NetBIOS Name Resolution Failures with Wireless Network?

I have a small 54G wireless network which uses 128-bit
WEP and disabled SSID broadcasting. It consists of the
following machines:

* A desktop PC "Shrimp", is tethered directly to a
Netgear wireless router and is designated as Browse
Master (browse mastering disabled for all other machines).
* A laptop "Lapdog" contains a Netgear wireless PCMCIA
card.
* 2 desktop PCs, "Lurch" and "GW2000" with contains
Linksys wireless PCI cards.

All machines run Win98SE, are configured for TCP/IP only,
file-sharing, and DHCP. No WINS, LMHOSTS or DNS. TCP/IP
appears to work fine, as all hosts are pingable (using IP
address) from one another, and all hosts can access the
Internet via the Netgear router.

Problem 1: Network Neighborhood on Shrimp and Lapdog
displays both Shrimp and Lapdog, however, Lurch and
GW2000 are not displayed. Network Neighborhood on both
Lurch and GW2000, is empty.

Problem 2: When I try to connect using Run \\Lurch or
\\GW2000 from the Shrimp or Lapdog, it hangs for about 30
seconds, then I get "Host not found" (same happens when I
try to run \\Shrimp or \\Lapdog from Lurch or GW2000).
When I run nbtstat -c on Lurch/GW2000, I see that the
cache is empty. The NBT caches on Shrimp and Lapdog
display each other, but not Lurch or GW2000. When I try
connecting to the Shrimp using it's IP address (i.e.,
\\192.168.0.2), from Lurch or GW2000, I do eventually get
in and can then see the Shrimp's entry in their NetBIOS
cache. At this point, running \\Shrimp on Lurch/GW2000
works OK, but eventually, the cache entry times out and I
have use the IP address again. Same scenario visa versa,
i.e., when I try to get into Lurch/GW2000 from
Shrimp/Lapdog - IP address required when the cache is
empty.

In short, it looks as if Shrimp and Lapdog seem to work
fine. However, Lurch and GW2000 don't seem to be
resolving NetBIOS names, nor do they seem to be
responding to NetBIOS name resolution requests from
Shrimp or Lapdog.

At first I suspected that there was a problem with UDP
broadcast, but I'm not sure that's the problem since DHCP
appears to work. BTW, before I went wireless with this
network, it was connected using a HomePNA (phone-line)
network, and it worked flawlessly, albeit only at 10MB.

Anybody have an idea what the heck is going on here?

Thanks in advance, Tom

Enable your SSID broadcast. Microsoft does not support or recommend
disabling the SSID broadcast.

http://support.microsoft.com/default...b;en-us;811427

Carey



"Tom" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:023001c3d617$e54608f0$(E-Mail Removed)...
> I have a small 54G wireless network which uses 128-bit
> WEP and disabled SSID broadcasting. It consists of the
> following machines:
>
> * A desktop PC "Shrimp", is tethered directly to a
> Netgear wireless router and is designated as Browse
> Master (browse mastering disabled for all other machines).
> * A laptop "Lapdog" contains a Netgear wireless PCMCIA
> card.
> * 2 desktop PCs, "Lurch" and "GW2000" with contains
> Linksys wireless PCI cards.
>
> All machines run Win98SE, are configured for TCP/IP only,
> file-sharing, and DHCP. No WINS, LMHOSTS or DNS. TCP/IP
> appears to work fine, as all hosts are pingable (using IP
> address) from one another, and all hosts can access the
> Internet via the Netgear router.
>
> Problem 1: Network Neighborhood on Shrimp and Lapdog
> displays both Shrimp and Lapdog, however, Lurch and
> GW2000 are not displayed. Network Neighborhood on both
> Lurch and GW2000, is empty.
>
> Problem 2: When I try to connect using Run \\Lurch or
> \\GW2000 from the Shrimp or Lapdog, it hangs for about 30
> seconds, then I get "Host not found" (same happens when I
> try to run \\Shrimp or \\Lapdog from Lurch or GW2000).
> When I run nbtstat -c on Lurch/GW2000, I see that the
> cache is empty. The NBT caches on Shrimp and Lapdog
> display each other, but not Lurch or GW2000. When I try
> connecting to the Shrimp using it's IP address (i.e.,
> \\192.168.0.2), from Lurch or GW2000, I do eventually get
> in and can then see the Shrimp's entry in their NetBIOS
> cache. At this point, running \\Shrimp on Lurch/GW2000
> works OK, but eventually, the cache entry times out and I
> have use the IP address again. Same scenario visa versa,
> i.e., when I try to get into Lurch/GW2000 from
> Shrimp/Lapdog - IP address required when the cache is
> empty.
>
> In short, it looks as if Shrimp and Lapdog seem to work
> fine. However, Lurch and GW2000 don't seem to be
> resolving NetBIOS names, nor do they seem to be
> responding to NetBIOS name resolution requests from
> Shrimp or Lapdog.
>
> At first I suspected that there was a problem with UDP
> broadcast, but I'm not sure that's the problem since DHCP
> appears to work. BTW, before I went wireless with this
> network, it was connected using a HomePNA (phone-line)
> network, and it worked flawlessly, albeit only at 10MB.
>
> Anybody have an idea what the heck is going on here?
>
> Thanks in advance, Tom