Nintendo USB WiFi Dongle + ICS = loss of file sharing.

[CuriousMike]

We have what I guess you could a "server" or home media server in our house.
It's just a box that I have a few USB harddisks on, that stores our music, photos, and movies on.

The three other computers in our house all just map onto the drives music/photo/movie folders.

This "server" runs XP Home, and that's about it.

Our router is WIRED, and I wanted a way to be able to let my kids play their Nintendo DS's online, so I purchased Nintendos WiFi USB Dongle.

It works fine. But it also "breaks" file sharing somehow; the folders still appear as "shared" on the server, but all the clients can't "see" or access the shared folders anymore.

I can't quite find the right google-phrase to explain if the ICS is what's horking file sharing on the server, or if there's a way to fix it.

Ideas?

 

[xSauronx]

the only wifi device you mentioned was the DS, but it sounds like you have:

wired router > file server [ICS )) wifi )) DS]
..................> 3 PCs

is that right?

if you turn ICS off do the shares show back up for the clients?

 

[CuriousMike]

I have the DSL modem going into an 8-port wired-only router.

In that 8-port router, I have 4 computers connected.

One of those 4 computers is a computer with movies/music/photos shared ( file sharing turned on. )
There is nothing special software-wise about this machine... it's just a plain dumb XP setup that does nothing but shares files.
This machine (#4) is the machine I will plug a USB Nintendo dongle in--- it is the "wireless" access point for the DS's.
So, if machine #4 is turned off, then the DS's would not find wifi.


The other 3 computers are our day-to-day machines.

When I un-install the Nintendo software ( part of which is it turns off ICS ), then the 3 machines can all see the 4th "sharing" machine again.

If I were to manually disable ICS with the Nintendo "software" still installed, I *suspect* the 3 machines could see the 4th again, but then I wouldn't be able to use the wifi dongle.

 

[xSauronx]

is it possible to install the wifi dongle and turn on ICS to bridge the connections without using the nintendo software?

i googled around and....the first link goes to this thread :laugh:

heres a couple guides that may be worth looking over.

link 1
the readability is crap but it has a couple of posts for getting it to work in different ways.

link 2
readable, seems like a similar guide.

 

[CuriousMike]

Thanks for digging out those posts --- unfortunately, none of them directly speak of the issue of ICS breaking file-sharing.

I'm wondering, if in a larger scope, ICS break file-sharing on a LAN.

:Update:
I followed your 2nd post as it seemed the most .. uh... interesting.
It works as advertised ( i.e., I can use my DS to connect to it ), but again, it breaks the file sharing.

 

[spidey07]

What does ipconfig/all have to say when the USB network breaker thingy is plugged in an activated? Also "net config workstation" and "net config server" from the server machine and a client would be helpful.

Also try connecting directly to the IP address of the server instead of relying on names. So remap them using IP address. Having that other network interface in the server machine can cause all sorts of problem.

 

[CuriousMike]

Originally posted by: spidey07
What does ipconfig/all have to say when the USB network breaker thingy is plugged in an activated?

C:\Documents and Settings\serverdude>ipconfig /all

Windows IP Configuration

Host Name . . . . . . . . . . . . : server
Primary Dns Suffix . . . . . . . :
Node Type . . . . . . . . . . . . : Unknown
IP Routing Enabled. . . . . . . . : Yes
WINS Proxy Enabled. . . . . . . . : No

Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection:

Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Marvell Yukon 88E8001/8003/8010 PCI
Gigabit Ethernet Controller
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-xx-xx-xx-2E-D8
Dhcp Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : Yes
Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes
IP Address. . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.104
Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0
Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.1
DHCP Server . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.1
DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . : nn.xx.yyy.1
nn.xx.yyy.1
nn.xx.yyy.1
Lease Obtained. . . . . . . . . . : Wednesday, November 26, 2008 6:41:19
PM
Lease Expires . . . . . . . . . . : Thursday, November 27, 2008 6:41:19
PM

Ethernet adapter Wireless Network Connection:

Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : BUFFALO WLI-U2-KG54-YB Wireless LAN
Adapter
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-xx-xx-C4-04-3E
Dhcp Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : No
IP Address. . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.0.1
Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0
Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . :

Also "net config workstation" and "net config server" from the server machine

C:\Documents and Settings\serverdude>net config server
Server Name \\SERVER
Server Comment

Software version Windows 2002
Server is active on
NetbiosSmb (000000000000)
NetBT_Tcpip_{5E16CA43-8B18-4EDD-ADE1-F4DE6214F542} (001a4d642ed8)
NetBT_Tcpip_{875424F6-E359-4322-AA4F-FC22902C5D5B} (000d0bc4043e)


Server hidden No
Maximum Logged On Users 10
Maximum open files per session 16384

Idle session time (min) 15
The command completed successfully.

and a client would be helpful.

I'm running a restricted account on the client, and it won't run. If it's necessary, I'll do it.

Also try connecting directly to the IP address of the server instead of relying on names. So remap them using IP address. Having that other network interface in the server machine can cause all sorts of problem.

I'm not sure how to do this.
For example, in Windows File Explorer in my CLIENT, I type "\\serverdude" to see the servers shared folders
If you're saying I'd do something like "\\192.168.1.4" ( where 1.4 is the IP of my server ), then I tried that and it timed out.
( I can still VNC into the server computer at the above IP from a client. )

 

[CuriousMike]

I just verified (again): As soon as I disable ICS on the server, I can start seeing it again from my clients.