What to configure to make network work?

[Namie]

Edit- fixed now

[John Prophet]

is it xp?

try going to command prompt and doing

"ipconfig /release"

and then "ipconfig /renew"

[John Prophet]

also, it may have possibly made the firewall be on by default..that might interfere with seeing the other comps.

also of course all the comps need the same workgroup name.

[kwebb]

For internet access workgroup name is irrelevant. In reality, it's also irrelevant to map drives and share data. It's merely a tool to help resolve names with Network Places/Neighborhood, which is a very weak tool for resolution anyway. My guess would be the firewall is on after the SP. Uncheck that and then run the ipconfig /release, /renew as suggested, or you can just manually assign the IP. I'd disable the DHCP server on the router if you do that.

[John Prophet]

"For internet access workgroup name is irrelevant. In reality, it's also irrelevant to map drives and share data. It's merely a tool to help resolve names with Network Places/Neighborhood, which is a very weak tool for resolution anyway."


Did you read his whole question? He wants to make the comps see each other on the network also, lol...not just get internet access.

[Namie]

where can I check to see what the main workgroup name is and also where would I change it?

I tried the ipconfig/renew but it gave me an error that said:

"An occurred while renewing interface Local Area Connection 14: unable to contact your DHCP Server. Request has timed out"

Also the firewall is already disabled and I am on XP.

[John Prophet]

right click "my computer" click on "computer name" (I think, lol) you will see workgroup name.

What you need to do is find out the default IP of the router.

usually it 192.168.1.1

see if you can "ping" that

from command prompt----> "ping 192.168.1.1"

you need to establish that you can "see" the router by pinging it.

[Namie]

I looked at the workgroup name on this computer where I'm posting right now and made it the same but the IP for that other computer where I can't get on still says 169.XXX.XXX.XXX.

I tried the ping thing and it said "Destination Unreachable"

[kwebb]

169.254.x.x is windows fallback IP. It means your not getting and IP from the DHCP server. Naming your workgroup is all well and good, but until you get the connectivity issue resolved it won't make a difference. Try to manually assign your IP. Find out what your other PC's IP are. You can type ipconfig from a dos prompt to find out. You can also use ipconfig /all from a working box to find out what the router's IP is. It will be listed as the gateway. Use an IP in sequence with the others. So if your have 192.168.0.2, 192.168.0.3, etc... make the one your having trouble with 192.168.0.4. Once you do that you need to ping the localhost to see if TCP/IP is even working properly. From a dos prompt type ping 127.0.0.1. If that is successful then ping the IP of that PC. ping 192.168.0.X, where x is the last octet of the machine you just addressed. If those both work, ping the gateway. If it times out then you either have a physical issue, bad port on the switch or bad patch cable, or you have a possible firewall issue, or other software related item. Could be the NIC as well. You have to troubleshoot these things by process of elimination.

Did you read his whole question? He wants to make the comps see each other on the network also, lol...not just get internet access.

And you think he can't without changing the workgroup name? Like workgroup names only makes it easier to browse for remote shares, it's not a magic wand.

[John Prophet]

ok KWebb, Ill let you handle all this from here on out, lol. But Ill gove you some advice, you need to understand the whole scenario....dude said straight up front he aint good with networking, lol.

Namie, Im gonna let Kwebb handle it from here on out. Good luck.