[mdnightsmokr]

I have a simple question ( I hope ) for sombody, I have 3 computers networked on a linksys wired router, and for some reason the computers cannot see eachother. I had it working fine before and for some reason it stopped working. I'm not sure what to look for as far as troubleshooting goes, I'm new to the whole network thing. I tried to run the network setup wizard again on all computers and still I had no luck. The only changes I have made is on 2 of the computers I uninstalled Norton Internet Security (due to massive problems) and I took the advice of this forum and downloaded AVG anti-virus and Zone Alarm firewall, both of which work very well thanks guys! That is the only thing that has changed, so if anybody has any advice about what to look for I would greatly appreciate it. Thanks!

 

[ebackhus]

Are they all in the same workgroup?

 

[macca]

I had a similar problem. Firstly you have to configure the firewall to allow each of your computers access to the others. With zonealarm you click on the firewall tab and it allows you to add "trusted zones" either as a single ip address, or as a range of ip addresses. My home network range is 192.168.1.1 (router address) through to 192.168.1.255. If you create that range (or whatever yours is) in the trusted zone, your comps should be able to see each other again. Another thing I discovered is that when using the network setup wizard make sure you check "this PC connects to internet thru a gateway or other pc" (ie the router) on EVERY one. I know it's not strictly correct (i'm sure there's an option for connecting through router but don't check that one) but I discovered on another forum that with the linksys router I use, this is the only way to get your pc's talking to each other once you've got the firewall thing with zonealarm sorted.
Hope this helps
Regards, Macca

PS I know home networks would normally have the range 192.168.0.1 - 192.168.0.x, but for some reason the linksysy router applies 192.168.1.1 - 192.168.1.x - took me a while to realise that

 

[mdnightsmokr]

they are all in the default workgroup MSHOME.

 

[huntert]

are all your pcs using win xp ? If so go to run and type cmd to go to a dos prompt type ipconfig on each pc the ip addresses should be similar such as 192.168.1.100,192.168.101, and 192.168.102. The subnet mask for a linksys router will normally be 255.255.255.0. The default gateway by default will be 192.168.1.1. Go to each pc and check these things and make sure that you can ping your default gateway. Your network card and your router should obtain an ip address automatically unless you have a static ip. Sometimes when you check ipconfig you will get a 169.xxx.xxx.xxx ip address this is called microsoft autoconfiguration ip address this can be a whole different story but the first thing that i would do in such a case is to power down my modem,the router and the pc, then i would power everything back up starting with my modem which i would wait for the dsl light to come on solid, then i would plug my router into the power and wait for the dsl light, then i would power the pc back up and check ipconfig again. One thing that is important to determine is if you are set up for dhcp or pppoe. Dhcp is automatic configuration and pppoe is a broadband connection requiring a username and password. If you are pppoe and you are not getting a proper ip you can specify an ip in your network card.