Perplexing network problem for me...help me brainstorm.

[Lyquist]

My brother is having a strange network problem and it is a little over my head. Part of the reason is that I have very little experience with wireless and he lives in Nevada and I live in North Carolina so I can't be hands on with the machine.

Here is the problem...

My brother has a cable modem and wanted to share the internet and files between two computers. Computer A is a desktop running WinXP and computer B is a laptop running WinXP. I believe that both are service pack 2 level. My brother bought a linksys wireless router and set it up and everything was working fine. Both computers could browse the internet and see each other to share folders, printers, etc... HOWEVER....he updated the firmware on the router and now the computers can't see each other but they can both still browse the internet. My first inclination is to have him roll back the firmware if he has that option. I have never used wireless before, so I'm not sure what to tell him. Any productive feedback would be appreciated greatly.

Lyquist

 

[Thuleman]

Tough to troubleshoot without to look at the router config. My guess would be that your brother is only telling you half the story. I am no router expert by any means, but I have never seen a router that would prevent NetBIOS and SMB behind the router in a factory firmware. Perhaps he applied some obscure hacked firmware that blocks ports 137, 138, 139, and 445 even behind the router by default.

 

[ktwebb]

The likelihood is that file sharing is either blocked via a rule by default by the new firmware, as suggested above OR even more likely: File sharing is fine, it's network places that is broken because of master browser issues. What else is new there if it is that. Have your brother browse via UNC instead of the piece of shit network browser that Network Places is. Syntax from the run box or windows explorer is \\servername\share or just \\servername. You could also use the IP \\192.168.x.x or just use the search function from the start menu and search for the computer name or IP.