Home Network not functional after move.

[shortylickens]

I recently moved from CA to OR.
Set up my two home computers exactly like I had them.

Have a Netgear Wireless Router (WGT624 108Mb) but am not using any wireless functions.
Have the Office computer plugged in on port 1, the Game computer plugged in on port 2, and the DSL modem on the WAN port. The Office machine gets internet access and I can get into Routerlogin.net to change settings.
The game machine cannot access the web, (which it used to be able to) but it CAN access routerlogin.net and change settings. Also cannot find the other computer in the home network or connect to shared drives.

The important info is as follows:

-Gaming computer-
Socket 939 Athlon 64 with XP Pro SP2.
DFI LanParty NF4 Motherboard and two network adapters. Currently using the Marvell Yukon Ethernet plug because thats what worked before. Also tried the Nvidia network adapter but still getting the same problems.
Had the settings at manual instead of auto because that was the only way I could get it working the first time.
IP: 192.168.1.2
Subnet: 255.255.255.0
Default Gateway: 192.168.1.1
Preferred DNS Server: 192.168.1.1
Computer name: Game
Workgroup: Shorty.

In the Network Connections folder the Local Area Connection is Enabled as well as the Internet Connection, even though I cant get WWW access.
Tried sharing my H drive which is a 300GB that I use to install games. Office computer cant find the Game computer or shared drives.

-Office Computer-
Socket 754 Athlon 64 with XP Pro SP2.
DFI LanParty NF3 250GB Motherboard and one network adapter. Using the NForce Ethernet plug because thats all it has.
Again, I had the settings at manual instead of auto because that was the only way I could get it working.
IP: 192.168.1.3
Subnet: 255.255.255.0
Default Gateway: 192.168.1.1
Preferred DNS Server: 192.168.1.1
Computer name: Homeoffice
Workgroup: Shorty.

In the Network Connections folder the Local Area Connection is Enabled
Tried to share my Z drive. Its a 250GB used for misc. files. The game computer cant find the office computer or its shared drives.

-Netgear Router-
Internet IP and DNS Address I get automatically from the ISP. I forward the MAC address from the office computer. (Though for simple home network file sharing this data should be irrelavent.)
Not using any wireless features.

Internet Port Settings are as follows:
MAC Address XXX (PM me if you really need to know this)
IP Address 192.168.0.4
DHCP DHCPClient
IP Subnet Mask 255.255.255.0
Domain Name Server
192.168.0.1
192.168.0.1
(Not sure if these are good settings or not, but again, I do get web access with the office computer.)

LAN Port Settings are as follows:
MAC Address XXX (PM me if you really need to know this)
IP Address 192.168.1.1
DHCP ON
IP Subnet Mask 255.255.255.0

Attached Device Status:
# IP Address Device Name MAC Address
1 192.168.1.2 OFFICE XXX (that device name doesnt seem right)
2 192.168.1.3 OFFICE XXX

I only have port forwarding/triggering enabled for one program: Direct Connect. It worked fine before and works fine now, (from the office computer)

Under WAN Setup I have enabled Connect Automatically, as Required.

Under LAN IP Setup:
IP Address 192.168.1.1
IP Subnet Mask 255.255.255.0
RIP Direction : None
RIP Version : Disabled

Use Router as DHCP Server : Enabled
Starting IP Address 192.168.1.2
Ending IP Address 192.168.1.3

Address Reservations: NONE
I am NOT using Dynamic DNS Service and have not set up any Static Routes.
Universal Plug'n'Play is enabled.

Thats it for the router settings.

Again, I am not sure how much of that is needed simply for sharing files on a home network. Though I would like to know why my game machine cant connect to the web or find other computers and drives.

If you guys need to know any more about my Windows or Workgroup settings please ask.
This seems like such a simple issue but I cant figure it out. (If there is a simple fix, please dont be cruel, just tell me.)
Havent changed any thing (aside from the ISP) and I connected everything exactly as it was before.

EDIT: On both systems when I go to View Workgroup Computers they can see each other they just cant access each others' shares.
When I double click on Game (from the office computer) I get an error:
"\\Game 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.
Access is denied."

But everything was sharing fine before and I didnt change any settings.

 

[ktwebb]

Your network places icons are cached so that would be expected, can't get to network resources.

First tool of connectivity. ping What are your results when pinging the box having the problem, FROM the working computer?

 

[shortylickens]

"Reply from 192.168.1.1: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=128"
Repeats three more times.

Packets sent=4, Recieved=4, Lost=0 (0% loss)
Approximate 0ms for each trip.

Along with the Game machine being able to talk to my router, these symptoms lead me to believe its a workgroup or permissions problem.
But I'll be darned if I can figure it out.

 

[shamans]

1) Use simple file sharing, unless you know how to do your accounts properly.
In explorer (not IE), go to tools, folder options, view tab, bottom of view tab - there is simple file sharing option. You must restart your computer for this to take effect. Do this for both computers.
2) Not sure about your internet problem. Can you ping some websites like google?
ie. ping google.com
ping cnn.com
ping anandtech.com

If so, then you have internet access and your browser is broken somehow. If not, then you can try default router settings + reset the router. If that doesn't help you can try that with say a live linux cd and see if you can access the web from there. Good luck.

I must say, btw, that your "Internet Port Settings" look very fishy. They are definitely not right...It should be displaying your actual external IP, not some internal IP.

Another test you could do is...find out what your external IP is. To do this, go to your favorite search engine and type "what is my ip address", go to a few sites.
Then, search for "whois", and try to see if you can get some information on which ISP your external IP belongs to and see if that looks right.

Is it possible that you physically plugged in the wrong things to the wrong things? check again.

 

[shortylickens]

All right, now I'm pissed.

Not only did pinging from the game computer actually work, but somehow overnight it magically regained the ability to view websites again.

This along with the other data tells me I have good connections between both computers and the router.

I will go back to simple file sharing if thats the only solution.
Let you guys know in 15 minutes how it went, (need to take care of some other stuff too).

EDIT: I'm back.
Enabled simple sharing and restarted both machines.
Same error as before. I can see each computer under "View Workgroup Computers" but they cant access each others shared items.

Get the same message again: "\\Game 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.
Access is denied."
I even went ahead and verified my cables and plugs again. Everything is good and the same as before.

Aside from Simple File Sharing, does anybody have ideas?

 

[ktwebb]

Firewall.

 

[shortylickens]

Good idea but no.
Both systems have Firewall disabled. The router only has its basic hardware firewall.

 

[skyking]

face it shorty, It's Oregon. That has to be the reason. I've seen some messed up networks in Oregon, let me tell ya.