One Workgroup Computer having XP cannot see other computers over network

[Sach-Het]

Recently I implemented a network environment on my office. I am just having a set of five computers and all these are connected using star topology i.e. by using a HUB. When I have tried to see whether all computers are on network then I found that one of these computers cannot see other computers on the network. I have used simple class C IP address for networking and they are set for workgroup mode. The other computers are pinging properly but I have problem only with this system, so please help me to troubleshoot the same.

[Paisley007]

I understood that you are trying to have the network as simple as you can. The main thing you should make a note about is that you should assign a unique IP address to all the computers over the network. So just verify for that by checking the IP address in all the computers. After that you should also keep a common workgroup name, so just ensure that you configured a common workgroup name in all the computers. I guess doing this would solve the problem.

[Carley]

As you confirm for the above then you need to ping the computer in order to know what actually the problem is. So just type ping and the destination computer IP address and hit enter, and then a DOS window would get opened and this would let you know what exactly the problem is. If you get the reply message then the communication is possible, if you get destination host not reachable then there is problem somewhere in network. So look for that message and let us know further.

[Connect_Me]

The very first thing that should be done in networking is that the computer should be configured for the network, so that you get to know that it is able to communicate with other computers over a network. The basic thing is that network card driver should be installed so that you can configure IP address and other settings. As you done with this, you ping the self computer itself in order to get the reply message. If reply found then almost there is no problem with the computer and thus you may have to troubleshoot some another thing

[Sabastiaan]

There might be a case where actually there may be a problem with the network itself. I mean to say that if the proper crimping of the cables in not done in your network cables then you won’t be able to receive the reply message and thus fin ally end up with the destination host unreachable message. So again do a proper crimping of the cable of the computer where you are getting the problem. You may look for the crimping guide in order to setup it properly.

[teenQ]

If all this doesn’t help you then you should try to look for the network adapter driver. Have a look on the device manager and then navigate to the network adapter and probably uninstall the driver or else have a newer version of this driver. When you do this then all the settings that you have done on that computer would be removed, so you need to configure the settings of that computer again and then again try pinging the computer to see the reply.

[Wguy2008]

I have searched through all the network issues and found that in this case if the computer is not able to come on the network, then the reason for which this is causing is that the firewall program is blocking it. So look for the rules of the firewall and add the file sharing in its exception list, or else to be simpler you can just disable the firewall, but this is not recommended so try to add exception and then after this I guess definitely this would help you if you have gone through all the above solutions.