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Problems setting up home network with switch - Any help appreciated

Discussion in 'General Open/Public Discussion' started by Desperado, 23 Jan 2003.


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  1. Desperado

    Desperado

    First off, I feel like a retard cause I can fix computers all day but I get confused with network stuff.

    I have four computers, each computer has a 10/100 NIC(two have 3com 3c905CX-TX-M cards in them, the third and fourth have some kind of Intel integrated 10/100 NIC. I also have a Linksys EZXS55W 10/100 5-port switch. Two systems have WinXP Home, one has WinXP Pro, and one has Win98SE. I also have a cable modem involved in all of this.

    So, I've got all four computers and the cable modem hooked up to the switch. All of the computers can access the broadband and I didn't have to do anything to any of them in order to do so. But, I can't get any of the four computers to see each other let alone share files or printers. Each system only shows itself on the network, nothing else. I can't even ping between any of them.

    I've double checked that all systems have the same protocols, services, etc. installed. The workgroup is the same on each. Each computer has a unique name. Each computer has a drive or device shared with full access to each. Each computer is connected using cat-5 patch cable.

    I've tried reading network troubleshooting stuff, tried using the WinXP network setup wizard, etc. but nothing works. I did hook up a crossover cable between two computers(XP Home and XP Pro systems) and was able to share files back and forth. I was under the impression that this switch was a hub that I could connect computers directly to just like a normal hub, just with the added benefits of a switch but now I'm wondering if that's not the issue.

    Any help you can offer might help. Maybe my brain's just fried and I'm missing some easy. (And all this started to just try to share the printer between two of the computers. Bleh.)
     
    Desperado, 23 Jan 2003
    #1
  2. Great Dane

    Great Dane <B><FONT COLOR="RED">THE LEGENDARY BANNED</FONT></

    Open up Windows Explorer, and Right Click on one of the folders and select properties.

    Click the sharing Tab, and then the "Share this folder" button.

    Fill out the other info.

    If your worried about Hackers you'll want to click the permissions tab and then grant access to the users you log in under.

    If you haven't shared any of the drives on the network it makes sence that you can't access them.
     
    Great Dane, 23 Jan 2003
    #2
  3. Arglaar

    Arglaar

    Sounds like your switch is turning on Auto-partioning for some reason...

    What that does is cut of that one port from the rest of the network if for some reason it goes bad or is causing excessive traffice or something like that...

    You were right when you assumed that your switch should act like a hub and allow the other machines to see each other...

    The main reason switches are better than hubs is that they are not sharing their traffic... each one has a dedicated path that they transfer data on. In a hub, all the ports share the same data path, so, for example, in a 100Mbit hub, when one port is using 65Mbits of data, the other ports onlt have 35Mbits left available. In a switch, each port gets the full 100Mbit to use.

    I would recommend that you check linksys' knowledge base to see if there are any know issues with your combination of Operating systems and the Model Switch you are using.
     
    Arglaar, 23 Jan 2003
    #3
  4. Desperado

    Desperado

    Woo, man it must be dead tonight or maybe I just gave you guys something to talk about on here for once :p At any rate...

    Dane,
    Sorry, good thought, but I do in fact have drives shared on three systems and a drive/printer shared on another. At the moment they're all set to full access(was planning on switching to user only access later once I was sure everything is working).

    Arg,
    Oh ok, well that's good my thoughts were confirmed. The reasons you list are the same I wanted a switch. I glanced at the Linksys website but didn't find anything, will try again and see if they have any kind of deeper info(knowledge base, etc.)
     
    Desperado, 23 Jan 2003
    #4
  5. Desperado

    Desperado

    Forgot to mention this thought I had:

    Does anyone think the problem might be that I need to setup user accounts on each computer to be able to access the other systems? Two XP systems and the 98se system just use the Welcome screen when the system starts up(no usernames/passwords) and one XP system does require a user/pass. If I remember correctly though, XP's file and print sharing use the Guest account to access the other systems(as long as no user/pass is required to access it). I double-checked and the Guest accounts on the three XP systems are enabled and I even set the one XP system to no longer require a user/pass but still none of the systems can see each other.
     
    Desperado, 23 Jan 2003
    #5
  6. Asmodeus

    Asmodeus DragonWolf

    touch your penis.

    That usually solves my problems.
     
    Asmodeus, 23 Jan 2003
    #6
  7. Desperado

    Desperado

    :D bwahahahahahaha :D

    Best idea yet, not sure if it'll fix the computers, but not a bad idea.
     
    Desperado, 23 Jan 2003
    #7
  8. Manitou

    Manitou Old War Horse DragonWolf

    Despo, with all this PC stuff going on, you plan on playing PlanetSide with us? I can get you assigned to a platoon if you are!

    Would be great to have you!
     
    Manitou, 24 Jan 2003
    #8
  9. Marsman

    Marsman

    My first thought is that all these systems sit on the "public" side - if all are hooked to the switch, then your ISP must be handing out public IP addresses to each of the computers. Depending on the sub-net mask used, they may be routing through your ISP's primary cable router to in attempts to communicate with each other. When you have no DHCP (the part that hands out the IP numbers from the ISP) the OS creates a local random IP on it's own. Thus, the crossover cable is able to work. Suggest you try as an experiment, removing the cable modem from the switch and rebooting all the computers and let them come up with local IP's for themselves. If they are then able to communicate, you are dealing with routing issues caused by the public numbers your machines are getting. You ISP may be blocking pings and file sharing ports if your machines are routing through the cable ISP router in attempts to talk to each other.
     
    Marsman, 24 Jan 2003
    #9
  10. Racewiz

    Racewiz

    Go into the command console on one of machines and do an IPCONFIG command to find out the IP addresses you are running. If they start with a 10, 127 or 192 you know your machines have an internal IP and not a public one. There are more but these are the common ones.

    Otherwise I would look at the controlling software for the switch to be sure you have full port access on for the machines.
     
    Racewiz, 24 Jan 2003
    #10
  11. WarChilde

    WarChilde DragonWolf

    i have 5 pc sharing one cable line. i have the cable modem, router(built in switch), and a hub. 3 putes have xp, one has 98SE, and last one has winME. all work fine for accessing the internet and file sharing on the lan as well as 3 printers. hub has a print server for laser printer, and the other 2 printers are on xp machines, all putes can print. also, i have umax scanner hooked up to xp machine and all machines can scan images over the network, thats pretty slick i thought.

    once you get a toe hold on networking, it'll be easier for you to troubleshoot stuffs. in yer case, sounds like you just have a cable modem and a hub with no router(hardware or software), i dont have any expierence with that kinda setup, i've always used cable/dsl, ISDN routers in combination with hubs/switches.
     
    WarChilde, 24 Jan 2003
    #11
  12. Manitou

    Manitou Old War Horse DragonWolf

    WC!! You playing PlanetSide, bro? :D
     
    Manitou, 24 Jan 2003
    #12
  13. Oed

    Oed

    Damn, I could never get my XP and ME machines to see each other consistantly unless I set up a dedicated server...lucky bastards (but of course I did not try that hard either)
     
    Oed, 24 Jan 2003
    #13
  14. Rayzer

    Rayzer

    Er..War has a point.

    If you are using a cable modem and a switch/hub.....you need a router thrown in there or it wont work.
     
    Rayzer, 24 Jan 2003
    #14
  15. Desperado

    Desperado

    Mars,
    This was another idea I had cause I figure since you can't browse the rest of the people on your node in Attbi's network, I thought what you said might be the case with the switch.

    Race,
    Unfortunitely there isn't any software for it, just plug everything in and it auto-detects everything.

    War,
    This is true, it's just a switching hub, no router, no router with built in hub or anything like that.

    Rayz/War,
    So what you guys are saying is that if I want to be able to share the internet to all the pcs AND be able to do file/print sharing I need a router with bulit in switch/hub? That sucks but is not a big deal, the switch was cheap and I think I can still return it.

    I'll have to check everything one last time this weekend, thanks to everyone for their suggestions/help.

    Mani,
    Yea it's a good possibility I could be playing Planetside as long as it's not going to be extremely time consuming. I have a few pc upgs planned in a few weeks (after coming back from vacation and paying a couple of bills) so my system should be ready for it.
     
    Desperado, 24 Jan 2003
    #15
  16. WarChilde

    WarChilde DragonWolf

    you can buy routers with built-in switches and some even have print servers now for almost as much as a switch by itself. i paid about 90 bucks for mine, about 1.5 yrs ago, its smcbarricade router with built in switch(4 port) and print server. i've seen some with up to 8 ports on the router.

    as for planetside mr manitou, i dunno if im gonna be playing it cuz its pay to play. mebbe i'll check the demo out when it comes out and see what its all about.
     
    WarChilde, 24 Jan 2003
    #16
  17. Desperado

    Desperado

    Yea I checked out routers with built in switches/hubs and there is one that is identical to the switch I have now except it's also a router. It's like 20 bucks more so not all that bad.
     
    Desperado, 24 Jan 2003
    #17
  18. Arglaar

    Arglaar

    Hey WC.. I was having the same reservations about DAOC and finally I broke down and tried it and I'm having a blast!
     
    Arglaar, 24 Jan 2003
    #18
  19. WarChilde

    WarChilde DragonWolf

    to get a winme/98 machine to see an xp machine, have the winXX machines set to 'log on to client for microsoft' and not 'windows logon'.
     
    WarChilde, 25 Jan 2003
    #19
  20. Desperado

    Desperado

    So this weekend I disconnected the cable modem from the switch, rebooted all the computers and they all were able to share stuff just fine so it does look to be the cable that is screwing up the internal network. Alas, I'll be going this week to exchange my switch for a router with built in switch and give it all another shot.
     
    Desperado, 27 Jan 2003
    #20
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