I’ve been trying for weeks, but I just cannot get even the simplest Ethernet two-node LAN working under Mac OS 8.6 (or 8.5.x either) and Windows XP Home SP2. This is a direct, wired Ethernet LAN with only two nodes. There is no router or gateway present, and Internet connection sharing is NOT desired. I’m using Mirimar’s PC MacLAN v 8 software for intercompatible file sharing.
Current problem: NO pings get responses in either direction from either side.
On the Mac side:
Direct Ethernet connection to PC via D-Link 10/100 Switch
All link and activity lights on switch flash in reponse to ping, and all show speed is 100, full duplex
IP address hard, manually assigned to Ethernet NIC: 192.168.0.4 / 255.255.255.0
Correctly formatted OT Hosts file used for all local LAN addresses, no DNS
No gateway or DNS IP addresses associated with that NIC/connection
No routers present
No direct connection to modem, broadband or otherwise.
Self-pings by both name and IP address are fine.
All pings to the PC fail (timeout without any response).
On the PC side:
Windows XP Home SP2
Direct Ethernet connection to Mac via D-Link 10/100 Switch
All link and activity lights on switch flash in reponse to ping, and all show speed is 100, full duplex
IP address hard, manually assigned to Ethernet NIC: 192.168.0.2 / 255.255.255.0
Hosts file used for all local LAN addresses, no DNS
No gateway or DNS IP addresses associated with that NIC/connection
No routers present
No direct connection to modem, broadband or otherwise.
XP’s tray and related displays show NIC is active and connected.
Self-pings by both name and IP address are fine.
All pings to the Mac fail (timeout without any response).
Mac Hardware Configuration: Power Computing PowerBase PPC Macintosh with ATA disks and 3 PCI slots, running Mac OS 8.6 and Open Transport 2.0.3. NIC is Daynaport 10/100 PCI Ethernet Card. I’ve tried it on two different Ethernet hubs, and it’s currently connected to my Windows XP PC via a D-Link 10/100 Switch. The latest driver compatible with MacOS 8.6 is installed and running and reports no error. And I know the PCI slot in question is working (it worked fine with a SCSI HBA there).
Now, here’s a possibly telling but puzzling fact: On the Windows side, there is a display showing the connection status and other details of the Ethernet NIC connection, and it consistently shows that zero packets have been recieved. However, when I ping the PC from the Mac (Mac -> PC), the count of packets the PC has SENT increments for each ping!
Unfortunately, the Mac still reports all pings have failed.
I desperately need help, please.