Home Networking Question

Lemming

Hey guys,

I've got 2 machines, and a Linksys 4port 100baseT switch/router and I'm having problems getting both machines to see each other.

One machine is running win98se, whilst the other is running win2k pro (just installed) and dualbooting with linux (yet to be installed).

I can't get either to see the other. Any suggestions?

Frank Grimes

Take a look at this site:
http://www.wown.com/

It has some good info/troubleshooting tips.

longword

Originally posted by Lemming
I can't get either to see the other. Any suggestions?

Are the lights on at each end of all the cables?
Can you try alternate cables?
What IP addresses did you assign to them?
Did you remember to use the same netmask on all machine?
Can they ping each other?

Inspector Gadget

Do you mean that you want to be able to see your (soon to be) Linux box in your "Network Neighbourhood" on the Windows box? (if so, make sure "File and Print Sharing" is installed on the Windows boxes and that you've got Samba going on the Linux box). Also, make sure they're in the same workgroup.

If not, and you want TCP/IP, check longword's suggestions - for example, check what IP's you've allocated each box - 192.168.x.x or 10.x.x.x are available for internal networks (mot people use the 192.168.x.x range) and (should) still route properly even if one of your boxes has some kind of connection to the internet at large.

Netmasks are a bit of a black art, but something like 255.255.255.0 should be fine if you set your IPs on both machines to be <same>.<same>.<same>.<different>, such as 192.168.1.1 and 192.168.1.2, for example.

Another thing you may want to consider is investing a few euro in a crossover cable; use that to connect both machines to each other (without using the hub/switch) to see if the network cards are okay. Do both your network cards have "Link" and "Activity" LEDs? (sometime's there's one LED for 10mbit and one for 100mbit - these are the same as the "activity" LEDs I'm asking about on many NICs, from what I've seen) If so, the "Link" light should come on as soon as both NICs are plugged in and the "Activity" light should flicker erratically - it's showing the data being transmitted. If it does work, you may need to check your hub/router/switch.

Just a few suggestions...
Gadget

Scruff

I'm having a few problems too, i'll look up the links provided above and the pointers as well.
In my case i could actually see the other pcs on the network but when i went to browse their shared folders it hung windows explorer.

I could also connect to a game of Unreal Tournament but it was unplayable as i was experiencing pings of 240 and getting about 1 frame every 2 seconds

Is there a maximum cable length? the 2 other guys were sitting down stairs with their laptops and 10m of cable each between then on the hub while i had about 20-30m of the stuff running upstairs to my pc.

Inspector Gadget

As far as I remember, the maximum segment length for Ethernet is 50m. (It was in the days of co-ax anyway).

I doubt that people would accept a drop in range just for more topology options...
Gadget

longword

Originally posted by Inspector Gadget
As far as I remember, the maximum segment length for Ethernet is 50m. (It was in the days of co-ax anyway).

Pretty much all forms of twisted-pair ethernet have a max length of 100 meters, so long as you're using the proper spec cable and you haven't made a balls of the crimping.

Inspector Gadget

...as longword correctly stated, twisted pair has a max segment length of 100m and co-ax (to my mild surprise) has a max segment length of 185m!

Must have gotten confused with 50 Ohm terminations... :rolleyes:
Sorry...
Gadget

Scruff

right so if the length or the cable isn't the problem it may be due to crimping??

We're going to swap cables tonight and see if the cable is the problem. if i get the same crappy pings then i guess its my network config thats the problem.
Cheers!

ando

make sure that the cabling is correctly coloured:

orange/white - orange - green/white - blue - blue/white - green - brown/white - brown

unless you have crossover, which you should not use if you are using a switch/hub

Scruff

swapped cables last night.
Could see the other computers on the network and find the UT game.

Joined the game and eveything was fine for about the first 10 seconds and then the ping shot up to around the 240 mark and started getting about 1-2 frames a second again.

i turned down all the graphics and sound to lowest settings but still no joy.

Gavin

What os are you using ? Is it only unreal that get's fupped ?
What happens if you copy files over the connection ?

( ah right, explorer hangs.. is that the same for connecting to both machines ? )

Gav

Inspector Gadget

I seem to remember that Windows has some pretty spectacularly long timeouts when network connections go belly-up (it's why Windows 95/98 sometimes took a quarter of an hour to shut down "nicely") - it may be that your cable or your switch is damaged/faulty and that it's waiting for the timeout to finish. I do know (as does almost everyone here, I'd imagine, from personal experience) that the machine pretty much locks up completely...

Gadget

Scruff

i'm running 98 the other lads are running 2000 and XP.
its not a cable problem as the two of the were able to play fine so i swapped cables with on of them but still the same problem.

Win Explorer hangs when i browse to one of their shared folders.
i can ping both machines fine and see them in Network Neighbourhood.

We've only tried UT as one guy had to reformat his hd and the other had fook all games installed.

i'm going to get them to install the auld reliable Quake, i used to run that perfectly off a k6-200....

Could it be a dodgy network card? its a NCI 101100 Fast Ethernet Adapter, only cost €18.

Ruaidhri

ok its not a cable problem if you can connect to the network.

it's not a network card problem(they work or dont work,my one cost me $5 )

it's possible your settings? how many connection are there to the hug/switch you are using?
could be that you are connecting to a 100MB/s hub and the other lads are connected at 100MB/s.

i'd suggest upgrading to 2k(it's far more stable,quicker etc than 9x)
all the hardware *seems* to be ok(bar what i mentioned above)
try running a packet sniffer in the background to see where all the packets are going/comming from and why there is a delay
after that i'm (almost) out of suggestions

longword

I wonder could it be the half/full duplex setting on a card.

If a card is set to full duplex when it's supposed to be on half, it will appear to work fine when there's bugger all traffic. When traffic ramps up, all hell breaks loose and your link pretty much vanishes.

If your switch is really a switch, as opposed to a hub, then all the ports should be capable of full duplex operation, and can operate at half with no problems too.

You might try updating your NIC driver to whatever is the latest available from the manufacturer's web site.