Slow wireless network problems

I have recently set up an ad hoc wireless network of 2 PCs and a laptop,
with Belkin 54 g cards in all of them.

I did this because after installing Norton Anti Virus my old ethernet
network never worked properly again.

My main PC and the laptop both have Windows Xp and communicate with each
other perfectly. The second PC has Windows 98 SE. I am having exactly the
same problem now as I had with the ethernet network. The Win98 SE PC sees
the shared files on the other computers but takes absolutely ages to access
any files. Hours and hours. When I try to access shared files on this PC,
from the main PC or laptop the other computers can "see" the other PC, but
if I click to access any files I am told something like "unable to access
the network. You may not have permission".

Does anyone have any suggestions?

Thanks in advance.

On Fri, 12 Dec 2003 16:18:29 +0000 (UTC), "Gary Glencross"
<(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

>I have recently set up an ad hoc wireless network of 2 PCs and a laptop,
>with Belkin 54 g cards in all of them.
>
>I did this because after installing Norton Anti Virus my old ethernet
>network never worked properly again.

All wireless is doing is pretending to be the physical wires from your
ethernet experience. The problems that you may have had with that are
not changed by this switch to wireless (unless they were card or cable
faults, in which case it probably would never have worked) and,
indeed, you add more complexity and areas for further problems to mask
the original one(s).

>My main PC and the laptop both have Windows Xp and communicate with each
>other perfectly. The second PC has Windows 98 SE. I am having exactly the
>same problem now as I had with the ethernet network. The Win98 SE PC sees
>the shared files on the other computers but takes absolutely ages to access
>any files. Hours and hours. When I try to access shared files on this PC,
>from the main PC or laptop the other computers can "see" the other PC, but
>if I click to access any files I am told something like "unable to access
>the network. You may not have permission".

How have you got your connection settings set up? How have you got
file sharing set up?

Is the problem accessing from the 98 machine the same when it tries to
access on both ot the other machines? Is the problem accessing to the
98 machine the same from both of those other machines?

How about if one of the other machines is switched off?

What happens if you use a crossover cable between the "rogue" machine
and each of the others instead of wireless?

Is it Norton Antivirus alone, or have you installed any firewalls etc
(e.g. Norton Internet Security)?

>Does anyone have any suggestions?

Need a fair bit more info )

jay

Thanks to Jay for the detailed response!

Actually, it wasn't Norton anti-virus I installed. It was Norton Personal
Firewall and I suspect that is where my original problems lay. My network
never worked properly after that. I tried setting it up for the network and
eventually totally uninstalled the firewall. The only firewall I now use is
the built in XP firewall for my broadband internet connection.

Firesharing etc works perfectly between my main PC and the laptop. I have
file sharing checked on the Win 98 machine.

I get exactly the same trickling unworkable response when I try to connect
to either the laptop or main computer from the Win98 PC.

When I try to access the Win 98 computer from either the main computer or
the laptop I can see the Win 98 computer in my workgroup computers but I get
the the message that the Win 98 computer

"is not accessible. You might not have permission to use this network
resource. Contact the administrator of this server to find out if you have
access permissions.

The network path was not found."

This message is identical whether I try to access the Win98 computer from
either the main PC or laptop.

I tried to get the laptop and Win 98 PC to recognise each other without the
main computer being on, and wasn't able to manage this. I did switch DNS off
etc.

When I had all the computers back on, they all recognised each other but the
problem was as before.

Any ideas?





"Jay" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...
> On Fri, 12 Dec 2003 16:18:29 +0000 (UTC), "Gary Glencross"
> <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
>
> >I have recently set up an ad hoc wireless network of 2 PCs and a laptop,
> >with Belkin 54 g cards in all of them.
> >
> >I did this because after installing Norton Anti Virus my old ethernet
> >network never worked properly again.
>
> All wireless is doing is pretending to be the physical wires from your
> ethernet experience. The problems that you may have had with that are
> not changed by this switch to wireless (unless they were card or cable
> faults, in which case it probably would never have worked) and,
> indeed, you add more complexity and areas for further problems to mask
> the original one(s).
>
> >My main PC and the laptop both have Windows Xp and communicate with each
> >other perfectly. The second PC has Windows 98 SE. I am having exactly
the
> >same problem now as I had with the ethernet network. The Win98 SE PC
sees
> >the shared files on the other computers but takes absolutely ages to
access
> >any files. Hours and hours. When I try to access shared files on this
PC,
> >from the main PC or laptop the other computers can "see" the other PC,
but
> >if I click to access any files I am told something like "unable to access
> >the network. You may not have permission".
>
> How have you got your connection settings set up? How have you got
> file sharing set up?
>
> Is the problem accessing from the 98 machine the same when it tries to
> access on both ot the other machines? Is the problem accessing to the
> 98 machine the same from both of those other machines?
>
> How about if one of the other machines is switched off?
>
> What happens if you use a crossover cable between the "rogue" machine
> and each of the others instead of wireless?
>
> Is it Norton Antivirus alone, or have you installed any firewalls etc
> (e.g. Norton Internet Security)?
>
> >Does anyone have any suggestions?
>
> Need a fair bit more info )
>
> jay

On Fri, 12 Dec 2003 20:24:39 +0000 (UTC), "Gary Glencross"
<(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

>Any ideas?

usernames and passwords may be an issue - Win98 sends usernames and
passwords in CAPITALS irrespective of what you type in so if the user
on the Win98 machine also exists on the XP machines there may be
password issues. Enabling Guest access on the XP machines may help.
Put net user into a command line prompt on XP to see who is set up.

Make netbios mandatory on the XP machines, its on the WINS tab of
Advanced from the Properties of TCP/IP on the relevant network
connection.

Phil

On Fri, 12 Dec 2003 16:18:29 +0000 (UTC), "Gary Glencross"
<(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

>I have recently set up an ad hoc wireless network of 2 PCs and a laptop,
>with Belkin 54 g cards in all of them.
>
>I did this because after installing Norton Anti Virus my old ethernet
>network never worked properly again.
>
>My main PC and the laptop both have Windows Xp and communicate with each
>other perfectly. The second PC has Windows 98 SE. I am having exactly the
>same problem now as I had with the ethernet network. The Win98 SE PC sees
>the shared files on the other computers but takes absolutely ages to access
>any files. Hours and hours. When I try to access shared files on this PC,
>from the main PC or laptop the other computers can "see" the other PC, but
>if I click to access any files I am told something like "unable to access
>the network. You may not have permission".
>
>Does anyone have any suggestions?

Have you tried PINGing the various machines on your network and seeing
what responses you get?

Geoff Lane

When I PING I get the following responses..

When I ping from the laptop or main computer to the Win98 PC I get quick
responses in terms of ms, but the TTL is only 32. When I ping from the
Win98 machine to the other machines I get a TTL of 128, which is also what I
get when I ping between the other 2.

I have no idea how to interpret this.

Gary


"Geoff Lane" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...
> On Fri, 12 Dec 2003 16:18:29 +0000 (UTC), "Gary Glencross"
> <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
>
> >I have recently set up an ad hoc wireless network of 2 PCs and a laptop,
> >with Belkin 54 g cards in all of them.
> >
> >I did this because after installing Norton Anti Virus my old ethernet
> >network never worked properly again.
> >
> >My main PC and the laptop both have Windows Xp and communicate with each
> >other perfectly. The second PC has Windows 98 SE. I am having exactly
the
> >same problem now as I had with the ethernet network. The Win98 SE PC
sees
> >the shared files on the other computers but takes absolutely ages to
access
> >any files. Hours and hours. When I try to access shared files on this
PC,
> >from the main PC or laptop the other computers can "see" the other PC,
but
> >if I click to access any files I am told something like "unable to access
> >the network. You may not have permission".
> >
> >Does anyone have any suggestions?
>
> Have you tried PINGing the various machines on your network and seeing
> what responses you get?
>
> Geoff Lane
>

"Gary Glencross" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in
news:brihgf$iod$(E-Mail Removed):

> When I PING I get the following responses..
>
> When I ping from the laptop or main computer to the Win98 PC I
> get quick responses in terms of ms, but the TTL is only 32.
> When I ping from the Win98 machine to the other machines I get a
> TTL of 128, which is also what I get when I ping between the
> other 2.
>
> I have no idea how to interpret this.

TTL: A field in the Internet Protocol header which indicates how
many more hops this packet should be allowed to make before being
discarded or returned.

The TTL field is intended to prevent IP packets wandering the
Internet forever e.g. if there is a routing problem causing a loop.

--
BRG
===
http://www.brgservices.co.uk/