Lost network connection on 2 of my systems

[Bill in SD, CA]

I have three systems networked via a Linksys router.

All three have internet connection.

Computer #1 W2K

Cannot see computer #2 running 2K but can when #2 is running 98SE.
Can see computer #3 always.

Computer #2 dual-boot W2K/98SE

Cannot see computer #1 in 2K but can in 98SE.
Can see computer #3 always.

Computer #3 W2K

Can see everything.

Tried a repair of 2K on #2 with no luck.

Any ideas here?

In "Computers Near Me" all 3 computers are listed on each machine.

I get the message "Network Path Not Found."



Bill

[Bill in SD, CA]

Addtional info:

Computer #1 cannot ping either computer #2 or yahoo.com. Error code 65.

Computer #2 can ping yahoo.com but not computer #1.

Bill

[washe]

this is weird indeed.. are you using the DHCP server of the router?
can you ping the router?

But lets see how we can short out this..

Go to control panel --> Networking and check out the TCP/IP configuration.. if you are using DHCP (all should be set)

If you are using static ip's then all the information need to match, Subnet Mask and gateway, Ip address should be in example 192.168.1.x, where x is a different number for every computer, usuallly linksys routers use that address and the router is 192.168.1.1.

on prompt type this ipconfig /all and post the results here..

[Bill in SD, CA]

Well, I got the problem fixed. It was weird indeed. Thought I'd post the results for others who might experience this problem. There seemed to have been 2 simultaneous problems occurring.

Tried a repair to 2K on the 2 machines that couldn't see each other. No go.

Tried ipconfig release/renew on both. No go.

Tried resetting the router. Nope.

Shut down both systems, unplugged modem, and the router for 5 minutes. Powered up and success!!

Or so I thought.

While both machines could now "see" each other, machine #1 still could not ping anything (including itself) and I discovered that Netscape could not connect to the net for anything - web pages or mail. (Use Netscape for mail) I.E. still worked.

So I "googled" error code 65 and found a MS doc saying that it was being caused by Zone Alarm.

This is the strange part. I do have Zone Alarm installed on my system but I had disabled it in startup in msconfig.

Thought to myself "If it's not running, how could it be the problem." I remembered that I had never given Netscape to access the internet without permission from ZA and decided to try opening ZA. Everything went back to normal including the ping tests.

Evidently, ZA must still run or have some effect even though it is disabled from starting.

Bill

[DVNT1]

I think it's typically the TrueVector service still running and causing problems (even when ZA is disabled).