Windows XP WinXP Networking: More problems

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Prime8

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WinXP Networking: More problems *FIXED*

***FIXED*** - Read my last reply

Firstly, please disregard any of my other posts. This is yet another problem and is a seperate senario to my other networking issues.

I'm at home. The family computer (computer A) has a broadband connection to the internet via a NIC + Ethernet. No problems here. It has ANOTHER NIC connected to my computer (computer B) via cross-over cable. These two computers were networking absolutely fine a few days ago before I took computer B to my friends house and no doubt changed some network settings on computer B in the process.

The problem: Computer A and computer B are not talking in any way*. They are connected by a working cross-over cable. They are on the same network (MSHOME). I have tried putting the settings to default/automatic on both, and they seem to communicate, because they both establish an IP 169.254.xxx.xxx and the IPs are different.

I tried setting computer A as a set IP as 192.168.0.1 (Curious: Does this conflict with my internet connection?) and leave computer B as default/automatic. Sure enough, computer B will go to 192.168.xxx.xxx. Still they do not talk*. I tried setting computer B to 192.168.0.2. Nothing. I tried setting both to use NetBIOS. Nothing.

I'm rapidly running out of ideas here. Any information you have could be usefull. Ask me if I've left out details. Keep in mind that these two computers were talking fine a few days ago. I'd say I've messed with come settings and now they don't talk*. What should the settings be for computer A and computer B is my main question. Should they have the range of 192.168.xxx.xxx or 169.254.xxx.xxx? What's the difference?

Any ideas? Thanks a heap! :D

*Computers 'talking' is what I refer in that computer B cannot access the internet, nor can either computer access the other for file-sharing. In addition, they can never find each other in a ping command at the command prompt.
 
Last edited:
Okay, time for an update. After looking into this problem for over 4 hours straight, I have now installed the protocols NWLink NetBIOS and NWLink IPX/SPX/NetBIOS Compatible Transport Protocol. This has enabled the two computers to file-share no problem.

The only problem now is internet sharing. Computer B cannot use the internet. In addition, the computers cannot ping each other.

C:\>ping computerA
Ping request could not find host computerA. Please check the name and try again.
etc

I tried setting computer A to 192.168.0.1, 192.168.0.2, 192.168.1.1 and default/automatic and the same for computer B but this made no difference to their ability to file-share nor did it help internet sharing.

Thanks Microsoft.
 
Did you read the stuff on Muckshifter's link on the prevoius post?
I would delete the LAN connection on both computers and start again from scratch.
It doesn't matter what IP address you use, the 169.254.xxx.xxx is a standard Windows thing and the 192.168.0.xxx is a private class 3 network address commonly used for this type of network, as long as they both use the same set of addresses and make sure the subnet masks are identical.
It is usually straightforward networking 2 XP machines so if you follow the stuff on Muckshifter's link after deleting all the existing LAN stuff, it should come together.
It's worth checking your firewall settings to see if that is blocking your connection, it may be remembering the permission to the other machine you linked up to and not allowing your machine.
 
Okay, thanks Steve. How would I go about deleting network connections and starting over?
 
Thanks everyone for your help, but I found the problem! My NVIDIA firewall which I disabled was reportedly still active. Although I turned it off, ended its process in the task manager, and modified the services.msc so it would not run at windows startup, Windows Security Center on computer B reported that NVIDIA firewall was still on.

I uninstalled it and it fixed the problem instantly. This, however, was installed days ago when it was working fine. My conclusion, therefore, is that by installing Zone Alarm while NVIDIA firewall was installed messed things up quite a bit.

If people are having the same problem, i suggest you have only 1 firewall installed on your computer and disable it.

Good luck :D
 
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