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Windows networking problems

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by sbeighle

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I always setup new computers in my office, and everything works fine, including my network connection. However, as soon as I set the same machine up in my users office, the machine will not find the network. I've tried blowing the NIC away, uninstalling Client32, changing ports on the hubs, but nothing will help the machine see the network. After letting the machine sit overnight, when I come back in it SOMETIMES sees the network, but not always. This happens with every new machine I build, anysuggestios? I'm running Windows 98 on the client, and NetWare 4.11/5.1 for the network with client 3.2. Thanks, Shawn

15 replies

by doubledown

if you are using dhcp, then you should try manually releasing and renewing the ip on the machine when it is in the user's office.

otherwise, you may want to check out the cabling/port to see if something is loose or whatever.

by mmcdade

This is coming from whoever is acting as the "master browser" for that network. In a nutshell, one computer in a MS network has a list of all the other computers on the network that it provides. The choice of who gets to be master browser is rather complex and is based in part on what operating system it is running (NT 4 has precedence over Windows 98, Windows 98 over 95, etc.).

You can tell if a computer is acting as the master browser by running the command:
nbtstat -a machine_name at a command prompt (ex: nbtstat -a Tally0001). The machine that is the browser will have _MSBROWSE_ show up in the NAME column. If you reboot that machine it should clear it's browse list.

That's the technical behind-the-scenes stuff. The other optionis to just wait and once all the machines reboot (say tonight when they shut them all off) the network should appear correctly. It takes time in peer-to-peer networks as there isn't one machine that holds the list so the changes slowly propagate from machine to machine.

by mmcdade

This is coming from whoever is acting as the "master browser" for that network. In a nutshell, one computer in a MS network has a list of all the other computers on the network that it provides. The choice of who gets to be master browser is rather complex and is based in part on what operating system it is running (NT 4 has precedence over Windows 98, Windows 98 over 95, etc.).

You can tell if a computer is acting as the master browser by running the command:
nbtstat -a machine_name at a command prompt (ex: nbtstat -a Tally0001). The machine that is the browser will have _MSBROWSE_ show up in the NAME column. If you reboot that machine it should clear it's browse list.

That's the technical behind-the-scenes stuff. The other optionis to just wait and once all the machines reboot (say tonight when they shut them all off) the network should appear correctly. It takes time in peer-to-peer networks as there isn't one machine that holds the list so the changes slowly propagate from machine to machine.

by campbell

When you say it wont see the network, do you mean just in network neighborhood, have you used find computer to look for a specific computer also are you able to ping other computers on the network?

by techrep

All that stuff about master browser and everything is correct, but try this to accelerate getting to the end desired result: Go into Windows Explorer and click Tools then Map Network Drive. In Path, type in the name of the shared resource such as \\server\c and assign it the desired drive letter. (Obviously you will type in a valid name.)

by dheupel

OK Folks, he said he's running NetWare, so it's not a peer-to-peer Master Browser issue. Although the information about Master Browser computer posted is correct.

More than likely, when a computer with a NetWare client installed cannot "see" thenetwork, one does not even get a login window. The machine, if it boots into Windows at all, goes right to the desktop.

Some more information about what kind of computers/NICs/infrastructure hardware would have been useful. I can tell you this much... If your PCs have 3Com NICs, and your infrastructure hardware are Cisco switches, then your problem most likely lies with the NICs not successfully auto-sensing the port speed/duplex mode on the switch, thus disabling network access. Programyour switch ports in the manner you desire (i.e.: 100BaseTX/Full Duplex), and then force the NICs on the workstations to operate in the same mode.

by shawn.carney

Is the connection from your office to the hub more of a direct route? Perhaps one of the routers in your network is going bad. I know you said you tried different ports, but have you tried a different repeater or hub?

Also, go into the propertiesfor your NIC in Network Neighborhood properties and make sure it's binding correctly to your protocol.

Also, make sure the frame type is set correctly under IPX protocol properties (I assume that's what you're using since you've got Novell). We had some problems when it was set to Auto, so we had to be specific (in our case Ethernet II) and that cleared up the problem for us.

Good luck.

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