You probably haven't seen a lot of the intervening communications. The
printer is connected directly to the desktop, not by USB but via
parallel port. This is a new Brother laser printer which does not
support direct attachment to the net (different model, extra cost).
However it is attached exactly as its predecessor Brother laser printer
was and the laptop had absolutely no problem printing from it.
Except for the change of printer (which works on the desktop) there have
been no configuration changes made to the desktop. The laptop, however,
went on a 7 week excursion to the UK, going and returning on the Queen
Mary 2 along with my wife. On the trip over my wife attempted to send
me email which didn't work. The laptop was handed over to the ship's IT
personnel who said they only supported major email servers such as Yahoo
and Gmail... not chucknorcutt.com. They modified my email settings to
try and make the ship the email server. (that I'm aware of) but
unsuccessfully. In the end email didn't work from the ship nor did it
work as it did before once she got to the UK. That was fixed by setting
Thunderbird back the way it was and the machine continued to operate via
WiFi in multiple locations to access the net. There was no suspicion
that anything else might be wrong until I tried to track down why it
wouldn't print to the new printer when it came back. Ah, needs a new
driver, of course. Fixed that but later discovered the printer issue
was a sideline. The two machines could no longer talk over the local net.
However, all this stuff about the printer is premature. The real
problem (as I've since discovered since posting the original note about
printer problems) is that there is no LAN communication between the
machines. The desktop can ping the laptop via the router using a
computer name or IP address. The laptop can resolve the desktops name
to an IP address but the ping is unsuccessful and times out.
The network setup has been run several times always with the same
parameters it has always had... as when it was working. But there
appears to be no communication between them. The desktop knows the
workgroup name and the names of the computers in the workgroup but can't
talk to them. The laptop knows the name of the workgroup but can't
access anything within the workgroup other than itself.
Trying to map a drive between them results in the desktop reporting that
"The network path xxxxxxxxxx could not be found". The laptop, however,
reports "The drive could not be mappped because no network was found."
Subtly different and maybe significant messages.
Chuck Norcutt
On 7/31/2011 12:55 PM, Scott Gomez wrote:
> Hi Chuck,
>
> All this talk of multiple things to tinker with on the network sound largely
> irrelevant to the problem, to me. All the network is providing in this case
> is a communication channel. As both machines can "talk" to the Internet via
> this channel, it's unlikely that either machine is incorrectly configured as
> far as the network is concerned. If both machines get their addresses via
> DHCP from the router, and, in fact, are getting addresses in the same subnet
> (192.168.10.x, it appears from earlier messages) then there's most likely no
> issue with the network and/or router.
>
> It sounds like the printer is directly connected to the desktop (i.e. via
> USB cable) based on what I've read in this thread. If so, then the printer
> must be deliberately shared in Windows on the desktop machine in order for
> the other machine to see it. As it's a new printer, are you sure that you
> shared it?
>
> Both machines MUST also have the same "workgroup" name in order to be
> considered part of the same network and thus able to "see" each other
> correctly. You'll find the workgroup name listed via the "System" applet in
> the Control Panel.
>
> "File and Printer Sharing" has to be "on" on each of the machines.
>
> If you've got all of this correct, then about the only remaining item to
> check is whether you have the proper machine name and printer name
> referenced on the laptop in the printer set-up to refer it to the desktop
> for printing.
>
> FYI, if you have the option of an Ethernet hook-up to the printer, and
> instead chose to use USB, I would highly recommend switching to the direct
> network connection via Ethernet to the router. Doing so will free you from
> much of the baloney you're dealing with here, as well as from the need of
> having either machine acting as "host" and "print server" for the other.
> It'll also free you of occasional USB Alzheimer's from which XP seems to
> periodically suffer, where a perfectly functional device is suddenly
> "forgotten" and becomes inaccessible, requiring a restart. Should you have
> this option, drop me a note and I'll try and get some info to you to make
> setting it up less of a chore.
>
> ---
> Scott
>
> On Sun, Jul 31, 2011 at 08:58, Chuck Norcutt
> <chucknorcutt@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>wrote:
>
>> Thanks. Unfortunately, I can't seem to find any way to direct the
>> router to ping the computers directly. However, it would seem to me
>> that the computers are communicating with the router since they can
>> resolve the IP addresses using just the computer's names in a ping
>> command. It's just that running the ping on the laptop against the
>> desktop fails after properly resolving the desktop's IP address.
>>
>> I was just wishing I had a third computer to attach to the local net.
>> That would at least tell me if the problem is in the laptop which is
>> where I suspect it is. It's the only thing that's perhaps had "unknown"
>> configuration changes. The only changes to the desktop were the
>> uninstall of the old Brother laser printer and the installation of the
>> new one in its place. The printer works fine from the desktop where
>> it's physically installed.
>>
>> Chuck Norcutt
>>
>>
>> On 7/31/2011 10:54 AM, Michael Collins wrote:
>>> On 7/31/11 10:19 AM, Chuck Norcutt wrote:
>>>
>>>> Turning the firewall off on both machines makes no difference to
>>>> anything. Trying to map drives elicits exactly the same similar but
>>>> different responses. Trying to ping from one to the other also has
>>>> exactly the same results.
>>>>
>>>> *I asked this yesterday I think. Is there perhaps a big clue in the
>>>> failure of the laptop to ping the desktop? Is this not LAN adapter to
>>>> LAN adapter via the router with no or at least minimal involvement of
>>>> the OS?*
>>>
>>> I'd say so, although the firewall can certainly get in the way of the
>>> "minimal involvement of the OS". The ability to ping the other machine is
>>> pretty fundamental at the TCP/IP level, and I think this is a significant
>>> clue. Whether it's the sending computer's ICMP packets not going out, the
>>> receiving computer not allowing them in or not sending the response out,
>> or
>>> the sending computer not allowing the response in is unknown. IMHO you
>>> shouldn't be looking elsewhere until you resolve this.
>>>
>>> Can you ping them from your router? Some routers offer this feature. Or
>> do
>>> you have another system on the LAN that you can ping to/from? Either
>> would
>>> help you identify the likely culprit, though not the cause.
>>>
>>> Someone has suggest "sniffing" the LAN traffic, I think. The tool to use
>> is
>>> Wireshark. I have it on several of my systems, but not on my XP laptop;
>> I'll
>>> see if I can get it set up later today, if you're not already familiar
>> with
>>> it.
>>>
>>> Michael
>>>
>>>
>> --
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