I can ping but not share

Hi, this is my first post and i need lots of help.
My setup is this: A belkin wireless router with inbuilt ADSL router, a PC (internet 56K and printer host) wired to the router and one laptop and one PC wirelessly connected. All the PC's can ping each other and the router. The laptop and the wired PC can see each others shared files and can see the wireless PC's files, but the wireless pc cannot see any shared files. At one point i got internet and printer sharing to work but it doesnt work at all. This suggests to me it is something to do with the way xp is setup. (They all use xp home). Any help would be greatly appreciated thank you.

p.s. I have run the network setup wizard on all three nodes.

Do you have any firewalls running on the wireless XP computer? Check for things like ZoneAlarm and the built-in XP Internet Connection Firewall. Some anti-virus programs also include firewalls.

Also, does the computer have an IP address that is in the same range/subnet as the other computers.

no none of the PC's have a firewall and the xp one has been disabled how do i find out if they are in the same range. The router automatically configures the IP adresses from a pool between 192.168.2.2 to 192.168.2.100. I have used IpConfig and ping everything seems OK

I guess that if your router is giving out Ip addresses that they should be fine. Especially if you can ping OK.

On the computer you've having problems with, have you checked that file sharing is enabled and that simple file sharing is not enabled.

No i havent checked that in fact i didnt know that there was an option to have simple file sharing. But as i said its not just file sharing, i cant share internet or printers properly either. So how can i find out if i have simple file sharing not proper file sharing.

Thanks for your continuing help

Actually thinking about it im not even sure if file sharing is turned on in the client computer because i just ran the xp setup. But if the other two computers can see the files on the problem wireless PC surely this means that file sharing is turned on.

To check if simple file sharing is enabled/disabled click open My Computer, click Tools, Folder Options and select the View tab. At the bottom, make sure that Use simple file sharing is not ticked.

OK i will try that when i get home, but will it solve the internet and printer sharing or just file sharing. oh and someone else told me that the worst thing i did was run the network setup wizard is this true. I may try system restore and start from scratch.

Well in most cases the Network Setup Wizard does fine, and is quite useful. But if you don't like what it has done, you can just do things manually.

OK i tried to disable simple file sharing but on all three computers there is no option to disable. Does this mean that simple file sharing i hard wired into xp sp1 or is there another way to prevent simple file sharing. By the way the laptop can now share files and printers connected to the wired PC.
Thanks for your continuing help

Sorry i have just read that you cant disable simple file sharing on xp home only xp professional.

No, you're correct. Windows XP Home doesn't come with that option.

Just going back to your first post, it seems to be a problem with the wireless network card. Are you sure that it is working OK? Is it configured correctly? Perhaps it would be a good idea just to try a wired ethernet card in the computer, just to check that there isn't something wrong with any configurations. Then, check that the wireless card has good reception etc. and that encryption is disabled for the moment.

Are all the PCs running XP home?

I ask for a couple of reasons, but the first is that the "simple file sharing" setting on all of them should be the same if possible. As long as they are all the same, it should be OK. Have you tried using the search for computer feature? If simple file sharing is the problem, search will find the PC but you won't be able to access it's shares.

The next question would be is TCP/IP the only protocol on all the PC's? If the wired PC's are accessing shares over IPX or netbeui, it's going to make figuring out whats going wrong that much tougher. So make sure they all are running TCP/IP only, and that netbios over TCP/IP is enabled (WINS tab of advanced TCP/IP properties).

If they can all ping each other without dropped packets, then I don't think its a connectivity issue but purely a config problem.

Try using "ping -t IPaddress" to allow continuous pings. Let it run for about a minute, then use CTRL-C to stop the pings. If you have a few dropped packets, thats probably OK, but anything around 10% or more might indicate its a network performance problem.

Are all the machines getting IP Addresses via DHCP? If not, are they all on the same subnet, i.e, same subnet mask? Windows sharing uses broadcasts, which are only heard by computers on the same subnet.

Yes all the PC's are running xp home so this should be OK.
I can ping perfectly so its not a connection problem they all have excellent as the signal strength. Because the wired PC and the laptop can see shared files on the upstairs pc (andrew) this must mean a config problem on (andrew). I think they all use the same subnet 255.255.255.0 or whatever it is (im not at home so i can't check at the moment) and the router dishes out the DCHP ip adresses.

The laptop and the wired pc are almost configured perfectly i.e they can file share and print wirelessy but not share the internet connection. However upstairs can do chuff all.

Ok, I think I misunderstood the initial problem. If the other two PC's can see the shares on "andrew" but andrew can't see the other two, then I can think of two possibilities.

The first is that it is a user account/access rights issue. From andrew, open a command prompt and make sure you can ping the wired PC. Then type "net use Z: \\PCNAME\Sharename" (substitute the wired pc's name and sharename). It should fail with a specific error message. If it is a user account issue it may prompt for a login.

If andrew cannot find PCNAME on the network, it should give a system 67 error. In a case like this, it is either because of wrong subnets (PC's can ping each other on different subnets, but they can only find shares on their own subnet. So double check this with IPCONFIG /ALL) or a browse mastering problem. If this is the case, there are two options. Either disable the computer browser service on two computers but leave it on on the third ( I recommend the wired PC) OR turn it off on all 3 and use static addresses and host files. With three computers that should not be difficult.

There is a utility from the MS resource kit for troubleshooting browse master issues that you can download at http://www.petri.co.il/download_free_reskit_tools.htm.