Networking XP

When networking with these computers the steps you would take should be no different then the ones while networking a 98 computer. First make sure that the network card is infact installed properly and that all cables are infact making contact. Usually the hub light (if available) will be lit in such a case. Second, make sure you are using the same protocols. Generally I use TCP/IP so that platforms on the network shouldn't be affected. Third, make sure EACH computer has there own individual name and also sometimes may need to be in the same workgroup. Conflicting names and work groups are sometimes part of the problem.

Also it is kind of obvious to point out but make sure that your hub and network card are operating at the samespeed. IE a 10M/s hub and a 100M/s card. Just because your card is 10/100 does not always mean that it can auto sense the network type you may need to do some manual configuration.

Andrew

What protocol are you using? A protocol is the langauge that the machines are going to talk to each other using - they all must speak a common language.

I'll assume that you're using TCP/IP.

How are the machines connected together at the physical layer? Connections though a hub or switch function differently then a router.

I'll assume that you're using a switch.

Try dropping to the DOS command line and doing a "PING" command to the other machine's TCP/IP address. A sucessful reply means that the protocol stack and hardware are fine and the problem lies with the Windows software (see above suggestion about workgroups). A failure means that typically you've got a hardware issue or the device driver for the Network Interface Card(NIC) is bad or not loaded. Get another copy or an update.

With a TCP/IP workgroup each machine should be able to ping the others in the group.

Look at the TCP/IP subnet mask as they should all be the same within your network - this is a common problem too.

Did you turn off ICF (Internet Connection Firewall)? It disables Simple File Sharing. Go to control panel, network connections, ethernet connection, properties, advanced.

You may also want to install the NWLINK IPX/SPX Protocol on all of the machines. I think this works better than NETBEUI which can also be used.

one time i had to get my xp pro laptop in my peer to peer network of 12 or 13 desktops and what i finelly was some how i got to "network
identification" and i went through all of the steps and it worked!!!!

I have gone through all the answers. Even I have the same problem with XP. When I connect to the network sometimes it connects to the shared folders on the network and sometimes just hangs at entire network.

Looking at all the answers I think maybe in XP the autosensing of the speed of lan card is not efficient and i think you have to manually adjust the speed of the card by clicking properties of the lan card. Otherwise it will be a software bug. You have to look for some patches from microsoft site.

Recently, at a service call I did for an office with 10 workstations I had the same problem. Simple peer-to-peer network with one liksys router and one cheap hub.Some workstations would see only part of the network and weren't consistent either. Others had no brwose list at all.All machines had win98 (or so I thought). All machines had the proper IP address assigned and had access to the internet.
After troubleshooting the obvious, I was rocking my brain. It was not likely to be OS corruptionsince I had multiple machines with the same issue. So I decided to go and check all of the remaining machines. Customer never told me that they have just added a new laptop with winXP on it. We all know the election rules for Browse Master. Well, asit turned out, ICF was "on" (on the XP laptop)and preventing the other machines on the network to update the browse list. The second I turned it "off" and the browse list were updated on all machines and the issue was no more. I hope this helps you.If it does, please let me know. Also, if I happened to be wrong on anything, I would also like to hear it. Thanks.

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