARING.

Here's the tricker: The little ICS icon on the host computer says that "3 Computers Are Sharing The Internet Connection" (I only have 3 computers set up now).... But then WHY oh WHY CAN'T ANY OF THEM ACCESS THE INTERNET???

Any help??
 
You might have to go to Internet Explorer properties on each computer and set up an internet connection using a wizard. Specify a LAN connection.
 
Can the host access the internet? If not, maybe it is a different sort of problem, i.e. you aren't connected. Take out the phone cord from the host machine so it isn't part of the network and confirm that it can access the internet ok when acting on its own.

Any special trick you used to get the machines to recognize each other?
 
Ok, I think I've solved most of the problems. Thanks for the tip rw120555 on unplugging the cord and plugging it in again... it helped in the end. I ended up installing Sygate and it works... I'm thinking it might've been a combination of problems, and one of the problems just happened to be Microsoft's ICS program...

Thanks a LOT for the help everyone!! 😀
 
Incidentally, I had a setup very similar to yours (except mine worked 🙂 ). But, after using a dedicated always-on PC Internet server for several months, I broke down and bought a router, the Netgear Rp334. The Rp334 is a bit pricey ($250 direct from Netgear) but works far better than the PC server did. In particular, Internet access used to be sluggish and unreliable, now it works great on all machines. The router is also supposedly more secure and doesn't require that you rely on an always-on pc. If $250 is too much, there are cheaper options form Linksys and 2Wire that may also be ok, and you might be able to get the 2wire fairly cheap on Ebay or even from your ISP. Anyway, just something to think about if you ever get things working but still aren't 100% happy with performance. RW
 
Yeah, this setup is for a friend next door... he didn't want to run wiring all through his house... and wireless is way too expensive (for 5 PCs)... so this was really our only option.

Thanks again for the advice RW!
 
Sure thing Trevor. If your friend ever needs more cards, tell him to check out Netgear's web page. I don't know why, but on a few homepna items they've got lower prices there than I can find anywhere else, e.g. $20 for a pci card and $30 for usb. Setting up my homepna system drove me crazy at times, but I'm real happy with it, especially since I got the router. We have a big old house with computers on top floor and in basement, and I was afraid that neither ethernet nor wireless would be practical or economical for it. There is a homepna 3.0 standard in the works that will supposedly be 10 times faster, so it will be interesting to see how it develops. RW
 
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