ICS works but file sharing doesn't in XP

Hi .. i have 2 pcs (say A and B) .. PC A has 2 ethernet cards. One is connected to the cablenet and the other is connected to PC B. I have run the Windows setup wizard on both the pc's and now i am able to access the net on PC B thro PC A i.e. internet connection sharing is working fine and so is the physical connection between the 2 PC's. The problem is that I am not able to share files and map the drives to transfer data between the 2 PCs.

I have checked that they are on the same workgroup, have diff PC names and usernames. I have also checked that the file and printer sharing protocol is installed. I tried manually setting the ip addresses as well in which case, i am able to ping from PC A to PC B but not vice versa. Note that in PC A, the other ethernet card which is connected to the internet has a static ip address, a default gateway and DNS specified. All the drives on PC B are shared and I tried sharing a couple of drives on PC A while trying to map ! Nothing seems to be working bcos when i try to browse the network neighbourhood, it doesnt show anything beyond the workgroup !! Is it possible to have file sharing in this setup ? Please help ! I have tried a million places and this is the final try before i quit on this one !!

cheers .. Arun.

Give each computer a static IP address like shown below.

Computer with the Internet:
IP Address: 192.168.0.1
Subnet Mask: 255.255.255.0
Default gateway: (blank)
DNS servers: As given to you by your ISP

Second computer:
IP Address: 192.168.0.2
Subnet Mask: 255.255.255.0
Default gateway: 192.168.0.2
DNS servers: As given to you by your ISP

Then check if you can ping between the two computers. If you can't ping in both directions, check to see if you have a firewall enabled. Check that ICF isn't active on the network connection, but also check for things like ZoneAlarm and some antivirus programs which include firewalls. These all need disabling for the moment.

tried those steps ... i dont have any firewall programs installed .. i have tried to keep this whole thing as simple as possible .. The only program i have running in the system tray is norton antivirus 2004. So after setting the static ip as suggested (and disabling NAV2004), i tried pinging using the command ping 192.168.0.2 which is the PC B and i get the reply. Now when i go to pc B and ping 192.168.0.1 , it says request timed out ! I also tried pinging the other static ip address that is entered for the other lan card which has the internet conn. The settings on that card are the static ip given by the service provider, their default gateway and DNS.

I also tried disabling norton antivirus on both PCs and the ICS on the card that is connected to the net. The ICS on the other cards on both PCs are already disabled. Also, after changing the default gateway in PC B to 192.168.0.2 as u suggested, the net stopped working .. i took a guess that it might be a typo and tried 192.168.0.1 and the net started working again !!

I am still not able to see any computers on my network places from either pc !! has it got anything to do with 2 lan cards in the PC conn to the net ? wht next ? waiting for ur input mate !

cheers .. arun.

Since you can ping in one direction but not the other, there must be a good connection between the two computers. There's something on PC A that is stopping the ping from getting through. I suggest that you uninstall Norton for now and then try again.



Ah, sorry. The default gateway on the second PC should be 192.168.0.1.

I tried a number of things this time .. firstly i tried uninstalling NAV on both pcs with no luck. Then i tried removing the lan card that connects to the net. SO just one lan card on both PCs and tried the config u suggested. Still no luck. I am still able to ping from PC A to PC B but not the other way. Just as i was to conclude that PC A is not accepting incoming signals, I decided to try netmeeting. Now in netmeeting, when i put the ip address as 192.168.0.1 (of PC A) and call from PC B, it is having no problems in calling and i receive the call in PC A. I am also able to play multiplayer games. The only problem i seem to have is that these 2 PCs do not see each other on my network places and so i cannot map the shared drives of each other !

FYI ... i am using XP sp1 and have the latest windows updates installed. It is set up like this :

internet ---> PC A ---> PC B

On PC A:
--------
Card conn. to net has the foll config:
------------------------------------
ip: 172.16.0.28
subnet: 255.255.0.0
default gateway: 172.16.250.250
DNS: 172.16.250.250

card conn to PC B has foll settings:
---------------------------------

ip: 192.168.0.1
subnet: 255.255.255.0
default gateway: blank
DNS: 172.16.250.250

On PC B the only card has the foll settings:
-----------------------------------------

ip: 192.168.0.2
subnet: 255.255.255.0
default gateway: 192.168.0.1
DNS: 172.16.250.250

with these settings, i am able to use the net on both PCs, able to call both ip's from netmeeting, able to play multiplayer games. I am also able to ping from PC A to PC B (ping 192.168.0.2) but unable to ping from PC B to A (ping 192.168.0.1). Consequently, both the PCs do not see each other and i cant map the network drives !! Using netmeeting, i can now atleast share the files easily .. but i would definitely wanna resolve this issue !! Is it possible ??

cheers !

This is really strange, as I don't understand how Netmeeting and multiplayer games can work when pinging doesn't. From PC B, what happens if you type in \\computerA into the address bar in Windows Explorer, where computerA is the name of PC A?

when i ping the comp name of PC A, still the same message !!! request time out ..

it really is strange as this setup has worked fine before for me with other pcs !! The only difference on those occasions was that there was only one LAN card on both the pc's and no internet connection sharing !!! I have got home my laptop today and will try this thing with it ... if it still doesnt work .. i will have to live with it till i find the reason !!!

keep posting any more ideas u have .. will try them out and get back !!!

cheers.

What happened when you typed \\computerA into the address bar?

sorry .. i didnt address that part .. well when i type that into the address bar it says the path u r looking for is not available/cannot be found (something to that effect - not exact words).

Hmm... ok. Can you start from scratch again?

Uninstall the drivers for the NICs, remove them and reboot the computer. Then add them back in again and reinstall the drivers. Try reinstalling TCP/IP in Windows using the following page:

http://www.petri.co.il/reinstall_tc..._windows_xp.htm

Forget about the Internet for the time being, and give each computer a static IP address like I said above. Remove any antivirus programs and make sure that ICF isn't enabled. Then try pinging again.

hi edwin ! start from scratch i did !! wht happened yesterday was that i connected my laptop to the PC A and the whole setup works fine just as they always used to ... so i decided that the problem lay with the PC B and not PC A which we thought was blocking the pings of PC B.

I completely formatted PC B ... followed the steps u gave earlier and lo ! it works like a dream ... it was a really wierd problem but i guess with this option that i have excercised, we will never get to know wht is it that was causing the problem !! Definitely though .. formatting and reinstalling the OS seemed a better option than going thro the pain of all these days ... on hindsight though, i could have tried those last few steps that u sent in ur last post which i feel would have done the trick !!!

Anyway thanx for all the help .. but for u, i had given up on this sharing business. BTW i do have another query ... now how this setup works is that i have the drives on PC A shared and PC B accesses all these drives as well as the net .. i am not sure that my data on PC A is secure with simple sharing enabled ? I only have norton 2004 with comprehensive scanning enabled and the default ICF of win xp enabled .. is that good enough or should i disable simple file sharing and do something else ... i do not have too much knowledge of sharing when simple file sharing is disabled ? Can u help me out on that too ??

regards,
Arun.

Glad it's working



As long as you have a firewall running on the computer connected to the Internet you should be fine. If you're worried, go to www.grc.com and run the shields up test and check that the common ports are indeed closed.



If things are working, I wouldn't touch that setting. You only really need this if you want to set advanced security settings for each folder, to prevent certain people within the local network from viewing certain folders. For a home network the extra settings here aren't really needed.