RoyGBiv

I am having problems with getting two computers to see each other on my home network to allow them to share files. I have the following setup: I have a dsl modem which is connected to a Netgear wireless router. The first computer is a desktop, which is connected by cable to the router, and the second is a laptop which uses a Netgear wireless card to connect to the router. Both connect to the internet without problems and until I just changed my desktop computer, both could connect to each other to share files. Two weeks ago I built a new desktop computer, and now I can't figure out how to get the two computers to talk to each other. I have not changed any configurations on the laptop or router, and I am trying to figure out if I need to do something differently on the desktop. I have all the different types of "clients" installed for computers to communicate (as per Microsoft's troubleshooting guide). Both are set to "Microsoft Family Logon" as the "Primary logon." If I check the "network neighborhood," I can see the network from either computer, but if I double click on that, I only get the one computer I'm working on listed, not both as I used to. This is what happens if I try "find computer:" On my desktop if I try to find the wireless I will get nothing. On the laptop if I try to find the desktop, it finds the desktop, but if I double click to open it, nothing happens. Both computers are set up to share files, and both computers are running Win 98 (although the desktop is SE and the laptop just 98).

Since I could do this before I built my new computer, I am assuming that I am brain dead and just have to change some setting in the desktop network properties. In terms of networking the only difference from the previous desktop computer is that the first used a networking card, while the current one has the LAN port built into the motherboard. As far as I recall, all the other settings are the same.

TIA

SMK

celsdogg

are the workgroup names the same?

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VALERIE - AMD Athlon XP Palomino 1800+, 1GB DDR SDRAM, nVidia GeForceFX 5700 128MB DDR, two 160GB Seagate HDD, two 250GB Seagate HDD, WinXP Pro
SARAH (Toshiba Laptop) - Intel Pentium 4 2.8ghz, 512MB DDR SDRAM, Trident Cyberblade XP2 32MB, 60GB Samsung HDD, Ubuntu Linux 7.10
MARGARET - AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800+, 2GB Corsair XMS DDR400 Dual Channel, nVidia GeForce 8600GT 256MB GDDR PCIE, 80GB Seagate SATA, 60GB Maxtor PATA, 60GB WD PATA Ubuntu Linux 7.10 + WinXP Pro

RoyGBiv

The workgroup names are the same.

After playing around with things further this morning, I have it working. I don't know if this will help others, and I am not sure if what I did really fixed it or something else helped, but this is what happened. In the Netgear router's documentation it said that the subnet mask setting for the LAN should be 255.255.255.0. Using winipcfg I found that the subnet mask was 255.0.0.0. I didn't know how I could manually set the subnet mask, so I went into the gateway section of the network configuration and manually added 255.255.255.0 to it. From that point on the subnet mask setting for my LAN has been 255.255.255.0, and the computers can talk to each other!

SMK