Wireless network question

[hypernova]

I set up a wireless network a few days ago, and I have it connecting to the internet just fine on both my main pc, and arcade pc.  However, I can't access my arcade pc from my main pc.  It seems to see the shared folders on the other pc just fine, but it won't let me access them.  I have them both with unique names, and both in the same workgroup.  Strange thing is, that last night I had it working after I got the workgroup names the same, and as far as I can remember, didn't change anything else.  Everything I mentioned above is still the same.

It tells me: 

\\hypercade\d is not accessible.  You might not have permission to use this network resource.  Contact the administrator of this server to find out if you have access permissions.

The network path was not found.

When I had a wired network, I didn't have any problems accessing my arcade pc from my main pc.  So what's going on?

[gonzobrian]

Are you using the same os on both systems?  I've alway had problems getting xp and 2000 to play well together.  Never had that problem with just win 2000. 

[loadman]

You could try via the IP number rather than the name.

That is the way I do it..  

eg  \\192.168.0.182\mametable

[Crax]

Do you have a firewall running on the machine you are trying to access? Is so, try disabling the firewall.  Depending on what you are using, you should be able to set it up to allow shared files but configurations will vary. 

[leapinlew]

You could try via the IP number rather than the name.

That is the way I do it..  

eg  \\192.168.0.182\mametable

This will bypass any naming issues if your having them.

Do you have a firewall running on the machine you are trying to access? Is so, try disabling the firewall.  Depending on what you are using, you should be able to set it up to allow shared files but configurations will vary. 

This can always be an issue with XP SP2 (where the windows firewall is on by default). When you enabled file sharing - did you do simple file sharing?

Can you access files from either machine to either machine or is it only blocked from 1 machine to the other?

Can both machines surf the internet ok?

[Bill Mote]

I add an account called "localshare" and give it a cryptic password on every machine.  Then I can map to my machines using a known-good account:

net use b: \\{computer name}\{share name} /user:localshare password /persistent:NO

dot

[hypernova]

I add an account called "localshare" and give it a cryptic password on every machine.  Then I can map to my machines using a known-good account:

net use b: \\{computer name}\{share name} /user:localshare password /persistent:NO

dot

Besides the account name and password, that lingo is beyond my technical comprehension.  I'll check everything else out tomorrow.

[leapinlew]

I add an account called "localshare" and give it a cryptic password on every machine.  Then I can map to my machines using a known-good account:

net use b: \\{computer name}\{share name} /user:localshare password /persistent:NO

dot

Besides the account name and password, that lingo is beyond my technical comprehension.  I'll check everything else out tomorrow.

What he's doing is mapping a drive letter to a network drive using credentials he's created already. You can do this from the run prompt. It will only work if you substitute localshare with a known good username and password with a known good password.

if you click start\run and type

\\computername or \\IP Address
(use the name of the other computer or the IP address of the other computer)

it should show you a list of files you have shared (unless you've applied security). It would be nice to know how the results of trying either of these.

[Bill Mote]

Oops.  Sorry.  Assumed a little too much apparently.

Another tip; do this from a command prompt.  It will work from a Run dialog as advertised, but you won't see any success/failure messages.

If you drop the "/persistent:NO" part then your machine will auto-magically reconnect to the drive letter you specified in the command.  So, when you go looking for files on that machine you simply open My Computer and double-click on the "B" drive.

Hope I'm being helpful and not confusing things ...

dot

[hypernova]

This just isn't making ANY sense, at all.

Both PCs connect to the 'net just fine through the router via WPA-PSK encryption on the same wireless network.  Router is configured for that as well.  Both PCs have unique names.  Both PCs are part of the same workgroup (no domains in the house, obviously.)  I have Windows firewall turned off on both PCs while trying to figure this out.

Here's what I want to happen:  I want to access my arcade's PC from my main PC.  I don't care about, or even want to access my main PC from my arcade's PC.

Here's as far as I got:  I got the Shared Documents folder to show up on my arcade's PC, but wouldn't allow access to it.  (It was shared so I could test it out.  I also shared my D drive-a second partition on the HD, but that wouldn't show at all.)  So the wrong PC showed the file that I didn't care about.  I couldn't ever get my main PC to show anything from the other PC.

I tried everything on here including dot's initial prompt message.  Got a Q on that one:

Computer name is the other PC's name.  Local share and password is just a username from the other PC with it's respective password.  What is "share name?"  The folder's name I'm trying to access?   Do I use the {} ?  I did with and without, and no dice.

My wireless router is listed as 192.168.1.1.  The first pc is listed as 192.168.1.2, the second pc is ...1.3.  I assume those are the IP numbers I was supposed to use?  If so, they didn't work.  Using the PC names in a run prompt didn't work either.

I've also tried these things, assuming Windows might be picky on workgroup names:
1.  Used regular "network setup wizard."  Yielded a workgroup name of "WORKGROUP."--Nothing
2.  Right clicked my computer, and under the computer name in properties, clicked "network ID."  That yielded a workgroup name MSHOME.--Nothing.
3.  Did another setup wizard, changed the connection type to "through a hub" rather than "through a residential gateway," and workgroup name HYPERNOVA.--Nothing.

What in God's name is wrong?  Wired, this thing worked flawlessly.  To add even more confusion, it connected just fine one night, and I transferred a small folder from my arcade to my main PC.  The very next day, when nothing was changed, nothing works anymore.

   

Wow, so many smilies express my feelings...

[mccoy178]

Well, I just set up all the computers in my house on a network last night.  I just modded an xbox and thought,"how cool would it be to send my music, video, and games around the house?".  I used my laptop to start and once I set up a wireless network, I used my windows xp cd on the wifes laptop, the arcade, the jukebox, and and office computer.  The network was named the default,"mshome".  All I had to do then was right click any folder I wanted to share, click on the sharing properties tab about halfway down and then select and apply the option to share the folder on the network.  After that, on any of the computers all I have to do is hit Start and select My Network Places and viola, the folders I chose to share from each computer pop right up.

[hypernova]

That's about the only thing I haven't tried-using the XP cd.  Technically, I shouldn't have to, but I may have no choice but to give it a shot.  I wanted to avoid having Windows setup the wireless network, as setting it up through my card/router software allows more control.  Being a "casual" user, I may not need that level of control.  Will give it one more shot by week's end.

[Bill Mote]

Okay.  Let's tear this thing down one piece at a time ...

1. Do all of your machines have IP addresses?  Start->Run->CMD then type IPCONFIG at the prompt and hit [ENTER].

2. Does the subnet mask and default gateway match on all machines?

3. Do you have an IP address in the same range as the other machines on your network?  192.168.x.y where x's are equal, but y's are not.

4. Can you "ping" between machines?  You'll almost certainly have to enable ICMP traffic for this to be true.

Given that everything above is correct/successful ...

1. Start on 1 machine.  Create a share.  On the same machine as the share do this: Start->Run->\\{machine name}  This will display an explorer window with all the shared resources available on the machine.  Given that you're on the machine and logged in you should have permissions to see the share.  Double click the share.  Worked?  Good.

2. Go to another machine from which you were able to ping the machine with the share and do the same thing.

If it doesn't work try creating a share on the 2nd machine and then repeating step 2.  By creating the share on the 2nd system you're ensuring that it has the necessary protocols enabled.  If it still doesn't work you have a windows firewall and/or permission issue.  Plain and simple.

dot

[leapinlew]

Okay.  Let's tear this thing down one piece at a time ...

1. Do all of your machines have IP addresses?  Start->Run->CMD then type IPCONFIG at the prompt and hit [ENTER].

2. Does the subnet mask and default gateway match on all machines?

3. Do you have an IP address in the same range as the other machines on your network?  192.168.x.y where x's are equal, but y's are not.

4. Can you "ping" between machines?  You'll almost certainly have to enable ICMP traffic for this to be true.

Given that everything above is correct/successful ...

1. Start on 1 machine.  Create a share.  On the same machine as the share do this: Start->Run->\\{machine name}  This will display an explorer window with all the shared resources available on the machine.  Given that you're on the machine and logged in you should have permissions to see the share.  Double click the share.  Worked?  Good.

2. Go to another machine from which you were able to ping the machine with the share and do the same thing.

If it doesn't work try creating a share on the 2nd machine and then repeating step 2.  By creating the share on the 2nd system you're ensuring that it has the necessary protocols enabled.  If it still doesn't work you have a windows firewall and/or permission issue.  Plain and simple.

dot

This is all true and well wrote.

I'd like to make some additional comments:

Not only can it be windows firewall, it could be any of the other "system" suites that you may be using to protect your computer like McAffee or Symantec. These often times come with a firewall. As a general rule, avoid this software at all costs. It's root kit technology that digs so deep into windows - it'll cause you more harm than good.

One thing to check would be to make sure that both of your machines are connected to your access point. It's possible that one of the machines grabbed a neighbors access point. The best way to check this is to log into your router and check out the DHCP table. It should show all machines that have an IP from the router. You should see only your machines names in there. 

Next, it's important to check that your router isn't blocking access to the machines. You said that it works via wired network and the problem only happens when doing wireless. I'm suspect of the router having some sort of security measure. While I haven't seen it, I've had various levels of success in the last few years since routers have been implementing security.

The last thing I can think of is to make sure simple file sharing is turned on. I've had lots of issues if you don't have this on in XP on a workgroup. It's never an issue with XP on a domain, but with some workgroups - it can be a pain. Here is a link describing how to turn on simple file sharing.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/304040

Let us know what you did.

[Bill Mote]

Access Points.  Love 'em and Hate 'em.

Here are some tips that I use:

1. Change the default SSID.  Personally, I use my address.  I don't care if my neighbors know which network is mine.  More on this in a minute.  Make sure all your PCs are connecting to your network.

2. Add encryption.  I wouldn't do this until you've checked all your machines per #1.  WPA would be great, but WEP will do if not all your machines support WPA.  Use a password that's easy to remember (here's where the zealots and I will argue LOL) -- keep it simple.  I use my 10-digit phone number.

  Remember, if someone wants on your wireless network you will not stop them.  What you're trying to accomplish is keeping the casual passer-by honest.  You can enable MAC filtering but honestly you're just making your own life harder.  The casual passer-by will see that the network is encrypted and move on to your neighbor's network

I can use a simple packet sniffer to determine what MAC addresses your accepting.  I've over simplified this but it's a brute force thing and it takes less than 30 min. to accomplish.  Once I have a "good" MAC address I clone it on my external NIC interface.  Now your router will talk to me!  Now it's just down to brute forcing your encryption key.  All-in-all; do you think it's worth the headache?

I use dd-wrt on my Linksys router at home.  I have my wireless network setup privately with encryption, but I also have a wireless hotspot that I leave open.  I like my neighbors

Back to my point ... Once you know you have all your wireless stuff jigged around you can go back to my IP testing mentioned above.

dot

[hypernova]

Thanks for the help guys.  Apparently that night I DID change something.  Something that seems like it shouldn't make a friggin' difference.  I've narrowed it down to one thing:  Wireless security.  After reading dot's suggestion, I got to 4, and wasn't able to ping, but when I ipconfig'ed my arcade, I got an IP, along with a bunch of other crap message with the words pseudo tunnel and other stuff, so I searched that on the net.  Found this link.   Point of interest was the second to last post.  While I used WPA-PSK encryption instead of WEP, the problem was the same.  (Yes, the router and both cards were all configured for WPA-PSK correctly.)  So I checked without any security, and B-I-N-G-O.  Wanting at least SOME security, I enabled 128 bit WEP, and that works.  So apparently, the PCs refuse to talk to each other due to WPA-PSK security being enabled.  Why?  I don't know.  Maybe it's due to the fact that both versions of software are different, and the WPA-PSK on the older version isn't quite perfect.   (Reason being another mysterious problem:  The latest version of software, while installing correctly and without issues on my arcade would exhibit problems on my main PC.  After installing it on the main PC, the program would NEVER run.  No amount of clicking could get that thing to work.  I could NOT figure out why.  Even after a recent reinstall of XP.  So I had to resort to the previous version, which works fine.)  This doesn't really bother me, as I don't expect anyone to try to piggyback off my wireless, especially since there's probably no one out here within 5 miles of having a wireless capability.  We just recently got broadband (only ADSL so far) and I don't think too many people realize it, and even have the knowledge to use wireless.  Not near any subdivisions either, so I don't expect any problems.
Plus, if I'm not mistaken, if I find someone using my wireless, I can start screwing with them too anyway.  I saw that one thread where you can turn their internet pages upside down and do all sorts of things to drive 'em nuts.

Problem solved gentlemen!

[leapinlew]

Yeah, since you said it worked wired, and didn't work wireless - I was looking for it to be an issue with the wireless. To be honest, I thought it possible that one of your machines wasn't on the same access point. But, the fact that it had something to do with the wireless security doesn't surprise me.

Lately they have been locking down the wireless equipment pretty hard from the store. Some require physical access to the access point to get it to work. For a few years, while travelling for work, I could almost find a "hotspot" (linksys, netgear or default).

Good job on finding the solution to your problem!