I'm a home network dummy!

Sniipe

I've a home network with a laptop and a few PC's.
Currently 3 have win XP Pro edition (possibly have different service packs if that makes a difference, now that I think of it...)So the "Laptop" and the "Kitchen" pc are reading each other beautifully but the "Niall" PC can't see anyone.

When the cable goes into the back it comes up as connect @ 100mb's on all 3!!!

"Niall" pc sends packets but recieves none.

Any idea's ?? I'll try anything and everything, cept re-install Windows

here's the ipconfig low down on "Niall" pc

Windows IP Configuration

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

Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection:

Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Realtek RTL8139 Family PCI Fast Ethernet NIC
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-40-F4-2C-8D-88
Dhcp Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : Yes
Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes
Autoconfiguration IP Address. . . : 169.254.204.219
Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.0.0
Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . :


"Kitchen" reads as follows...
Windows IP Configuration

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

Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection:

Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Realtek RTL8139 Family PCI Fast Ethernet NIC
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-40-F4-2C-8D-84
Dhcp Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : Yes
Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes
Autoconfiguration IP Address. . . : 169.254.81.34
Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.0.0
Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . :

po0k

Are the cables retail or home-made?
if home made, recrimp them carefully, you shouldn't have more then a few milimetres of untwisted cores before the cinch pins in the RJ-45 head.

Also, do you really need DHCP?
Are you running a DSL router or something?
On a home network there's no real need for DHCP and especially with 3 PCs a subnet of 255.255.0.0 is unneccessary.

You should disable DHCP and set the machines to the following:
IP:192.168.0.xxx where xxx is 1, 2, 3 for each machine.
subnet: 255.255.255.0

Also, set them all to the same Windows Workgroup and make sure their names, workgroups and descriptions are all in capitals.

Check if you can ping them by their IPs with Run>> cmd.exe >> ping 192.168.0.xxx

Post back with more details.

Sniipe

I think the problem was my LAN card