I finally got my home network up and running! I'm running Windows 2000 and was having problems getting the computers on the LAN to see each other. They can all access the internet just fine, but when I'd go to "Network Neighborhood", "Find Computer", or "Computers Near Me" I'd get a big fat nothing.
Having exhausted all the logical possiblities, I decided to try something nonsensical. I went into my network connection properties and added the "NWLink IPX/SPX/NetBios Compatible Transport Protocol" protocol... and voila! Everything's peachy-keen! Just insert a few hours of frustration into the story and you'll get an idea for how exciting my life has been recently.
Not knowing what type of hardware you are running (router vs. switch vs. hub, p2p vs Server) the most common cause for that problem is different network groups (mshome vs. workgroup), incorrect subnetmask (try 255.255.0.0) or an incorrectly set router.
If it gives you trouble again, try fixed ip addresses for all your boxes (192.168.1.1-XX 255.255.0.0) it is actually eqasier to do it this way in small networks.
Michael, you don't need those other protocols, although in a round-about way they solved your problem.
I imagine in your Network properties you originally only had (TCP/IP) checked, or installed. That will give you Internet access but won't address NetBIOS browsing inside your LAN. Adding NWlink "solved the problem" because it provided a common NetBIOS protocol. As a band-aid it's okay, but you'll get way more efficiency out of your LAN if you do this:
1) Uninstall NWlink from all machines. you don't need it. Having it installed with TCP/IP forces your machines to "guess" the best language every time they speak to another box (eg...one protocol for the Internet, and another for browsing locally. As in, "gee which one do I use?") They are tried in order, with the default order being the order you installed them.
2) Make sure "Client for Microsoft Networks" and "File and Printer sharing" are installed and CHECKMARKED on all machines.
3) Optional - depending on the number of machines, this can speed up "discovery" of your machines with one another, so to speak. Install WINS on your "Main" box. Then, in all your boxes (including the one you just made a WINS server) put the IP address of the WINS server in the WINS section of the Network properties.
4) Make sure workgroup names match. Make sure your IP addresses are in the same subnet, although since you said you had Internet access, this is most likely correct.
Voila' Now your machines speak only one protocol no matter what they're doing. And, TCP/IP has less overhead than NWlink (which is really just a renamed version of Novells IPX/SPX protocol). Just make sure if you do this, that all your boxes are hidden behind a router. You don't want to enable File and Print sharing if you are directly connected to the Internet.
That's all. There will be a test on Friday.
PS, Rey's suggestion might have worked, but your problem wasn't IP addresses, because you were already routing out to the Internet. Besides, he showed a Class B mask with a Class C private subnet. That's an accident waiting to happen, and it's bad manners, even when "hidden" behind a router.
Cheers.
NetBios is being phased out, and WINS right along with it (check with MS for details). If you're running a private network, a dns/dhcp combination with a WINS backup for legacy services is the recommended solution for network browsing. Anything that is Win2k or later will work with this setup (without WINS) but older machines need WINS.
The overhead of multiple protocols is, indeed that they get tried in order and you end up wasting time. But beyond that, older MS networks are decidedly chatty compared to the more modern solution I describe above. NetBIOS depends an awful lot on broadcast traffic on a repeating basis while DHCP is decidedly less reliant on efficiency sapping broadcasts.
Wow ok, lots of info. Let's see....
Rey: I think JP is right on this, because I do have net access.
JP: I did have your (2) done, they were both installed and checked on all machines; I also had (4) done. I didn't do (3) because my router said to disable WINS (and I'm not sure what it does, I've never had to use it before). So are you saying that if I disable IPX my machines will eventually see each other if I just wait long enough? How long? I waited quite a while, several hours when I got frustrated and went to watch TV.
The computers could find each other via their IP addresses, but not their computer names. Does that mean anything?
TML and JP: How much is IPX slowing me down? I'm on 100Mbps ethernet but transferring files last night felt pretty slow (there seemed to be fixed overhead per file, even for files only a few kb in size).
Thanks for all the info, I appreciate it.
I think I speak for all of us "non-techies/computer illiterate or barely functionally literate" when in response to your post I say, "Wha....?"