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Help! No ping responses in simple 2-node Mac<->PC wired LAN

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by ambush1145

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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.

2 replies

by ambush1145

Critical new info -- The Macintosh is at fault.

I finally got the chance to borrow someone's laptop and tried, one after the other, connecting to the two primary machines. I tried talking to the Mac first, using Windows on the laptop, and the symptoms were the same as always. Then I decided to boot up the live CD of Knoppix on the laptop, just to make sure the problem wasn't Windows, and that failed too.

So I connected to the main PC running Windows XP with Knoppix on the laptop, and lo and behold, it worked perfectly! That also gave me a way to test all the cables, and all of them are working fine, and naturaly we now know the D-Link Switch is working right, also.

I sincerely thank everyone who's helped get me this far!

Now: can anyone help me solve the Mac's problem without without investing more money into this old Mac?

Please recall that I've already tried two different NICs in the Mac: One Asante and one Dayna. All indications are that the Dayna is working better. So how about we proceed for the time being on the assumption that the Mac's Dayna NIC is working, and that there's some software problem?

I don't have a third NIC to try. Everyone's embedding them in their mobos these days. But if in a few days the problem remains, then I will buy a new NIC for the Macintosh.

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