Network quit after upgrading a pc

I have a 2 pc network running win2k with a hub and cat5 cables with tcp/ip. All was fine till I upgraded one of the pc's, clean install of win2k. Neither pc can see the other, but the network icon in the systray shows they are connected. If I disconnect one it shows up imediatly in the icon as disconnected. I set the ip and subnet manually just like before when it was working fine. the cable checks ok, it is about a 30 foot run. I tried to set up another pc on the network just to see if I could connect or ping one of the other 2 but no luck. What happenned? I even tried a new nic to see if maybe moving this one fried it.Help ! :confused:

did you try a different cable? Sounds to me like you may have a bad head or it's a cross cable for uplinking to a router or switch.

You said you can't see the other system, do you mean you can't see it in My Network Places? Can you ping each other?

No, I can't ping to either system,can't find them by searching computers near me, etc. I did hook them together directly with a crossover adaptor which worked a few days ago on a different network, still didn't work.But the icon in the tray says it is connected. In fact, when I hook the pc's direct the network icon says it's connected at 100 mbps. When i hook up through my old hub it says it's connected at 10 mbps. What gives ??? I thought i was getting the hang the hang of networking. I seem to be able to fix everyone else's network but not my own. :(

What exactly was the upgrade that was done on the system?

I'll bet $3 that either the subnet/gateway is wrong or one of the machines has a bad NIC! I'm leaning towards bad NIC though. Try pinging "localhost".

maybe stupid question, but did you check that the workgroups are still the same and didn't change somehow, and sharing is on?

Thanks for all the help. I set the ip address on the first machine to 192.168.0.1 and the subnet to 255.255.255.0 ( this is the pc I didn't upgrade ).On the machine I upgraded from a pentuim 100 to a 166 ( I know it doesn't sound like much but it is alot faster and I just use these pc's in the shop ) the ip is 192.168.0.2 with a subnet of 255.255.255.0 . They are both in the same workgroup and have file sharing and printers set up for sharing. I will try moving them next to each other with a short cable to test. I will try a new nic in the pc I didn't upgrade ( a PII 266 )if this doesn't work. Networks can be fun when they want to be. :rolleyes:

Cabal, you stated that at first you saw a 10Mbps link to the hub and now it's 100Mbps ? That sounds quite a serious problem as I think the PC hasn't changed it's status till now (am I wrong?) ...
Could it be that W2K tries to force a 100Mbps-link ? Do you have a software-tool with your NIC to change settings?

The one or both cards are set to autosense and the hub is a 10MBps one.
The cable may not be up to supporting 100Meg properly. Go to the properties of the network card in each box and set connection speed down to 10M and see if that helps.

If the cable is on spec CAT5 crossover, you could try setting both to 100M full duplex on a crossover cable assuming both have 100 meg NICs in them.

I checked the cable in a different pc, I can network with this pc. I tried the nic in this pc and it checks out ok, so I know the cable the nic are ok. Both pc's are in the same work group and have file sharing, client for ms networks, etc. I did notice though that the pc that isn't working doesn't show a symbol for sharing ( the hand ) on the drive icon but in properties it says sharing is enabled and working. Odd.Yes, you are correct that my hub is an old 10 mbps and when I connect directly my nic cards autosense that 100mbps is available and try to use it. I think my problem is somewhere in the win2k network settings. I have tried setting up just tcp/ip, just netbui, and both together- still nothing, can't ping or see the other pc. It will ping itself ok. :rolleyes: :confused: :rolleyes:

I got it. I put in a different brand of nic and it works. I put the old nic in a different pc and connected that pc to my network fine so I guess win2k was just being fussy. ;) :p :D ;)

Just a possibility,the NIC cards may have had the same 8 digit code encoded by the manufacturer thus would be unable to communicate.