Network Woes

[twinturboman]

I have 4 PCs on a peer to peer network

PC1:pentium 200mmx 128mb RAM, 2 HDs totalling est. 7.5gig w/3COM 905tx NIC running win95
PC2:AMD k6 350mhz, 96mb RAM, 4.3gig w/3COM 450 NIC running win98
PC3:pentium 2 300mhz 64mb RAM, 2 HDs totalling 14.3gig w/ 3COM 905tx NIC running win98
PC4:AMD K6 450mhz, 128mb RAM, 10gig HD w/3COM 905tx running win98

All of them have all network protocols installed & file & printer sharing enabled. They all have the same workgroup name as well. They all will work & see each other when doing multi-player gaming such as Quake & Unreal tournament.

The problem is that PC1 & PC4 can’t see PC3 in network neighborhood (shall be referred to as NN). PC2 & PC3 can see ALL the PCs in NN. But PC1 & PC4 can see all but PC3. Why is this a problem? Because an Epson printer is attached to PC3 and I would like all the other PCs to be able to utilize it. Not to mention file sharing access.

What could be wrong? For sure it’s not the hub, because I tried a new hub and same results. For sure it’s not the NIC inside PC3 because I put in a new NIC and still the same error is there. What could be wrong? Every PC has all the protocols (tcp/ip, netbeui, spx/ipx) & clients (MS & Novell). Why can’t PC1 & PC4 see PC3?

[ez raider]

I have experienced similar one-sided network connections that I've ascribed to ill-behaved software installations. On my peer-to-peer network, they've resolved by uninstalling the network protocols, rebooting, and reinstalling the network protocols.

Incidentally, you compromise performance by installing multiple protocols, and I wonder if your problem may relate to different protocols being used by default on different machines. The simplest way to share files and a printer is with the MS client and NETBEUI, but I suppose that you need IPX or TCP/IP to play Q / UT. Why don't you try installing only the MS client and the microsoft versions of the IPX/SPX protocol, with support for NETBIOS enabled (necessary for file and printer sharing)bound to your NICs.

If you connect to the internet by modem, TCP/IP will need to be bound to the modem, but need not be bound to the NICs; make sure that your LAN protocol is checked as the default protocol.

[Goethe]

I've seen a lot of that stuff going around.
I administer network of 200+ PC's and most of the time I can't see 1/3 of PC out there in NN, and I can't find solutoin for it. But what I did find out is that all these PC are connected and willing to share but you just can't see 'em. What I did is right click on NN and go "Find Computer" enter computer name that you're looking for and surely it will show up.

To set up your printer just use
"\\compuername\printername" as port path for the printer.