wireless network workgroup is not accessible

[beth]

I'm setting up a wireless network (add-hoc mode) and all the PCs say they are connected to the network. The problem is that when I try to access the network / 'computers near me' I get a message that the workgroup is not accessible and that the list of servers for the workgroup is not currently available.
Does anyone know what I need to change?
Thanks!

Beth.

[plenderj]

Hi Beth,

I have moved your thread into the "General PC" forum.
What Operating Systems are running on the computers ?

Can you ping the other computers ?

- Jamie

[beth]

Dear Jamie,

Thanks for your reply. So far I'm concentrating on two machines on Win 2000 Professional. No, they can't ping each other.

Beth.

[plenderj]

Okay.

So now check the IP settings on both machines.
Go into command prompt, and type 'ipconfig' without the apostrophes.
That will give you your ip configuration on those two machines.

Check if the IP Addresses are on the same subnet - ie. the IP Addresses are the same except for the last section of the IP.
If they are not similar, then change one IP address to nearly match the other.

If the IP addresses are okay, then check that the devices themselves are working by right clicking on My Computer, go into Hardware, and go into Device Manager.

Let me know how you get on with that lot...

[beth]

Hi Jamie.

The ip addresses seem ok - they are 192.168.0.200 and 192.168.0.201. I checked the network adapters and it said they are working properly.

Here's some extra information in case it's relevant:
When I get the wireless network adapter manager to scan/do a site survey, it finds the workgroup and says the signal strength is 100%.
The message I get when I click on 'Computers near me' in 'My network places' is 'Workgroup is not accessible' and 'The list of servers for this workgroup is not currently available.'
An article on the Microsoft web site suggests this message is either due to NetBIOS over TCP/IP not being enabled, or due to none of the machines being set as master browser.
NetBIOS over TCP/IP was already enabled, but when I clicked OK to this it warned me that it currently has an empty primary WINS address. Could this be the problem? If so, what should it be?
The same article said that if NetBIOS over TCP/IP was already enabled, restart the machines on the network to force a master browser election. I restarted the two machines but it had no effect.

Any ideas?
Thanks!

Beth.

[plenderj]

Thinks like NetBios and and browser elections would only be of consequence if the computers could actually communicate.
If they cannot ping eachother, then there is no route for data to take between the two.

Are they close enough to eachother ?

[beth]

Hi Jamie.

I think I've made some progress! I've turned off Norton Internet Security, and this allowed me to click 'Computers near me' without getting the message about inaccessibility/unavailability. There were no computers showing though.

However, when I went through the Belkin Netshare program instead, clicking computers near me did show me the other computer, and I was able to log into it and save a file. If only the Belkin support people had got me to try that last week!

I've yet to try it the other way round or add any more computers, but with luck I've got it sorted.

Thanks for your help!

Best wishes,
Beth.

[plenderj]

With NIS disabled, try pinging now

[beth]

Hi Jamie.

The two Win 2000 machines are now able to communicate (pinging and file sharing) with NIS turned off. So far no luck on Win XP, which I think at least partly due TCP/IP not being enabled. Going through the network software I can see IP address <Not Available>, but I can't make any changes there. Do you know where I can enable TCP/IP for the connection?

Thanks.

Beth.

[plenderj]

So it looks like NIS was filtering out packets or something.
Now for WindowsXP.

Are you logged in as administrator ?

[beth]

Sorry for the delay replying - too much work to do!
Yes, I'm logged in as administrator on all the machines.

Beth.