PC's can not see each other after router replaced

[Gonad the Barbarian]

Hi, hoping I can get some help here. I had a network set up for a guy with an older 2Wire DSL modem/router which started flaking out. Embarq sent him a newer one (2Wire 2701HG) and no matter what I do the computers on the network can not see each other, despite being seen by the router and having internet access. There seems to be no way to outright disable the built in firewall on this thing and if there's something specific to allow traffic between computers I'm not seeing it. I'm at my wit's end on what to do here, any input would be appreciated.

 

[jlazzaro]

do both computers have IP addresses in the same subnet? LAN access has nothing to do with the the router or firewall...its just a built-in layer 2 switch.

define "can not see each other". are you able to ping? how are you accessing the computers? is name resolution working? can you access directly via the UNC path? i would look towards the computers, not the network hardware.

 

[tonyyy]

If you have windows vista or 7 you will need to redefine the network as a home or work network that way the computers will see eachother in workgroups.

try resetup networking if this does not work.

otherwise I would call your ISP to have them walk you through setting up 2wire device for home networking.

 

[Gonad the Barbarian]

do both computers have IP addresses in the same subnet? LAN access has nothing to do with the the router or firewall...its just a built-in layer 2 switch.

define "can not see each other". are you able to ping? how are you accessing the computers? is name resolution working? can you access directly via the UNC path? i would look towards the computers, not the network hardware.

They aren't showing up in each others the network window despite having shared folders. They are all on the same subnet and in the same workgroup. Pings time out.

I ran into a similar problem on a similar 2Wire modem and there was a firewall setting that blocked intranet traffic. Had me pulling my hair out before I saw that it was there as I had never encountered such a thing before. On that device I was able to disable the setting, this one doesn't have that option that I can see.

I'll admit I'm no networking guru, but I've set up numerous simple networks and only ran into problems with these 2Wire modem/routers.

 

[Gonad the Barbarian]

If you have windows vista or 7 you will need to redefine the network as a home or work network that way the computers will see eachother in workgroups.

try resetup networking if this does not work.

otherwise I would call your ISP to have them walk you through setting up 2wire device for home networking.

One of the machines runs Vista and I had done that when the network was set up initially and everything still looked right. Another machine on the network runs XP and it can't see anything else either. I called Embarq and the guy tried to be helpful but he could tell what was going here and only had a different model modem/router to work with on his end.

 

[tonyyy]

on the 2wire devices under
local network
do you see both pc's?
to the right of the pc's is there a link for edit firewall settings? perhaps theres something in there you can disable?

 

[Gonad the Barbarian]

on the 2wire devices under
local network
do you see both pc's?
to the right of the pc's is there a link for edit firewall settings? perhaps theres something in there you can disable?

Yes, but those edit firewall settings just take me to the same global firewall settings page.

 

[tonyyy]

bummers...

what happens when you turn off the global firewall settings?

what happens when you turn off the windows firewall?

good luck.

 

[Gonad the Barbarian]

See that's the thing, you can't just turn off the router's firewall. I don't remember the three settings, but none of them is just plain old off here. I'll double check everything else tomorrow, maybe I missed something simple concentrating on router. Just figured that's what it was given my previous experience.

It should be possible to hook up another router between the two PC's that have to share with each other and the 2Wire modem/router right? I'm not seeing a better option if I can't get the PC's sharing just on the 2Wire.

 

[tonyyy]

Yes it is possible to hook up another router to the 2wire router. Just put 2wire to bridge mode if you just want one router to manage.

 

[Gonad the Barbarian]

I was hoping to use a wired Dlink router I have already for the two sharing computers, but keep the wireless active on the 2Wire for another computer that just needs internet access.

 

[Gonad the Barbarian]

Well I feel a little retarded. When the router was swapped the Vista machine detected it as a new network and set it as Public. But the discovery and sharing options beneath it remained enabled so I missed this. Stupid Vista, I understand defaulting to Public on a new network, but not resetting the discovery and sharing options at the same time is stupid.

 

[tonyyy]

no problem! very easy to overlook things! I knew it was something easy haha.