looking for help on troubleshooting a network

[KDRaven]

I am trying to set up a small network for my church. We are using a Netgear wireless router and I am going to connect 2 pc's to it via wires and a couple of laptops wireless. It is also going to be connected to a wireless internet provider.
We dont have the internet up and running yet but I have been trying to get the network set up and I have one pc connected to the router and when trying to connect to the 2 laptops the pc can see both of them and can only access the one that has been set up to work on another network other than the churches. The laptop that has not been set up anywhere else other than for the church network it sees but when trying to access it I get the message that it does not have permission to access this device and to contact the adminstrator or some thing like that and when the lap tops try to access the pc they get the same message.

I have not figured out what setting that I have missed when trying to set the one laptop up or the pc. I have them both set for file sharing and I have even ran the set up a wireless network and used a flash drive to set the laptop and the pc up to the proper settings but I am missing some thing.

I have turned the msn firewall off on the pc and that has not helped.

I hope some one can figure out what I need to do to get things up and running by what little information that I have supplied.

Thanks.
Keith

[rkresge]

First, are all of the machines in the same Workgroup? (Check in System Properties, Computer Name, and Change). The computer names must be unique within your network, but the Workgroup must be the same for all.

Second, have you disabled Simple File Sharing? This often gets in the way.

Third, does each user have a local account (same user name and password) on all of the PCs where you want to share resources?

That's just a starting point.

Roger

[KDRaven]

The pc and one #1 laptop is in the same workgroup and they can not access each other the one #2 laptop that is not in the workgroup the pc can see and access after inputing the user nam and password for the laptop but the laptop can not access the pc.

I have the pc and #1 laptop with file and printer share on. #2 laptop has file share on and I can access them.

I dont know where to find the local account for the pc or #1 laptop to see and neither one has been set up for networking before this and neither one was set up to have a user name or password in the past.

Also after I changed the workgroup on #1 laptop it was not able to see the pc in the same workgroup.

[rkresge]

Further suggestions:

Check each machine's IP address, and make sure every machine can PING every other machine.

Go back through the settings on each machine and make SURE they're in the same Workgroup.

Make sure there are local user accounts for each user on every machine that will need to access the machines, and make sure the passwords are the same on each machine.

What were you able to find about Simple File Sharing? It often gets in the way of network sharing.

Roger

[KDRaven]

I re set up the network and this is the way it is set up.
pastors computer wired in to port 1 of the wireless router.
soundbooth computer wired into port 2.
pastors ip .1.2 / soundbooth .1.3
both on workgroup mshome.
file sharing and printer sharing on.
simple file sharing I dont know if this is the same or not.
local network connection the same on both.
the local user accounts are both set to administrator on both machines, no passwords set.

now the pastors computer can see the soundbooth computer but when trying to access it it gets a message and the last of it is "the network path was not found"
I tried pinging it and it was not able to ping it.
the soundbooth computer sees the pastors and can access it and get into its shared files
with out any problems.
I reran setting up a network on the soundbooth pc and it did not help.
I dont know if my router is not set up properly yet since I do not have an internet connection and that is the first thing it wanted when I tried to set it up with its disk the other night. I will be getting internet hooked up on monday and maybe the installers might know something.
a while back I tried to connect the soundbooth pc up to a laptop using a wireless adapter on the pc thrugh an wireless internet connection and the same problem. I could see and access the laptop but the laptop could see the soundbooth but not access it.
I dont know. what is up with the soundbooth pc.
I gess i'll try again monday.

Thanks for trying to help me out with this one.

[kbob]

...of course, even beyond enabling sharing, you have to actually share something...like a drive, or a folder, in order for the Pastor's pc to be able to see it....

[riafekim]

Do you have a firewall turned on any of the PCs? If so you will either need to turn them off or add them other PCs to the exception list.

[rkresge]

Wow, you've got a set of issues.

One is that you're using XP Home, although that's not an insurmountable problem. But you've noticed that it's not all that easy to log in as Administrator! Even if there is no password on it.

Some network sharing does not work if there is no password on the user account, amazing as it may seem. So try applying the *same* password to your user accounts on all machines. For example, if there's an account "Roger" on all machines, make sure it has the same password everywhere. It makes life much easier.

Try turning OFF Simple File Sharing on all machines. Don't wait around. Do it. Open My Computer->Tools->Folder Options->View. It's the last item on the list there.

As riafekim suggested, turn *off* the Windows Firewall on all machines as a test.

On each machine open a command prompt and run the command "ipconfig /all". Make note of the IP addresses of each machine, along with the Subnet Mask, Default Gateway, DHCP Server, and DNS Server settings. The IP address must be unique on each computer, but will probably begin with 192.168.x.x. If any of the machines have an IP address that starts with 169.254.x.x, you've got a problem. Other than the IP address, *all* of the other values you see should be the same on each machine.

When you tried to ping the soundbooth computer from the pastor's computer, did you do it by name or did you use the IP address?

Lots of questions, huh?

Roger

[cw4u]

All of the advice about is sound advice.

One thing I can tell you, is that it is not the router. The router just acts as a bridge to the outside world and the inside one. It does not control or block traffic inside really. It just controls traffic trying to go in or out.

Simple file sharing is underneath folder options near the very bottom. It's a very annoying thing. You might also want to disable the guest account, as this might be causing problems. Right click on My computer>Manage>Local Users>Users>Right Click on Guest>Properties>Disable.

If what we've told you doesn't work, just post. We'll get it fixed for you.

[KDRaven]

well the guys that are going to install the antenna for the wireless internet will be her in a vew hrs and hope fuly they know or see some thing that I have missed.

Thanks for letting me know wher simple file share is at . I'll click it off.

the Ip address are
routers=192.168.1.1
pastors=192.168.1.2
soundbooth=192.168.1.3

subnet=255.255.255.0
no paswords but I'll have to get with the pastor about putting one on the machines. I hate them though.

I dont think that guest is turned on or off but I'll check again.

Thanks again

Keith.

[rkresge]

Keith,

With those IP addresses and with that subnet mask, it seems obvious that the router is properly acting as a DHCP server and providing IP configuration to the machines. Next test is to open a command prompt and PING each system - including the router - from every other machine by IP address, like this example:

PING 192.168.1.1

You didn't answer my previous question about whether you were trying to PING using the IP address or the system name.

This test will confirm whether basic communication is taking place on your network.

Roger

[KDRaven]

Yes the router was supplying the ip and sub net address and I had pinged each computer and the router. when I tried to ping the soundbooth pc form the pastors using ip address it was not able to ping the soundbooth it just timed out. I also ran ipconfig /all to see what they were set too.

After the installer set up the information that he needed to on the pastors pc after installing the wireless antena for the internet things got worse than better. The installer was not able to help me out with this problem.
After he left I was able to access the pastors pc from the soundbooth still but when trying to access the soundbooth from the pastors pc, the pastors pc was not even to connect to the mshome network for some reason. We had set the IP address and sub net manualy instead of auto, hoping that that would ste things correct but it still did not help.

I do have internet access on both pc's now though and I have not tried a laptop wirelessly yet.

Also when I looked for simple file sharing I was only able to find display simple files in the area that you said to look for it.