[RESOLVED] Puzzler of a Net problem

Ok this little puzzler has stumped 3 techs.
It goes like this ... we have 2 comps run on a 98SE network using 3com 100\tx cards. The network has always worked untill just recent.
Main computer has net connection
sub (other) computer is direct connected to main comp
Problem:
The sub comp can access the main comp without any problems at all. It can write to the hard disks, it can read from the hard disks, it can transfer files and the like.

The main comp sees the the sub comp and sends info during games, altho laggy. However when the main comp tries to access the sub comp's hard drives, which are shared, it freezes the main comp.

The machines have different IP addresses on the network. have different names and the same group name ... on the outside everything looks fine ... but it kills the main comp every single time it tries to access the sub comp .... help would be greatly appreciated ... thanks much all you gurus out there.

have you already reinstalled all the networking components? i'm guessing that your "client for microsoft networks" drivers may be corrupt. or, your NIC drivers or, you've got a bad NIC or, you've got a bad patch/crossover cable.

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=-iateyourcat-=

yep .. pulled the card in both machines ...
deleted all network, including dial up. Then reinstalled ...
I had kicked the idea of a bad NIC around today with the other 2 techs ... I am the 3rd one btw ... hoped to rule everything else out before getting a test NIC to see if that is the problem .. tho we didn't talk about the possibility of it being a bad cable ... will have to test it come monday ...
and yes I did install the newest drivers ... still same ...

Well I dont see it being a bad cable honestly. As far as a possible nic not likely but all you should have to do on that would be swap cards in machines and problem should reverse if its a nic. Still those are both level 1 items and i dont think that is it. I was more thinking of the f&ps on the main set but you said you removed that. What protocols are you using? X

tcp/ip
and ipx/spx

the main machine is ip 10.1.1.1
sub machine is 10.1.1.2 with gateway 10.1.1.1

Need more info...
1, what's the OS..??
2, does the subs have internet access..??
3, are you using any network sharing applications..??
4, what's the subnet mask that you put..?

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No matter what,
No matter where,
If broadband connection is there,
It's always HOME.

very well :
both running 98se

sub does not have access to net yet but will once I get this problem worked out and install sygate

no apps

subnet mask on both machines is 255.255.255.0


more info that you didn't ask for ..

Main comp: 700 athlon thunderbird on a gigabyte dual bios board ...
256 ram
3d prophet II video card
Sound blaster live


Sub Comp: 550 Athlon on an AMD board
128 ran
Voodoo III
generic sound card
3com NIC
and a 3com NIC

1, Win98 doesn't share internet connection like NT/2000, so i'm not sure what is the gateway for. You might wanna leave that out.
2, If you are using a class A IP, use a 255.0.0.0 subnet mask.
3, (IP rule) try avoiding using 1's or 0's for IP addresses.

Hope this help.
by the way...once you get the internet working on the main pc and the file sharing stuff... syagate would be a snap, and also i'm wondering how are you going to set IP addresses (10.0.0.1) when you get a ISP, unless you have multiple NICs on the same machine.

------------------
No matter what,
No matter where,
If broadband connection is there,
It's always HOME.

The nic ip is 10.1.1.1
the internet is whatever it assignes that login ...
don't know how sygate works ... but it always worked in this setup before ... and had to have a gateway on sub machine to make sygate work before

UPDATE::::

Rebuilt both machines from the ground up ...

reinstalled all net items

now both comps see each other ... and the main comp can access the sub comp ... the problem arises in this... the file transfers are fast ... 35megs in 10 seconds or so ... but when I double click on a directory to access it there is a long delay between recognition click and action .. sometimes close to 10 seconds ... any ideas on this?

[cordon]

It's a netbios thing (probably).

Map drives to network drives on each comp.
Tick 'restore connections on startup' somewhere in network properties
Make prime computer Browse master 'always' and that should speed things up a little.
(helpful or what? :P)

Exactly how fast do you need directories to be loaded?

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Have you tried reading the manual?

are you saying that your main PC with the internet connection have 2 NICs..?? and are you trying to share the internet connection with Win9x or ME..?

------------------
No matter what,
No matter where,
If broadband connection is there,
It's always HOME.

[scutterboy]

how are the netcards set?? are they autodetecting connection speed? have you tried to set them both fixed to the same speed.

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And Control Enter STILL wont let me post a reply.

no .. 1 nic ...

tis ok now tho ... I formatted and realoaded win98 again, 4th time, and it works fine now ...
thanks for all the help