I have a small office with 5 computers networked together. I ordered DSL from SBC and it came with a self install disk. I installed it on my desk computer, with the the DSL line going from the wall to the supplied modem, then the ethernet cable to my computer (replacing the cable that goes to the hub). All worked fine. Then I ran the cable from the modem to the uplink on the hub and plugged my computer into the hub again. I could still go online with no problem. Well, there was one problem.
Now, none of the other computers can see my computer. It however can see one (?) computer on the network, just not the one I really need it to. I’ve checked everything I know to check. The settings all seem correct, at least from what my limited knowledge tells me. It seems like if my computer were truly knocked out of the network, it wouldn’t see the one computer. This really puzzles me. Most of the computers are running Win 98, but mine is running ME (yes, I know).
Does anyone have any suggestions that might help? This is the first week I’ve been open for business and it is really adding a lot of stress to an already stressful week. Any information would be GREATLY appreciated!!!
The way it works (sorta; I’m probably getting some of the technical details wrong…) is the ISP (SBC in your case) probably gives you two IP addresses. So when you run the self-install, your computer gets one, and when you reconnect the hub, the first computer the ISP sees gets the other. So you need instead of the hub to have a router, that will get an IP from the ISP, and then give ``local’’ IP’s that the ISP doesn’t need to deal with to the five computers. Of course, now that you’ve registered 2 computers with the ISP, you’ll need to un-register at least one and then register the router you just bought, so it can get itself an IP from SBC. Clear as mud?
Did you make sure that all the internal IP adresses on the office machines are on the same network? My experience is that local networks use the 192.168.XXX.XXX or MS will auto assign the 169.XXX.XXX.XXX network. I have had my IP adresses change when installing software and I don’t know why it did that. Also make sure to check that all computers are in the same Workgroup. Once these are established then ping the IP adresses to test connectivity. Lastly, I would recommned that you replace that hub with a router/switch not so much as to fix your current problem but because you can then shed the software that comes with SBC-Yahoo. I did not like that one bit. Good Luck MS networking can be fun at times.
Fun isn’t the first word that comes to mind right now.
I’m going to pass your info to someone who is at least a little more technical than me, although not enough that he wasn’t also perplexed by what is going on.
I’ll let you know how it turns out. Thank you very much for your help!
I wouldn’t mind hearing from anyone else who has experienced a similar problem with this particular software. I’ll take all the help I can get.
Your modem might be assigning your PC an IP address via DHCP. If so, then it is probably assigning it an address that doesn’t match what your other PCs are using. The installation software of the modem may also have simply assigned your PC an IP address that matches the one in the modem.
Open a DOS box on two of your PCs (the one connected to the DSL modem and one other) and type in the command “ipconfig.” It will list a lot of stuff, including the IP adress and the net mask. These should look something like this:
IP address: 192.168.100.2
net mask: 255.255.255.0
The last number of the IP address on the two PCs will have to be different. The other three numbers MUST be the same (as defined by the net mask) for the two computers to see one another.
There are two fixes possible.
First, you can permanently assign all of your PCs an IP address from the same range. In the example I gave above, you would set your PCs to use 192.168.100.2, 192.168.100.3, etc. You would set the net mask to 255.255.255.0 on all PCs, and set the default gateway to the address of the PC with the DSL software. This will of course require that PC to be running when any other PC needs access to the internet.
The second possibility is to buy a DSL router. You will have to set it to use an IP address matching the one in the modem, and you will have to give the router your dialing setup and username and password for the DSL account. Once that is done, you can activate the DHCP server in the router and set all of the PCs to use DHCP. You will also want to set the default gateway on all of the PCs to use the IP address of the router. You can get a DSL router for a small network (three or four PCs) for around $50.
If all of that sounded like chinese, then I recommend you find a friend or acquaintance who understands the gobbledegook or else hire someone to do it for you. If you screw it up, and then decide to have someone do it for you it will take them longer to set it up because they have figure out what is messed up and fix that before they can set it up properly.
Your modem might be assigning your PC an IP address via DHCP. If so, then it is probably assigning it an address that doesn’t match what your other PCs are using. The installation software of the modem may also have simply assigned your PC an IP address that matches the one in the modem.
Open a DOS box on two of your PCs (the one connected to the DSL modem and one other) and type in the command “ipconfig.” It will list a lot of stuff, including the IP adress and the net mask. These should look something like this:
IP address: 192.168.100.2
net mask: 255.255.255.0
The last number of the IP address on the two PCs will have to be different. The other three numbers MUST be the same (as defined by the net mask) for the two computers to see one another.
There are two fixes possible.
First, you can permanently assign all of your PCs an IP address from the same range. In the example I gave above, you would set your PCs to use 192.168.100.2, 192.168.100.3, etc. You would set the net mask to 255.255.255.0 on all PCs, and set the default gateway to the address of the PC with the DSL software. This will of course require that PC to be running when any other PC needs access to the internet.
The second possibility is to buy a DSL router. You will have to set it to use an IP address matching the one in the modem, and you will have to give the router your dialing setup and username and password for the DSL account. Once that is done, you can activate the DHCP server in the router and set all of the PCs to use DHCP. You will also want to set the default gateway on all of the PCs to use the IP address of the router. You can get a DSL router for a small network (three or four PCs) for around $50.
If all of that sounded like chinese, then I recommend you find a friend or acquaintance who understands the gobbledegook or else hire someone to do it for you. If you screw it up, and then decide to have someone do it for you it will take them longer to set it up because they have figure out what is messed up and fix that before they can set it up properly.
BTW:
I would personally got with the DSL router and permanently assign all PCs an address. That’s just me, though. I don’t trust automatic stuff worth a damn.
Find someone with Windows XP. Create a Network Setup Disk. Run the network setup disk on your WinME and Win9x machines. It’s the easiest way to fix your networking hassle.
Did you buy a static IP from SBC, or is it using PPPoE (Point-to Point Protocoll over Ethernet)?
It kind of sounds like you have PPPoE, if you needed to install software to get it to run.
Also, do you want to share the internet connection with all of the computers?
If that’s the case (PPPoE or not), then I really suggest getting a cable/dsl router. I know that some of the Netgear ones support PPPoE, as I’m sure most of the others do at this point. They’re cheap (<$100) and easy to use.
Your other option would be to put another ethernet card in one of the computers and run an internet connection sharing application. This, I’ve found, is really sub-optimal, especially with win 9X, since every time the person using the sharing computer has to reboot nobody can get on the net.
I second (no wait… fourth?) the router suggestion. As buckgully says, make sure your connection is supported by it first. You haven’t described your current networking situation (static or dhcp, servers, services, etc), but a router is the way to go with a small network like that.
P.S. - Unless xash knows something I don’t, running the “network setup” off an XP machine will try to make that machine a client of the XP machine. (Plus turning on dhcp and other), which doesn’t sound like it’ll fix your problem.
Just to second (or third, or fourth, or whatever) everyone else, you probably need a router or more IP addresses.
Worst case scenario, upgrade to Windows 2000 or XP. We had a mix of 98 and ME running at home over a period of 2-3 years, and none of us could ever get all the computers to see all the other ones. (“Us” being my dad, who built a majority of our computers, and myself, who built the rest of them. We’re old-hat. ) 9x networking is just one giant nightmare, whereas every computer we have now that’s been upgraded can at least see all the other XP computers, and mostly the lone remaining 98 one as well. (The 98 itself still can’t see diddly-squat, though.)
We’re running a couple XP computers just fine on some cheapy “gateway router” thing I picked up from Toshiba. Once you get it set up (which took me a while), it runs smoothly. So I add to the calls for a router.
Open a DOS command window on your “offending” machine.
It's probably in Start/Programs. If not, Go Start/Run. Type "command" in the window. Press Enter. A DOS window shows up.
Type “ping -a youroffendingmachinename” without the quotes.
press Enter.
A bunch of stuff will show up. If it says No Reply, networking is not properly installed on this machine.
If it says something like:
Pinging youroffendingmabchinename [NNN.NNN.NNN.NNN] with 32 bytes of data:
Reply from NNN.NNN.NNN.NNN: bytes=32 time<10ms TTL=128
Reply from NNN.NNN.NNN.NNN: bytes=32 time<10ms TTL=128
Reply from NNN.NNN.NNN.NNN: bytes=32 time<10ms TTL=128
Reply from NNN.NNN.NNN.NNN: bytes=32 time<10ms TTL=128
Ping statistics for nnn.nnn.nnn.nnn:
Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 0ms, Maximum = 0ms, Average = 0ms
note the number in NNN.NNN.NNN.NNN. This, as has been pointed out, should be the same as the other machines in the network up to the last 3 NNN.
I believe NETBUI must be installed for ME to work (as well as TCP/IP on all machines).
Delete the “hosts” file on your offending machine.
Thank you all so much! While I admit that most of what you said has gone right over my head, it at least gives me enough information to show to someone a little more knowledgable than me. Hopefully, it will all make sense to him and all of my computers can live as a happy family again. Or at least talk to each other once in a while.
) 9x networking is just one giant nightmare, whereas every computer we have now that’s been upgraded can at least see all the other XP computers, and mostly the lone remaining 98 one as well. (The 98 itself still can’t see diddly-squat, though.)