problem pinging between PC'es connected to Linksys WRT54GS router

Often the problem turns out to be associated with "firewall" settings. You're hiding behind your router SPI firewall so temporarily turn off the firewall on both computers and see what happens. If the computers can then see each other you know where the problem is. But, someone correct me if I'm wrong... I don't think you can share a printer with XP SP1 if you are using the XP firewall. Might not even be able to share files with SP1 firewall. Also make sure you enable printer sharing on the desktop once the computers are talking.

Thanks for your response.

I have Norton Personal Firewall installed on both my laptop & desktop. After turnng off all 3 firewalls (router's, laptop's and desktop's), I still got the same problem (could not ping from laptop to desktop).

Any other area should I look into?

1. Check if the Windoze XP SP2 firewall or 3rd party firewall (ZoneAlarm, Kerio, Norton, McAfee, etc) are blocking the pings. Temporarily disable the firewalls to be sure.
2. The WRT54GS has a feature called "AP Isolation". It really should be called client isolation. It's on the bottom of the Wireless settings page. If it's checked, the WRT54G will NOT bridge between two wireless clients. The idea behind isolation is to prevent worm attacks between wireless clients. This is very useful in coffee shop type of hot spots, but not very useful for home users.

Use ping to do all your testing. Once ping is working in both directions, the rest of the Windoze networking pretzel should function as expected.

No new ideas but... instead of pinging... have you enabled printer sharing on the desktop? If so, have you tried to add network printer from the laptop? (add printer / location network / browse network) Do you have at least one shared folder on the desktop computer? If not.. create a folder on the desktop and share it. Then try to browse to it from the laptop. (I think it best to make the shared folder read only.) You can get rid of the shared folder later but it may help establish the network settings. Also... Not a good idea to turn off the router's firewall protection.

Been there, no luck.

I can't find this option. Under Wireless tab, there are 4 sub-menus (basic Wireless settings, Wireless Security, Wireless MAC Filter, and Advanced Wireless settings). None of them has such option. The firmware version is v2.07.1 shown on the top right corner.

Yeah, can't do anything without ping'ing it thru :(

I goofed. It's called "AP Protection". It's on the bottom of the: Wireless -> Advanced Settings page. With Sveasoft Alchemy-V1.0 v3.37.6.8sv firmware (recommended), it's in the middle of the page. It should be OFF by default.

I think the WRT54GS has this feature. I'm sure the WRT54G does. Current Linksys firmware is 4.50.6. You're 4 major revisions behind in updates. The "AP Protection" feature may not be on earlier versions.

I suggest you use Sveasoft Alchemy firmware instead:

I also have the WRT54GS -- just got it recently. I came with the

3.37.6 firmware (which does not show on the LInksys page). Upgraded to the 4.50.6 from Linksys (as Jeff says -- do NOT use a wireless connection to do the upgrade). I have no problem pinging between my machines - several have SP2 on them. Make sure you are not blocking it with something like ZoneAlarm (once you find the problem, it is usually a "duh" moment -- I speak from experience !)

mikey

My WRT54GS setup page shows "ap isolation" like Jeff said originally. My firmware is Linksys v3.37.6 If you do a firmware update... do it from the wired computer. Not the wireless computer. If there are storms brewing wait till later. You do NOT want this operation to be interrupted.

I did the fireware upgrade; which I appreciated you guys' info. The upgrade did not solve the problem; but I finally have it resolved. I needed to turn off two firewalls on my desktop -- the Windows' Internet Connection Firewall and Norton Pernal Firewall -- before I could finally ping thru from my laptop to my desktop.

I used to think that when Norton Personal Firewall was installed, it would turn off Windows' firewall for me. I was wrong; it was not the case on my XP Home SP1 desktop.

But turning off Norton Personal Firewall just to let my laptop to access my destop's printer share -- it doesn't sound reasonable to me. Maybe I should give up this idea.

Thanks for all you guys' help.

Norton PFW has a network wizard that when run should open the path to your laptop. If you can't find it use Norton HELP. Look into getting SP2.