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Network Troubleshooting.

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  • 25-10-2004 4:12pm
    #1
    JackKelly
    Registered Users Posts: 3,225 ✭✭✭


    Ok, dont know if this qualifies as at network or wireless problem but anyway. I have a wireless network involving a PC and Laptop. Its been working grand but for some reason, suddenly, i cant 1)get the net working anymore or 2)file share. Basically the signal is still there (not a hardware etc problem) but i cant use it. Everytime i click a file in network neighbourhood, it tells me that "network path cannot be found" or something. Both running XP (one home one pro)

    It seems like it might be a username or password problem (had this problem while setting up the network)

    So any ideas or checklists?


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    #2
    SantaHoe
    Closed Accounts Posts: 7,488 ✭✭✭SantaHoe


    Starting with the most basic...
    Make sure each machine can ping the other.
    Make sure they are both on the same workgroup.
    Make sure that both ends of the connection are configured to run at the same speed. (not sure exactly what options wireless would give you in this case, but as a general rule)

    As for password problems, what can help is setting up a user with the same user/pass as an account on machine A on machine B... and visa versa. (I'm not sure how clear that is now that I've typed it! ;))

    At the very least though, you want to try pinging each machine.
    Start>>Run>>
    cmd
    ping <ip-address>
    And see what you get back... if there is no response or otherwise failure, check your firewalls, try disabling them for the time being while you're testing pings... you may have to open a trusted IP range in your firewall for your local network address (something like 192.168.0.1 - 192.168.0.255)

    It's impossible to nail down the problem immediatly based on the info you've given, so you'll have to try some troubleshooting steps to narrow things down.


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    #3
    JackKelly
    Registered Users Posts: 3,225 ✭✭✭JackKelly


    well, firstly , the internet works ok on the laptop, its the pc giving trouble.
    I cant ping the laptop from the pc, with the firewall on or off. Thing is, its telling
    me that it can see the router and that the signal is fine. Its like something is blocking it. Windows Firewall is also turned off.


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    #4
    SantaHoe
    Closed Accounts Posts: 7,488 ✭✭✭SantaHoe


    I'd say run ipconfig in a cmd window on the PC to check what it's been assigned.
    I'm not sure exactly how this is setup on your machine, but after running an ipconfig you should see the network address and the default gateway... if the PCs ip address doesn't look right (ie the wrong network address or subnet) or the default gateway is empty... then it's not recieving DHCP at all... that is assuming of course that you have the router assign resources via DHCP in the first place.
    Also try pinging the router.


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    #5
    JackKelly
    Registered Users Posts: 3,225 ✭✭✭JackKelly


    ok, i cant ping anything at the mo, even the ip of the machine itself. Cant seem to get through to anything. Like there is a wall blocking me,(all firewalls are turned off). Any ideas? Im stuck.

    Says there is signal, but i cannot, connect to anything, not even the router.
    Are there any worms or bugs i could have been hit by?Or am i missing something obvious. I though it concerned the passwords, but then i remembered that the only trouble ive had with mismatching passwords and names was to do with file sharing and not internet connection so i dont have a clue whats wrong. Nothings chagned and yet it wont work!

    [EDIT]Just went into my router setting to see if it could be the problem and when i went to see what computers were connected to it, it only shows up one (the one i am using now), so it obvioulsy cannot see the pc.Sound like a harware/driver problem?[/EDIT]


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    #6
    SantaHoe
    Closed Accounts Posts: 7,488 ✭✭✭SantaHoe


    Urgh, can you not even ping localhost? (127.0.0.1)
    Might be worth removing your network hardware from device manager and reinstalling the drivers alright.

    Actually there are a few other things aswell...
    You should go into My Network Places, then Network connections (or similar), and check that none of the required connections have been accidentaly disabled. (sounds simple I know... but I've been caught out by that one before, (doh))

    If it's already enabled, check out the properties of the connection and see if it's using DHCP to recieve its ip address and subnet mask automatically... if it's not - it could be using some forced setting that puts it on a completely different network to your router. (unlikely to happen by itself, but it's good to have all the angles covered)
    If you're not sure about the settings, run the network setup wizard from My Network Places.

    As I suggested before, run ipconfig from a command window and see what IP address the PC is using... then compare that to the laptop and router.
    Basically since the laptop is working, you should treat that as your guide... the PC should use the exact same subnet mask and default gateway, and a very similar IP address with probably just the last octet different. (ie. 192.168.0.?)
    But if everything is set to auto, and it's not finding the router at all, don't worry about IP addresses in the first place.


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    #7
    JackKelly
    Registered Users Posts: 3,225 ✭✭✭JackKelly


    yea,all the ip's are in tact. Same with subnet mask. I think it has to be a software problem, i think ill reinstall the card.Cant see any actual network setting problem.

    Thanks for the help though.I hate networks!


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    #8
    JackKelly
    Registered Users Posts: 3,225 ✭✭✭JackKelly


    yarg.

    still no luck.IP's are all correct.etc etc.But still cant even ping anything.

    Only clue is when i try to look up a site, it says detecting proxy settings so this might have something to do with it. Reinstalled drivers and the lot.


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    #9
    SantaHoe
    Closed Accounts Posts: 7,488 ✭✭✭SantaHoe


    TimAy wrote:
    Only clue is when i try to look up a site, it says detecting proxy settings so this might have something to do with it. Reinstalled drivers and the lot.
    Well before anything like this is going to work, you at the very least need to be able to contact the router, and I think it unlikely that the router is blocking ping requests from inside the network.

    There again, this could be something very specifically related to your wireless connection/hardware... I'm not at all up to scratch with common wireless hardware problems, although the underlying software technology is the same, there might be something I'm missing due to my lack of wireless exposure.
    (Any wireless buffs are free to jump right in of couse.)

    I think it'd be worth actually uninstalling whatever software firewall you use on the PC (as long as you can reinstall it later of course), I had a similar problem with someones laptop a few weeks ago and it turned out the firewall had gone a bit crazy and ended up blocking DHCP even when it was supposedly disabled... worked nicely after reinstalling the firewall.
    Although you still haven't mentioned wheather the IP's are assigned manually or by DHCP?

    Just have to keep bashing away at it I guess.


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