Help needed qith XP pro and network!!

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OK i have a problem with my network on 2 XP pro machines. Basically both can connect to the internet via a US robotics router no prob. But i cannot get them to talk to each other. I think its down to just a problem with one machine.
On the good one if i list workgroup comps, it shows itself and the other pc but cant access it (permission not granted etc etc.) But i can Ping the other pc from CMD no prob.
However on the BAD Pc it will not view workgroup PCs at all not even itself. I keep getting the message

"MSHOME is not accessible. You might not have permission to use this network resource. contact the admin of the server to find out if u have permission.

The list of servers for this workgroup is not currently avaiable."

Now i am logged in as the admin account so access should be no problem. What have i done wrong????? I've tried reinstalling the NIC drivers and tried all options under setup home network.

The Both machines have XP pro SP2 and Zonealarm firewall installed (dont think its the firewall as thats configured for access to the router which both pcs are connected to). HELP!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

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Do you habe identical user accounts / passwords set up on both PC's?

Also have you shared a Folder on one of the PC's?

Can you ping the good PC from the bad one?

 

and are the client for microsoft networks and file and printer sharing for microsoft networks installed/enabled?

 

OK

1st, I cant ping the good pc from the bad one.. lost packets.
2nd, im logging in with different user accounts on both pcs but they are both admin accounts.
3rd Client for MS networks and file/printer sharing is enabled on both pcs.
4th WHile messing around with this i have now lost internet connection on the BAD pc.

Wheres that wall gone.. i have the felling that i need to bang my head against it!!!

 

match the accounts/passwords on both machines, and shut down zonealarm temporarily to make things easier to troubleshoot.

 

Start by switching off the firewalls on each machine.

Harry.

 

When u say match the accounts and passwords.. u mean create admin accounts on both machines called john with the same passwords too? and log into them? and try setting it all up again???????

 

And i have tried it with the firewalls off on both machines... no different.

 

Is this a domain, or a workgroup?

AFAIK you don't need to match usernames on a workgroup as long as the ACL on the share is set to the default.

Harry.

 

Yep!

 

Did you try the ping test each way while the firewalls were off?

Harry.

 

you don't necessarily need to, but windows can be quirky at times. best to start from the simplest situation and take it from there.

 

right im pretty sure ita a workgroup as im using view workgroup computers to see the pcs.... and thats where the Bad one fails.

Any idea how i get the internet connection back too?

 

It is my view that you need to start at the foundations - the TCP/IP layer, by using ping to check that it is working.

The Windows protocols are quirky enough to cause confusion if the foundation isn't solid.

So check the pings from each machine to the other to see if they are behaving.

Harry.

 

Ok i can ping from the good m/c to the bad one.... less than 4ms no packets lost...
But i cannot ping from the Bad m/c to the good one... 4 packets lost. And this is from within CMD and both firewalls are on. I get transmit failed...error code 65.

 

i suggest to keep the firewall off for the moment. like harry and myself indicated earlier, it will only complicate troubleshooting.

okay, do you have static ip addresses, or dynamic ip addresses? if dynamic, is it the router that assigns them to your workstations? you can try a ipconfig /release and a ipconfig /renew, but i doubt that will help much.

if you have static addresses, are they in the same range, with the same subnet and gateway, and such?

 

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;316414

turn ... off ... zone alarm ...

 

OK with ZM turned off the bad m/c pings the good one......
Still no internet connection tho.

Ok if i Ipconfig /all i get Subnet and default gateways the same on each machine... However the bad pc does not list the DHCP or DNS server addresses...WHich on the good pc are the addresses used by the router. Ahh also bad pc says DHCP not enabled... hmmm getting somewhere now.

 

okay, so next step, enable dhcp on the bad pc. let's see if that brings back your internet connection. from there we can see if the other issues can be solved. one step at a time.

 

Ok got DHCp enabled and DNS and got internet connection back.
However still back at stage one.... NO network between the 2 PCs.... The bad one still will not show workgroup pcs.