Networks Limited Or No Connectivity (i'm now getting sick)

Hi, This is a problem for all you networking gurus and we have probably all read about it or encountered it, it's the dreaded Limited Or No Connectivity problem. I have two pc's both new both with sp2 and i keep getting that damned message,I have done all the fixes and all of the resetting of this and that but i still cannot get the client pc to connect.
I have had pc's networked before with no problem via the same method that i am using now, which is via a cat 5 crossover cable, and i am now starting to pull my hair out, i have even double checked the networking guide on this forum and this verifies that i have done things correctly.
So if anyone has an idea on how to fix this problem please let me know as i am now running out of ideas. Cheers

 

It's because neither computer is running DHCP, thus meaning no ip address is assigned. Best way to solve this is to assign each computer a static IP address.

Such that pc1 has ip of 192.168.1.10 and pc2 has 192.168.1.20 or somewhere along these lines (as long as the first 3 blocks are the same and the last is a unique number for each pc between 1 and 255).

Configure your firewall to allow each computer to communicate, set each workgroup to be the same and you should be able to connect.

 

The ip addresses iam using is 192.168.0.1 and 192.168.0.2, with regards to work group name they are both the same,i have tried many different approaches and still nothing,BTW I have tried with the firewall enabled and disabled still a negative outcome......... I have also tried a different cable still nothing, Hmmmmm what to do.

 

reset ur router completly

push the wee reset button

 

Mate, he is using a crossover cable between the computer. No router are anything. So there is no router to reset.

I have no clue why this is happening. Have you tried driver updates for the network cards?

 

Try setting the computers to 10.0.0.x with a 255.255.255.0 subnet mask. If you have ICS switched on on either machine, turn it off for the moment. Also, if you have a third-party firewall, perhaps it's blocking the ip range. I know I had to change it back to accept connections by adding my ip range again every time Zonealarm did an update.

 

take a look here

www.buzzons.co.uk/tutorials

if you follow the flash video each step of the way and then report back if there are still errors, I will try and help more.

 

I have this problem at work all the time, it's a nightmare to trouble shoot because so many things can cause it. (98% of the time some one turned off the server) however stopping DHCP, bad CAT5 cable and router issues ruled out. magnetic interference seems to be the the only non obvious reason I've personally come across. you didn't set your credit card reader or your router did you???

I start by restarting the server / DHCP. and then doing ipconfig release and renews on the rest. and allowing the server to assign the IP rather then setting them as static

 

Tbh, I think it's electrical interference. I had this problem with my server which is about 10m from a network port, it would have limited connectivity, even though the ip was static and everything was physically connected. It turned out to be interference, so I spent a bit more on stp (sheilded) cables and the problem was solved.

I think it was due to the fact the cables were running across the floor, a few cm above a boiler in the kitchen downstairs!

 

Ok Guys,sorry i ain't replied been busy at work, One thing i have done is ping both PC's, now this is the bit i don't understand, when i ping the PC's it says something similar to the following.......Packets sent 4, Recieved 4, Lost = 0 <0%loss>, it also says something about 4 replys,.
Now i would have thought that those readings would say everthing was fine, but the client PC still says....The page cannot be displayed,... when trying to connect to the internet,Anymore ideas.Cheers

 

Is ICS(Internet Connections Sharing) setup correctly?

 

Aye, set up ICS on the main machine, it'll act as a dns server/gateway and it should give itself the appropriate address of 192.168.1.1 - on the second computer, you want to manually set it to 192.168.1.2, subnet 255.255.255.0 and default gateway and primary dns as 192.168.1.1

 

Ok, done everything suggested and still nothing, there is something however that i have just come across, the ip address and subnet on my modem is different from the ip's we have tried, could this be the problem, this is how my modem reads,
IP address 82.39.109.xxx
Subnet mask 255.255.248.0
Default Gateway 82.39.109.xxx (same as IP address)
Assigned by DHCP.
I am starting to get really confused now, so more help is most certainly welcome.Cheers.

 

Nope, that's your wan/public ip, i.e. the ip address given to you by the isp when you connect to your account.

Private/local ip addresses are either 192.168.x.x or 10.x.x.x, with varying subnet masks to close/open the 'x' octets of the ip addresses.

On the first computer, run the network setup wizard and choose the very first option (after possibly choosing 'Let me choose another way to connect to the internet'), which is 'This computer connects directly to the internet. The other computers on this network connect to the internet through this computer'. Choose your Modem as the internet connection. Choose the network interface as your network connection, if it asks. Choose to just let XP create the network instead of creating a network setup disk. See if ICS is on, if not, switch it on, let it set up as default. Check the network interface's properties in Control Panel, it should have set the ip to 192.168.0.1 (iirc) and the subnet to 255.255.255.0

On the secondary computer, just run the network setup wizard and choose the second option 'This computer connects through a residential gateway or a nother computer on my network'. Make sure the workgroup name matches that on the primary computer. Once run, check the ip address of the network interface and if it hasn't done so, set the ip to 192.168.0.2, subnet 255.255.255.0, gateway 192.168.0.1 and primary dns as 192.168.0.1 (nothing needs to be put in the secondary dns).

A restart of both computers might be in order, but that should be it.

 

Well i have to say, what an excellent explanation, It now works 100%, Thankyou very much, really appreciate the help.

 

cheers this got me through my networking hell

 

glad you found it usefull mate. Any feedback would be welcome.