File sharing problem on wireless network.

tomstickland

It's working.
I had to do a system restore so I could reinstall the card and software.
I still had the same problems after that.
So I manually set to ip addresses including a 255.255.0.0 subnet mask and then it started working. I turned off encryption too.
Then I put it back to automatic ip addresses and rebooted and it worked.
I've got to test Norton anitvirus and then turn on encryption again.

tomstickland

I spoke too soon. Started up this morning and it was back to the same old problem.

I have a plan though. I'm going to put the computer in the same room as the ADSLmodem/router and get it working there, just in case signal drop out has anything to do with it.

Chippy_Minton

Good idea. If you get the 169.x.x.x address it's because wireless comms with the router failed for some reason. Could be poor reception, misconfigured wireless security on PC and/or router, etc. At least if you have line of sight between router & PC you can rule out poor reception.

Toxteth_OGrady

What wireless modem/router do you have? Is it updated with the latest firmware release?

:cool:

TOG

tomstickland

Brand new Belkin Wireless G Desktop Network Card from Amazon for £20.

I've just been speaking to a work colleague and he said his wireless card had the same problems if the signal size was below about 80%. I'm getting 45-65%.

tomstickland

Well well well. I was just about to move the computer when I thought I'd give it one more chance. I was looking at the configuration options and I decided to try switching from 2.4GHz /g to just 2.4GHz and then it all started working. Signal is a bit low though. It's 35-45% at the moment.

Thanks for your help all. I'm going to have a go at configuring file and printer sharing now!

tomstickland

I've been delving into the router DHCP settings and the main computer (Ernie) is shown as blocked. If I uncheck the block option and then refresh the display then it's reset to blocked. So I think something (zone alarm?) on the main computer is electing to block incoming data.

fbrj

tomstickland wrote:

I've been delving into the router DHCP settings and the main computer (Ernie) is shown as blocked. If I uncheck the block option and then refresh the display then it's reset to blocked. So I think something (zone alarm?) on the main computer is electing to block incoming data.

I have a home network set up with main pc wired to router (via ethernet cable) and two laptops wirelessly connected to router. After much experimenting with settings I finally got the laptops to share files from main pc (ie transfer data from it) anddddddddddd...........was able to use the printer (connected to the main pc) from the (wireless) laptops. Each laptop and the pc has Zonealarm installed and I found that this was the final barrier to file/printer sharing - disabled it on main pc (temporarily) and the laptops were then able to use the printer and share various files from main pc.

tomstickland

Much simpler answer: Ernie was turned off!

Anyway, since I've moved my wireless card to another PCI slot and the IRQ conflict has sorted itself and whatever else I did it's now totally stable and signal strength is a steady 70%.

I'm very pleased - I've come a long way this week. Thanks for all the info and help.

I'm going to sort file sharing tomorrow.

Browntoa

got the feeling i had to enable NETBIOS over TCP/IP to get file sharing working