Lost Connection on Home Network (was working a few days ago)?

I have a Home Network that was functioning, then stopped, here are the details:





Comp A - Tower wired to Router via CAT5 and Printer via USB. Running XP Pro


Comp B - Tower wired to Router via CAT5. Running XP Home


Comp C - Laptop wireless. Running XP Home


Router - Netgear WGT624 v3





As stated this was all working a few days ago. I have since "played with some settings" to no avail. Comp A and B still function as set up. I can ping Comp C from A or B and it comes up in the Workgroup Compters screen of A and B, however I can't see the shared drives or folders of C.





From Comp C, I can ping A or B, but they don't come up in the Workgroup computers list.





I have tried rebooting everything, I have turned off all Firewalls, I then left off the MS Firewall and turned on the Norton Firewall with the IP's added to the exception list (this was the way it was originally).





I hope someone has the answer, I can't think of anything else.

Lost Connection on Home Network (was working a few days ago)?
You may have to rip out the network settings on all three (uninstall the network neighborhood) and then reinstall. Only do this if you have the original software, of course.





Alternatively, check the workgroup name and make sure it is exactly the same on all three computers. Spelling and capitals do count. :-)





I'm lazy. When my network mysteriously craps out, I check the cables first. Then I do the settings. Then I just rip it all out and start over.





Good luck!
Reply:Going out on a limb here...





From your work on ping and disabling firewalls, you have verified you have basic connectivity. I will assume your firewalls are allowing ports associated with Windows networking (TCP and UDP 445, and the older set of TCP 135-139, along with UDP 135-139). I will also assume you verified you have file and printer sharing enabled on all your computers.





The Workgroup list is populated by a 'master browser' for your home network. All of the running Windows computers work in the background to figure out which computer should maintain a list of the computer names and services associated with IP addresses.





I'll guess your Windows XP Pro tower usually elects itself as the master browser. You may try leaving the XP Pro tower off-line to see if you have any different results before mucking around in RegEdit.

surveys