P2P network Nightmare

[FunDMental]

Hi, I'm a new member,

I'm about to throw 2 computers right out the window, I've spent the past 4 days trying to puzzle this mess out and hope someone smarter than me can help.

We have a simple p2p network, sharing internet connection with my puter as the gateway. I'm in the boonies in central MI and we're stuck in dialup hell, so we connect via crappy dialup. For the past 8 years, we've had 2 puters hooked up this way, and everything worked fine, till friday when the wife's puter (the client) couldn't access the net. I can see both computers in the network map, and can pass data back and forth just fine, but hers has no connection to the net.

I've tried, replacing the NIC card in both of them (had a spare) and I've tried every "fix" I've been able to find over the past 72 hours haunting all the tech sites, still no connection from her machine, through mine to the net.

Hers is a HP running win 7, the gateway machine is a homebrew running vista.
I've tried setting the IPs manually, I've uninstalled and reinstalled the nic on both machines, I've basically run out of ideas.

Anyone have any bright ideas?
No idea is too crazy at this point, I have a ticked off wife who really wants to get into her FB acct. :shock:

 

[wallyinnc]

Hi Fundmental, welcome to the forums

Did you ever run your network with the Windows 7 computer or is it new to this configuration?

Are you using Homegroup in your win7 computer or Workgroup? Are they all in the same Workgroup?

let us know

 

[FunDMental]

Hi, thanks for the warm welcome

Yes, we got her computer back in December, and the network was humming along just fine until friday morning when she had no connectivity.

Yes, I made sure they both have the same homegroup name.
I can access my hard drive from her end, and even stream music over the network, but she can't connect to the net through this one like she could before.

Going slowly nutz.

 

[wallyinnc]

Tks for the feedback.

Be careful with Homegroup and Workgroup. Homegroup is a new feature in Windows 7 and it is known to cause problems in a mixed OS configuration as you have. Workgroup is the old netwrok configuration. If you have Homegroup set up, try disabling it and see what happens.

Also, it can be a firewall problem, since you have communication inside your LAN, but not to the outside. What firewall are you using? Has anything changed there?

 

[CarlTR6]

Tks for the feedback.

Be careful with Homegroup and Workgroup. Homegroup is a new feature in Windows 7 and it is known to cause problems in a mixed OS configuration as you have. Workgroup is the old netwrok configuration. If you have Homegroup set up, try disabling it and see what happens.

Also, it can be a firewall problem, since you have communication inside your LAN, but not to the outside. What firewall are you using? Has anything changed there?

Wally, you are spot on. Homegroup was designed for all connecting computers running Win 7. If you have mixed OS machines, use workgroup.

 

[FunDMental]

Well I did have the network named HOMEGROUP, because all the places I've been to said that was the best choice.
I changed it to Workgroup on both machines, and even tried turning off the firewall on her machine for the network.
Still no connection. I can see folders on my machine from hers, and vice versa, so I know they're passing data back and forth, I just don't understand why she can't get data from online.
Not to mention how the whole thing suddenly decided to quit working.

Is it possible for the cable to go bad, yet allow some data to pass?
I've tried everything short of replacing the cable.

Also, does anyone know how to get win 7 to keep the workgroup set as private, and change the name from Unidentified network? That might be at least part of the problem, every time you start the machine back up the workgroup is set once again to Public, and when i try to change the name nothing can be changed.

Sometimes I'd like to just punch Bill Gates in the nose.

 

[saville]

Internet connectivity P2P

First, homegroups only work if both computers are running Win 7. With a similar set up, I "fixed" the internet connectively problem by forgetting my four port router and used a crossover Ethernet cable. This fixed the internet connectivity. I could never get my simple P2P network (Win 7-to-Win 7) to function with the router. The client computer was never able to "see" the internet, although a previous set up with one Win 7 and the other Win XP SP3, everything worked fine...

Lesson learned, don't be too anxious to get upgraded software when things aren't broken!

Ron

 

[wallyinnc]

Thanks for the input Ron and welcome to the forums!