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Home Network Problem.

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by impulse

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I hope someone can offer some assistance.

Topology: Surfboard 100Mbps Cable Modem --> 100Mbps 5 port smart switch. -->> 2 Windows XP Pro Machines. (1 100Mbps nic in each)

Each PC has internet access, and there own assigened DHCP IP (2 IP's leased from ISP) But no matter what, neither computer can see each other in the workgroup. (One pc is being told that it doesn't have permission to view the workgroup, the other pc only see itself)

Now I've been trying to get the home network up and running, believe me I disable firewalls, even dumbed myself down and used the network wizards from XP (and network setup disk) to no avail. I can remote desktop to each computer, ect.. But no LOCAL lan.

Possible Problems: I only have one nic in each, but the switch is suppose to eleviate the need for more the one in each.
Leased IP's: This maybe another problem. . The first Ip is 42.72.85.247/24 (255.255.255.0) the other is 42.72. 86 .71/24 (255.255.255.0) Could this be the problem? Them being on different segments by the network subnet? If I change the subnets to class B, am I still going to get I-net access ;)

More info: I have DISabled simple file sharing, and the Guest account on both machines is ON..

Any suggestions?

7 replies

by dragonbill

I think you hit your own answer. From what you posted you are dealing with 2 ip addresses on 2 different subnets. If this is how your ISP assigned them that is way interesting. As they stand, they are two different networks and so will not communicate with each other even through the switch. You will need some sort of router to make these talk with each other or bind a second ip address to each NIC that is on the same network, like 192.168.1.0/24 network.

Bill

by impulse

Well I'm going with you that the subnets are the problem. But how do I go about binding a second IP to the nic. I know how this is done when using static IP's, but what about 1 Dynamic, and one static. (Winxp)

by lvinson

Unless you have a typo, you have 2 different subnets and they won't talk to each other. With a subnet mask of 255.255.255.0, the first three octets have to be the same for the PCs to be on the same subnet.

With the IPs you have listed if your subnet mask were 255.255.0.0 they would then be on the same subnet, but with 255.255.255.0 they are on different subnets since the third octets are different - .85 & .86

by red_wolf9

Keep It Simple, (you finish it your way).

Here is what I would do, dump the "Smart Switch" and go with a Cable/DSL router (I use a Linksys). Call your cable co. and drop one of the IP addresses you?re not going to need to pay extra any more. Connect the router to the cable modem (use the WAN port) and connect you other PC's to any available ports.

The router will provide DHCP addresses (I would use 193.186.1.x) and you can now get your machines in a workgroup. Cable company has no clue you still have two machines (thanks to NAT on the router). That should solve your problem.

The no cost option would be to enable a web server on both machines (like AnalogX's Simple Server) and just place the files in a folder, then use a browser to retrieve files from the other machine. That way different subnets are a non-issue. Oh, you will need to make an HTML page or write down the exact file name to make your URL. For example: http://42.72.85.247/filename.doc

Linksys Router
http://www.linksys.com/Products/product.asp?grid=34&scid=29&prid=561
AnalogX Simple Server
http://www.analogx.com/contents/download/network/sswww.htm
Make an HTML index file the easy way
http://home.pacbell.net/nitzsche/dirhtml.html
or http://freeware.prv.pl/

Oh, and lock those machines back down your putting us all at risk (guest is enabled.... Nooooooo). We don't need any more members on BOTNET.
http://zine.dal.net/previousissues/issue22/botnet.php

by impulse

Well guys thanks.
Before I came to you guys here, eveyone was suggesting a router over the switch. Believe me, I understand how simple that would have been, hell even just two nics in one machine and ICS would have solved my problems. But, it had to be done with no money, not even $20 for a nic..

I ended up finding that my IP's are static anyways, so manually entered, I can bind a second IP, 4 in total now (2 nics) That however, didn't seem to solve the workgroup problem. So I changed around the subnets from my ISP to class b, and well, now both machines are on the same segment.. Surprisingly enough, I ran into no trouble doing this.. Internet works fine on both, and File + Print sharing is working fine on both. Now I'm sure I'll see twice as many events in the firewall logs, but I got it all working for now..

(And yes, time to start closing up the network again :) )

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