File sharing stops after router change

  • Thread starter Thread starter Tony
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Tony

I have a local network with 3 PCs, Wired1, Wired2 and Wireless1, all running
XP Pro and sharing files in shared folders. Wireless1 has SP3, the others
have SP2.

My SMC router stopped working so I replaced it (with a Belkin F5D7230uk4).
All 3 PCs could immediately connect to the internet, but file and printer
sharing no longer works properly. Wired2 can see shares on the other PCs,
but no other shares work, with an error message on attemped access.

Wired2 has McAfee AV which uses its own firewall, that has the local network
IP range set as trusted. The other PCs use Kaspersky basic AV which doesn't
have a firewall, so Windows firewall is used, and it has file and printer
sharing set as an exception.

The following make no difference: disable the router firewall, and (on the
problem PCs) disable Windows firewall, and (separately) disable Kaspersky
AV. I've tried the fix on
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/897103/en-us?FR=1&PA=1&SD=HSCH.
All network settings seem very similar although there are so many
options it is hard to be certain.

Although the change happened on change of router, I find it hard to blame
the router as surely it must treat all connected PCs the same, but they
behave differently. Also there are a lot of these routers about and others
don't seem to have problems with them. Any ideas? - I am getting a bit
desperate!
 
To follow up my own message, I have found part of the problem but not all.
The 2 PCs running Kaspersky AV have a network component Kaspersky NDIS.
(Seems to be a bit like a firewall although there are no controls provided
for it.) This stops the LAN being accessible and has been reported as a
problem by some others.

Still a mystery why this problem only appeared after changing the router
although others have been complaining of it for 6 weeks or so. Could it be
MAC address? The old router cloned one of the PC MAC addresses, as that was
required by my ISP. It is no longer required so I didn't bother to do it
when setting up the new router.

With NDIS disabled, the Kaspersky PCs can now see all the others but cannot
acess the PC that has McAfee AV. The McAfee PC can both see and access the
Kaspersky PCs. So it is beginning to look like an AV problem. I shall
look at the McAfee firewall and network settings for the umpteenth time!
 
To follow up my own message, I have found part of the problem but not all..
The 2 PCs running Kaspersky AV have a network component Kaspersky NDIS.
(Seems to be a bit like a firewall although there are no controls provided
for it.) This stops the LAN being accessible and has been reported as a
problem by some others.

Still a mystery why this problem only appeared after changing the router
although others have been complaining of it for 6 weeks or so.  Could it be
MAC address?  The old router cloned one of the PC MAC addresses, as that was
required by my ISP.  It is no longer required so I didn't bother to do it
when setting up the new router.

With NDIS disabled, the Kaspersky PCs can now see all the others but cannot
acess the PC that has McAfee AV.   The McAfee PC can both see and access the
Kaspersky PCs.   So it is beginning to look like an AV problem.  I shall
look at the McAfee firewall and network settings for the umpteenth time!
Click to expand...

Problem with most anti-virus systems is that if the IP network scheme
changes, the software might need to be told to "trust" the IP
addresses of the network (if the router changes the IP addresses.)

Also, if the router is a wireless router, most modern anti-viruses /
firewall software system must be told to also trust the wireless
router's wireless network SSID. Router SSID tells the network its
"name" on the network and since you changed both the router maker (SMC
to Belkin) you have also changed the model of the router. No two
different router makers, or models, always use the same SSID.
 
smlunatick said:
Problem with most anti-virus systems is that if the IP network scheme
changes, the software might need to be told to "trust" the IP
addresses of the network (if the router changes the IP addresses.)
Click to expand...

I have now found that with McAfee AV, you also have to open ports even
within the trusted IP range. I'm still mystified by why the problem
started to show even though the IP range was the same as before and the
ports that were required to be open are also the same as before. I can only
conclude that the AV software detected a change of MAC address and silently
turned things off.
Also, if the router is a wireless router, most modern anti-viruses /
firewall software system must be told to also trust the wireless
router's wireless network SSID. Router SSID tells the network its
"name" on the network and since you changed both the router maker (SMC
to Belkin) you have also changed the model of the router. No two
different router makers, or models, always use the same SSID.
Click to expand...

Windows XP firewall doesn't seem to do this, and anyway I never keep the
default SSID and I set it to the same as before. But as I wrote in the
previous post, I did find the other problem, that was Kaspersky NDIS
networking component.

Anyay, thanks for your response. Why do AV software companies think that
no-one uses file and printer sharing? Their instructions don't seem to deal
with this issue explicitly, although no doubt you could work it out if you
are an expert.
 
I have now found that with McAfee AV, you also have to open ports even
within the trusted IP range.   I'm still mystified by why the problem
started to show even though the IP range was the same as before and the
ports that were required to be open are also the same as before.  I canonly
conclude that the AV software detected a change of MAC address and silently
turned things off.


Windows XP firewall doesn't seem to do this, and anyway I never keep the
default SSID and I set it to the same as before.  But as I wrote in the
previous post, I did find the other problem, that was Kaspersky NDIS
networking component.

Anyay, thanks for your response.  Why do AV software companies think that
no-one uses file and printer sharing?  Their instructions don't seem todeal
with this issue explicitly, although no doubt you could work it out if you
are an expert.
Click to expand...

Windows XP firewall is blocking incoming connections. It is when a
firewall monitors outgoing connection, it seem that this cause the
problem. Earlier this year, my Norton 360 was disconnecting my
"wireless" connections when I changed my router. I discoveerd a
temporary work-a-rounf by changing my SSID to the one on my older
router, which 360 was letting thru. I then found the "trustig"
settings.
 
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