Mystery WinXP Network problem

Hi All

I have a network with three computers: one WinXP and two Windows ME. The router is a Dlink DI-624. The Windows Me machines detect the network at boot up and function normally. The WinXP machines behaves like it sees the network and ZoneAlarm reports a Trusted zone at the IP address assigned by the router, but it is really not connected. If I pull out the network cable and plug it in again it reports a "Network Cable Disconnected" and than connects to the network just fine. If I try to look at the network from one of the Windows ME machines while the WinXP is disconnected, they take a long time and than declare that the network is not accessible. After the WinXP machine is connected this also works fine, except that when trying to actuaaly access the WinXP machine it asks for a password - there is nothing password protected on it, so this is a mystery too.

Any ideas how to solve this?

Thanks Colin

Reply to
Colin
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Well, it would work best if all the machines were WinXP. I suspect Zonealarm may be part of the problem. Pull the internet connection and turn off ZoneAlarm and see if the network functions properly. If so, then contact ZA support for help. If not, then try the network setup wizard in WinXP to generate a disk to set the WinME systems correctly.

Reply to
Ron Hunter

Colin,

If you're seeing a problem between Windows ME and Windows XP systems "seeing" each other, and the problem varies when you take one offline ("pull out the network cable"), I'll bet the browser (I'm not talking about Internet Explorer here) is part of the problem.

The browsers for Windows ME and Windows XP don't work well together. Since you have 3 computers, with 2 of them running Windows ME, you need to disable the Windows XP browser, and use the Windows ME browsers only.

Make sure the browser service is disabled on the WinXP computer. Control Panel

- Administrative Tools - Services. Verify that the Computer Browser service shows with Status = Disabled and Stopped. Enable the browser on the WinME computers (reverse the instructions here):

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After checking / disabling / enabling as above, power all computers off to reset the browser settings on each. Then power the Windows ME computers on, and finally the Windows XP computer on.

The Microsoft Browstat program will show us what browsers (I'm not talking about Internet Explorer here) you have in your domain / workgroup, at any time. It won't run on Windows ME. :(

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You can download Browstat from either:

Browstat is very small (40K), and needs no install. Just unzip the downloaded file, copy browstat.exe to any folder in the Path, and run it from a command window, by "browstat status".

For more information about the browser subsystem (very intricate), see:

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If you need to access the Windows XP computer from the Windows ME computers, remember to activate the Guest account, and make sure it has a null password.

Left click on the Start button - select Run. Enter "net user guest /active:yes" (less the ""), and hit Enter.

Left click on the Start button - select Run, again. Enter "control userpasswords2" (again, less the ""), and hit Enter. Select Guest, click Reset Password, click OK without entering a new password.

And Colin, posting your email address openly will get you more unwanted email, than wanted email. Learn to munge your email address properly, to keep yourself a bit safer when posting to open forums. Protect yourself and the rest of the internet - read this article.

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Reply to
Chuck

I'll add that you can disable the Windows Firewall on the XP computer, but do not disable the Windows Firewall and Internet Connection Sharing Service which AFIK is required to enable file sharing in XP. This site is a great guide to handling problems with XP networking:

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Q

Reply to
Quaoar

"Quaoar" wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@comcast.com:

Thanks for the responses. My main problem is not the WinXP-ME communication. The main irritant is that the WinXP machine does not connect to the network and can't go to the internet after a reboot. I have to pull out its network cable (or power off the router and power it on again) for this computer to connect. Any ideas?

Colin

Reply to
Colin

Check TCP/IP properties, Advanced tab, TCP/IP filtering. All ports/protocols should be "Permit All". In your TCP/IP properties, also set the router (192.168.X.Y) as the Gateway and the first DNS server even if using DHCP.

Q
Reply to
Quaoar

"Quaoar" wrote in news:ePednSZ86r-M70jcRVn- snipped-for-privacy@comcast.com:

Thanks. I will try that.

Colin

Reply to
Colin

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