Hm Ntwk 3 XP-SP3 PCs, but only 1 is inaccessible
 

The spec-built PC with the problem is this:
http://speccy.piriform.com/results/6...h8uyoHLX5JpWGi

Environment:
-----------------------------
3 PCs in home network, all of which run XP SP3, AVG9 Free, and Kerio
Personal Firewall
PC names: Rapido, ESI-RENE1, Ironman
2Wire Gateway DSL home networking router from AT&T w/ WiFi & 4 LAN
ports - deployed within the last year
Simple file sharing is enabled
Home network range has been added to allowable address list in all 3
firewall filter lists and to safe network lists on all 3
All 3 PCs are on WORKGROUP (name of the workgroup is WORKGROUP)
No VPN or proxy

Symptoms:
-----------------------------
ESI-RENE1 can see all the shared files on Rapido and Ironman
ESI-RENE1 can read/write to Rapido and Ironman
Rapido and Ironman can read/write all the shared files on each other
ESI-RENE1 shows in WORKGROUP via Network Places Properties on Rapido
and Ironman, but when you click it, it errors out. Search for computer
ESI-RENE1 from Rapido and Ironman returns null even though it displays
in the GUI


Troubleshooting done so far:
-----------------------------
Verified ESI-RENE1 has internet connectivity
Made sure sharing turned on with ESI-RENE1 for My Documents folder and
other desired folders
Verified simple file sharing set everywhere
Tried disabling simple file sharing on all 3 to see if it would let me
connect and authenticate w/ UID/pwd @ ESI-RENE1 -- NOPE
Re-enabled simple file sharing - reattempted access to ESI-RENE1 shared
files - NOPE
Dropped firewalls on all 3 PCs
Tried pinging - can ping everything except ESI-RENE1
Tried RDP - can use RDC to connect to anything except ESI-RENE1; cannot
VNC to ESI-RENE1 even though VNC is running as service; only way I can
connect to ESI-RENE1 is join.me or Team Viewer
checked "arp -a" from ESI-RENE1 and they're all there
checked "net view" from ESI-RENE1 and they're all there
Checked NetBios - it's enabled
Did ipconfig /release and ipconfig /renew on all 3 boxes then
reverified all are showing in net view
Made sure Windows Firewall and Windows Security services (My Computer
Manage) are disabled, so it's not conflicting with Kerio
Made sure all TCP/IP advanced properties set to automatic - just like
Rapido and Ironman are (and they have no problems)
Rebuilt TCP/IP stack
Ran chkdsk /r
Typical clean-up work on ESI-RENE1: Ran CCleaner, cleaned out unneeded
programs and typical Windows trash, Ran MalwareBytes scan, Ran
SuperAntiSpyware scan, defragged, got rid of temp junk, validated paths
and application MD5's in Kerio, trimmed down what loads at startup
Opened Home Networking and Firewall areas of router to check file
sharing accessibility, and from the router all 3 show and have
accessible files - viewed from ESI-RENE1's browser, \\Ironman and
\\Rapido and \\ESI-RENE1


PINGing: can ping Ironman and Rapido from each other and from
ESI-RENE1, but can't ping ESI-RENE1 from anywhere, although it resolves
as correct IP address. Guess that means the router's doing right and the
problem is within ESI-RENE1.

There are 2 NIC cards in ESI-RENE1: made sure one is enabled other
disabled and that enabled one has the cable connected; then switched the
cable to the other NIC card and switched which one is enabled/disabled,
but all the same symptoms persist - so it's not a flaky NIC card in
ESI-RENE1
Unplugged the cables from the router and switched them all to different
ports - same problems persist unchanged.

So now I'm scratching my head - Looks to me like all the settings are
correct, same for ESI-RENE1 as for Ironman and Rapido, and only
ESI-RENE1 has these problems. If not for the very, very lengthy
installation and customization process for ESI-RENE1 (due to special
industry software and tons of plugins and scripts to make it fly fast),
I'd just blow away the OS... but that would literally require over 2
weeks to get the system reinstalled and reconfigured, let alone figure
out how to back up data beforehand with this kind of networking
hamstring.

What do I need to do to get ESI-RENE1 showing *and* accessible to the
other PCs in WORKGROUP?

Thanks,
Rene


"If it ain't broke, don't fix it." Fine - now it is, so I gotta fix it.

Hm Ntwk 3 XP-SP3 PCs, but only 1 is inaccessible
 

Whoa!!!, you got a bad one there.

If Rene1 can use resources in the other PC's, Rene1 network is working OK.
Since you cannot PING Rene1 from the outside, there is a Firewall
setting in Rene1 blocking 'inbound' connections to Rene1.

A procedure I had use to resolve some problems like that is:

From control panel (on Rene1), run 'Network Setup Wizard', make sure
you change the parameters to match your workgroup, and select share
folders and printers, apply those settings, do not create floppy.
That should clear whatever is blocking Rene1.

Hope will work for you.


On 2/9/2011 21:35, rinnie1 wrote:
The spec-built PC with the problem is this:
http://speccy.piriform.com/results/6...h8uyoHLX5JpWGi

Environment:
-----------------------------
3 PCs in home network, all of which run XP SP3, AVG9 Free, and Kerio
Personal Firewall
PC names: Rapido, ESI-RENE1, Ironman
2Wire Gateway DSL home networking router from AT&T w/ WiFi& 4 LAN
ports - deployed within the last year
Simple file sharing is enabled
Home network range has been added to allowable address list in all 3
firewall filter lists and to safe network lists on all 3
All 3 PCs are on WORKGROUP (name of the workgroup is WORKGROUP)
No VPN or proxy

Symptoms:
-----------------------------
ESI-RENE1 can see all the shared files on Rapido and Ironman
ESI-RENE1 can read/write to Rapido and Ironman
Rapido and Ironman can read/write all the shared files on each other
ESI-RENE1 shows in WORKGROUP via Network Places Properties on Rapido
and Ironman, but when you click it, it errors out. Search for computer
ESI-RENE1 from Rapido and Ironman returns null even though it displays
in the GUI


Troubleshooting done so far:
-----------------------------
Verified ESI-RENE1 has internet connectivity
Made sure sharing turned on with ESI-RENE1 for My Documents folder and
other desired folders
Verified simple file sharing set everywhere
Tried disabling simple file sharing on all 3 to see if it would let me
connect and authenticate w/ UID/pwd @ ESI-RENE1 -- NOPE
Re-enabled simple file sharing - reattempted access to ESI-RENE1 shared
files - NOPE
Dropped firewalls on all 3 PCs
Tried pinging - can ping everything except ESI-RENE1
Tried RDP - can use RDC to connect to anything except ESI-RENE1; cannot
VNC to ESI-RENE1 even though VNC is running as service; only way I can
connect to ESI-RENE1 is join.me or Team Viewer
checked "arp -a" from ESI-RENE1 and they're all there
checked "net view" from ESI-RENE1 and they're all there
Checked NetBios - it's enabled
Did ipconfig /release and ipconfig /renew on all 3 boxes then
reverified all are showing in net view
Made sure Windows Firewall and Windows Security services (My Computer
Manage) are disabled, so it's not conflicting with Kerio
Made sure all TCP/IP advanced properties set to automatic - just like
Rapido and Ironman are (and they have no problems)
Rebuilt TCP/IP stack
Ran chkdsk /r
Typical clean-up work on ESI-RENE1: Ran CCleaner, cleaned out unneeded
programs and typical Windows trash, Ran MalwareBytes scan, Ran
SuperAntiSpyware scan, defragged, got rid of temp junk, validated paths
and application MD5's in Kerio, trimmed down what loads at startup
Opened Home Networking and Firewall areas of router to check file
sharing accessibility, and from the router all 3 show and have
accessible files - viewed from ESI-RENE1's browser, \\Ironman and
\\Rapido and \\ESI-RENE1


PINGing: can ping Ironman and Rapido from each other and from
ESI-RENE1, but can't ping ESI-RENE1 from anywhere, although it resolves
as correct IP address. Guess that means the router's doing right and the
problem is within ESI-RENE1.

There are 2 NIC cards in ESI-RENE1: made sure one is enabled other
disabled and that enabled one has the cable connected; then switched the
cable to the other NIC card and switched which one is enabled/disabled,
but all the same symptoms persist - so it's not a flaky NIC card in
ESI-RENE1
Unplugged the cables from the router and switched them all to different
ports - same problems persist unchanged.

So now I'm scratching my head - Looks to me like all the settings are
correct, same for ESI-RENE1 as for Ironman and Rapido, and only
ESI-RENE1 has these problems. If not for the very, very lengthy
installation and customization process for ESI-RENE1 (due to special
industry software and tons of plugins and scripts to make it fly fast),
I'd just blow away the OS... but that would literally require over 2
weeks to get the system reinstalled and reconfigured, let alone figure
out how to back up data beforehand with this kind of networking
hamstring.

What do I need to do to get ESI-RENE1 showing *and* accessible to the
other PCs in WORKGROUP?

Thanks,
Rene


"If it ain't broke, don't fix it." Fine - now it is, so I gotta fix it.

Hm Ntwk 3 XP-SP3 PCs, but only 1 is inaccessible
 

Just a thought, I know you said that you are running Kerio firewall - it
isn't possible that Windows Firewall has turned itself on as well? I had
something similar once (think it was SP2 though and can't remember the
other type of firewall). Windows wasn't picking up that another firewall
had installed itself so it turned itself back on.

Hm Ntwk 3 XP-SP3 PCs, but only 1 is inaccessible
 

rinnie1 wrote in
:

Dropped firewalls on all 3 PCs
Tried pinging - can ping everything except ESI-RENE1


Symptoms all point to a firewall. Somewhere. Do you have the Cisco VPN
Client installed on that computer? If so, it contains a Stateful
Firewall that is always enabled even when the VPN client isn't running.
If this is your case, startup the VPN client, click the "Options" menu
and un-check the firewall entry.

HTH,
JW