After 12 hours, no network. I'm quitting.

I spent about 12 hours today trying to wirelessly network my 3 Dell Windows
XP computers -- without success. I got to the point where they can all
(usually) access the internet through the Linksys wireless router, but they
still don't see each other on the network. I've searched this forum
repeatedly and tried many things, but haven't been able to isolate the
problem. I'm fairly tech savvy and have been using PCs for some 20 years.
I'm now so frustrated with PCs that I will be looking into buying several
Apple Macs next year.

If you'd like to work this through one-on-one, send me an email and I'll be
glad to walk you through the process.

(E-Mail Removed)


"photoshopper" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:A67108BF-0268-4EB8-8E52-(E-Mail Removed)...
>I spent about 12 hours today trying to wirelessly network my 3 Dell Windows
> XP computers -- without success. I got to the point where they can all
> (usually) access the internet through the Linksys wireless router, but
> they
> still don't see each other on the network. I've searched this forum
> repeatedly and tried many things, but haven't been able to isolate the
> problem. I'm fairly tech savvy and have been using PCs for some 20 years.
> I'm now so frustrated with PCs that I will be looking into buying several
> Apple Macs next year.

On Mon, 22 Nov 2004 20:55:06 -0800, photoshopper
<(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

>I spent about 12 hours today trying to wirelessly network my 3 Dell Windows
>XP computers -- without success. I got to the point where they can all
>(usually) access the internet through the Linksys wireless router, but they
>still don't see each other on the network. I've searched this forum
>repeatedly and tried many things, but haven't been able to isolate the
>problem. I'm fairly tech savvy and have been using PCs for some 20 years.
>I'm now so frustrated with PCs that I will be looking into buying several
>Apple Macs next year.

This is not the best forum for help with Windows XP networking issues - you
probably want to get help in microsoft.public.windowsxp.networking_web. Also,
looking for help from previous posts may not always be the best procedure -
individual help, given openly in the forum, is probably your best hope.

For help here, please start by providing ipconfig information for each computer.
Start - Run - "cmd". Type "ipconfig /all >c:\ipconfig.txt" into the command
window - Open c:\ipconfig.txt in Notepad, make sure that Format - Word Wrap is
NOT checked!, copy and paste into your next post. Identify operating system (by
name, version, and SP level) with each ipconfig listing.

--
Cheers,
Chuck
Paranoia comes from experience - and is not necessarily a bad thing.

Chuck and Carey, thank you for your kind offers of assistance. I will follow
up again when I have some time. I blew a whole day on this yesterday, trying
everything I could find, checking various forums, trying every
troubleshooter, thinking that the solution was just around the corner. I'm
tempted to keep at it today, but I am a one-person business and there are
projects to finish, deadlines to meet. I've lost so much productivity thanks
to ... well, I'm still not sure where the problem lies (Linksys, Windows,
Dell, ...?). I'm just so steamed about it and, yes, I'm venting. I should
have hired an expert to do this. My friends in the Mac world don't seem to
have these problems. The money I've saved by buying Windows machines, I've
more than lost by all of the down time of trying to get them to work
properly. (One formerly fast PC purchase this year has become snail slow,
despite having 2 gigs of RAM and many gigs of hard drive space and being
defragmented, checked for spyware and adware, etc., and the sound no longer
works.) I can't turn off the Windows Firewall because there's some problem
with the WMI, and System Restore doesn't help, and doing a repair reinstall
of Windows XP doesn't help. These computers are such a time-drain!

"Chuck" wrote:

> On Mon, 22 Nov 2004 20:55:06 -0800, photoshopper
> <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
>
> >I spent about 12 hours today trying to wirelessly network my 3 Dell Windows
> >XP computers -- without success. I got to the point where they can all
> >(usually) access the internet through the Linksys wireless router, but they
> >still don't see each other on the network. I've searched this forum
> >repeatedly and tried many things, but haven't been able to isolate the
> >problem. I'm fairly tech savvy and have been using PCs for some 20 years.
> >I'm now so frustrated with PCs that I will be looking into buying several
> >Apple Macs next year.
>
> This is not the best forum for help with Windows XP networking issues - you
> probably want to get help in microsoft.public.windowsxp.networking_web. Also,
> looking for help from previous posts may not always be the best procedure -
> individual help, given openly in the forum, is probably your best hope.
>
> For help here, please start by providing ipconfig information for each computer.
> Start - Run - "cmd". Type "ipconfig /all >c:\ipconfig.txt" into the command
> window - Open c:\ipconfig.txt in Notepad, make sure that Format - Word Wrap is
> NOT checked!, copy and paste into your next post. Identify operating system (by
> name, version, and SP level) with each ipconfig listing.
>
> --
> Cheers,
> Chuck
> Paranoia comes from experience - and is not necessarily a bad thing.
>

On Tue, 23 Nov 2004 09:59:10 -0800, photoshopper
<(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

>Chuck and Carey, thank you for your kind offers of assistance. I will follow
>up again when I have some time. I blew a whole day on this yesterday, trying
>everything I could find, checking various forums, trying every
>troubleshooter, thinking that the solution was just around the corner. I'm
>tempted to keep at it today, but I am a one-person business and there are
>projects to finish, deadlines to meet. I've lost so much productivity thanks
>to ... well, I'm still not sure where the problem lies (Linksys, Windows,
>Dell, ...?). I'm just so steamed about it and, yes, I'm venting. I should
>have hired an expert to do this. My friends in the Mac world don't seem to
>have these problems. The money I've saved by buying Windows machines, I've
>more than lost by all of the down time of trying to get them to work
>properly. (One formerly fast PC purchase this year has become snail slow,
>despite having 2 gigs of RAM and many gigs of hard drive space and being
>defragmented, checked for spyware and adware, etc., and the sound no longer
>works.) I can't turn off the Windows Firewall because there's some problem
>with the WMI, and System Restore doesn't help, and doing a repair reinstall
>of Windows XP doesn't help. These computers are such a time-drain!

I understand your frustration. Thanks for updating your status.

--
Cheers,
Chuck
Paranoia comes from experience - and is not necessarily a bad thing.

We'll be here when you're ready.

Carey

"photoshopper" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:1AF7AAEF-B89D-436A-A203-(E-Mail Removed)...
> Chuck and Carey, thank you for your kind offers of assistance. I will
> follow
> up again when I have some time. I blew a whole day on this yesterday,
> trying
> everything I could find, checking various forums, trying every
> troubleshooter, thinking that the solution was just around the corner.
> I'm
> tempted to keep at it today, but I am a one-person business and there are
> projects to finish, deadlines to meet. I've lost so much productivity
> thanks
> to ... well, I'm still not sure where the problem lies (Linksys, Windows,
> Dell, ...?). I'm just so steamed about it and, yes, I'm venting. I
> should
> have hired an expert to do this. My friends in the Mac world don't seem
> to
> have these problems. The money I've saved by buying Windows machines,
> I've
> more than lost by all of the down time of trying to get them to work
> properly. (One formerly fast PC purchase this year has become snail slow,
> despite having 2 gigs of RAM and many gigs of hard drive space and being
> defragmented, checked for spyware and adware, etc., and the sound no
> longer
> works.) I can't turn off the Windows Firewall because there's some
> problem
> with the WMI, and System Restore doesn't help, and doing a repair
> reinstall
> of Windows XP doesn't help. These computers are such a time-drain!
>
> "Chuck" wrote:
>
>> On Mon, 22 Nov 2004 20:55:06 -0800, photoshopper
>> <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
>>
>> >I spent about 12 hours today trying to wirelessly network my 3 Dell
>> >Windows
>> >XP computers -- without success. I got to the point where they can all
>> >(usually) access the internet through the Linksys wireless router, but
>> >they
>> >still don't see each other on the network. I've searched this forum
>> >repeatedly and tried many things, but haven't been able to isolate the
>> >problem. I'm fairly tech savvy and have been using PCs for some 20
>> >years.
>> >I'm now so frustrated with PCs that I will be looking into buying
>> >several
>> >Apple Macs next year.
>>
>> This is not the best forum for help with Windows XP networking issues -
>> you
>> probably want to get help in microsoft.public.windowsxp.networking_web.
>> Also,
>> looking for help from previous posts may not always be the best
>> procedure -
>> individual help, given openly in the forum, is probably your best hope.
>>
>> For help here, please start by providing ipconfig information for each
>> computer.
>> Start - Run - "cmd". Type "ipconfig /all >c:\ipconfig.txt" into the
>> command
>> window - Open c:\ipconfig.txt in Notepad, make sure that Format - Word
>> Wrap is
>> NOT checked!, copy and paste into your next post. Identify operating
>> system (by
>> name, version, and SP level) with each ipconfig listing.
>>
>> --
>> Cheers,
>> Chuck
>> Paranoia comes from experience - and is not necessarily a bad thing.
>>