Frustrating laptop on good LAN

[Paul Komski]

The set-up is a four-PC LAN served by a wireless router. There are three desktops: XP-pro-SP2 (wired), Ubuntu/Samba (wired) and Win2K-SP4 (wireless pci). All of these work and share normally and have unique simple names. The problem is an older Pentium2 Laptop with 256MB RAM dual-booting Win2K-SP4 and WinXP-pro-SP2. With WinXP it can access the net and file share normally using either a wired PCMCIA cardbus or a wireless USB dongle.

The laptop under Win2K however malfunctions on the cardbus and yet works quite normally with the wireless USB connection. I'm only using WinXP for testing purposes and don't want to activate it on this older machine despite that fact that it is functional. I also want to be able to use Win2K with an ethernet cable when away from home in locations with no wifi router.

The problem is extremely perplexing to me and note that the TCP/IP settings are identical whether using the wired or the wifi adapter; I have treble-checked these settings. The laptop is identified correctly as a DHCP client by the router with a name, MAC address, IP address and lease and is "seen" but not accessible under the Workgroup (Workgroup) from the Microsoft Windows Network from other PCs. Pinging it by IP address is fine but by pc name (fred) results in "Ping request could not find host fred". The shares do not show up when attempting to access by file sharing with a dialog box "\\Fred is not accessible ....... The network path was not found" appearing. The laptop itself can ping other LAN PCs and itself by name or IP address and all PCs show up under "Computers Near Me" but only fred can access itself - trying to access the other PCs result in a message "... is not accessible. The network path was not found". Finally the www is inaccessible in a browser by domain name and yet, amazingly, I can immediately load web pages by ip address!

This has been with a clean installation and a clean reinstallation of Win2K-SP4 with no firewall installed. I have, of course, also tried other NetBIOS and WINS settings as well as trying static IP and DNS settings seeing that it looks likely to somehow to be a name resolution conflict somewhere - all to no avail. I have also tried by-passing the router but then cannot connect to the internet at all (possibly the static IP and DNS settings were incorrect and I might try this again). All PCs and the router have been rebooted numerous times and lots of time allowed to reconfigure the network. Ipconfig /release and /renew have also been tried out. I have tried updating the cardbus's drivers and even tried the WinXP drivers in place of the Win2K ones - all to no avail.

So currently I'm stumped and frustrated as to why there are these problems only when using the cardbus and only when this is run from Win2K. Any good ideas for further troubleshooting or a suggestion of what could be going on would be very much appreciated. For completeness the results of ipconfig /all and nbtstat -n are:

C:\>ipconfig /all

Windows 2000 IP Configuration

Host Name . . . . . . . . . . . . : fred
Primary DNS Suffix . . . . . . . :
Node Type . . . . . . . . . . . . : Broadcast
IP Routing Enabled. . . . . . . . : No
WINS Proxy Enabled. . . . . . . . : No

Ethernet adapter card:

Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Realtek RTL8169/8110 Family Gigabit
Ethernet NIC
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : x0-xA-xD-xD-x5-x0
DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : Yes
Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes
IP Address. . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.0.101
Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0
Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.0.1
DHCP Server . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.0.1
DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.97.1
xxx.xx.0.66
Lease Obtained. . . . . . . . . . : 01 January 2008 10:58:21
Lease Expires . . . . . . . . . . : 01 January 2008 12:58:21

C:\>nbtstat -n

card:
Node IpAddress: [192.168.0.101] Scope Id: []

NetBIOS Local Name Table

Name Type Status
---------------------------------------------
FRED <00> UNIQUE Registered
FRED <20> UNIQUE Registered
WORKGROUP <00> GROUP Registered
FRED <03> UNIQUE Registered
WORKGROUP <1E> GROUP Registered
PAUL <03> UNIQUE Registered
WORKGROUP <1D> UNIQUE Registered
..__MSBROWSE__.<01> GROUP Registered

[jlreich]

The thing that jumps out at me is the DNS server should be the same as DHCP and the Default Gateway when using a router and nothing else to handle the three.

If you are not using a separate DNS server then it should be 192.168.0.1 like the Gateway and DHCP are.

[Paul Komski]

Thanks jlreich, and if it helps to make any sense the default Gateway and DHCP server are the router's LAN side (198.162.0.1) and the DNS Server(s) are not only behind the router which has a static public IP address on its WAN side but they are also behind the wireless bridge somewhere I guess on the subnet used by the ISP from the main Access Point - a big mast on top of a "mountain" some five miles from here. They are the settings given out to use by the ISP. The router is set as DHCP server serving addresses 192.168.0 100 thru 192.168.0.199 and all the client PCs are set to get their settings automatically.

Also it is worth restating that the PC is quite OK when using a USB wifi and when booted to WinXP with either the USB wifi or the Cardbus cable. It is also worth saying again that I only beginning to really get to grips with networking.

[jlreich]

OK, no problems with the DNS server then.

Another thought that comes to mind, check that the cardbus supports whatever level security you are using on the router.

I have had instances where even wireless cards on brand new machines would support WPA but not WPA2 and I had to lower my security down to allow it to connect properly.

Also note that I have an older USB dongle that does support WPA2. Go figure...

[Paul Komski]

Have made some progress of sorts.

First thing is that Knoppix and Ubuntu and Puppy and Xubuntu, as with WinXP, have no problems surfing or of using Samba for the LAN.

Seondly (in Win2K) by setting a reserved IP address in the router and then setting the same static IP address (with NetBIOS over TCP/IP enabled) in the cardbus's TCP/IP settings and finally with the same IP address set in WINS I am able to surf.

When first booted-up surfing is a bit intermittent with some pages failing to "be found" but it settles down and though "palpably" not as fast as the wireless connection or of other wired connections to the router it is functional. I can then access the Win2K shared folders from the PCs on the LAN but the Win2K laptop can see all the PCs in the workgroup but not access them - with time-outs and network not accessible and remote produre call failed type error messages. It will even attempt to log-on to the Ubuntu box but then fail to connect.

From a functional standpoint I have resolved my access dilemma by installing ubuntu to the hard drive (its just a bit slow to load on that machine and I haven't found a way to configure samba server on Xubuntu) and dual boot Win2K/Ubuntu in place of Win2K/WinXP. But I would love to understand what is going-on with Windows 2000, which incidentally works just fine on a destop with a PCI NIC wired to the router. Just a guess - of course - but I wonder could it be in any way related to the type of broadcasts made by Win2K, which now shows as hybrid in ipconfig /all.

PS - While troubleshooting I have turned off all security on the router (excepting any inherent security from NAT and MAC address filtering for wireless cards) relying on software firewalls on the other boxes - no firewall at all on the Win2K laptop.

[Paul Komski]

Update.

I don't know what it is but however the PCMCIA card is installed in Win2K there are problems not only with the LAN which gets totally stuffed for all file-sharing between all PCs but also with surfing via the router. The problems surfing will also happen when all other PCs are disconnected from the LAN. One can surf by IP address but not by domain name; go figure. Have tried all sorts of router settings as well with fixed and dyanmic IP address allocation.

I have quadruple-checked the TCP/IP settings and they are identical to settings that work when XP is installed on the same hardware. There is also no problem connecting wirelessly via the router and a USB dongle.

I have spent so much time troubleshooting this but have given up on trying to get the card to work with Win2K though I would love to know why it wont. Even the drivers for Win2K and WinXP are the same drivers.

I can surf OK by putting all sites to be accessed in the HOSTS file but that is hardly a solution and when other PCs want to use the LAN for file-sharing they all get "inaccessible" type responsed.

Enough is enough and I now have the machine dual booting WinXP and Puppy with everything and all PCs happy!

[classicsoftware]

My experience with Windows 2000 and wireless networking is very similar to yours. The same with USB dongle Ethernet adapters. Have you tried the hard wired port? Have you downloaded the appropriate driver/software for Windows 2000?

[Paul Komski]

Thanks classic'. It is the USB wireless that works flawlessly from the same installation. I have tried many different drivers for the hard wired NIC on the PCMCIA cardbus, which is the problem area/device. I have tried installing them both before and after insertion of the card. I cant tell you how many days I have spent on this and the final straw came when I discovered that I could still only browse by IP address when no other PCs were using the router. I went so far as to create a webpage with some illustrations (http://www.paulski.com/ANetProb/win2kprob.htm) but had, by that time, reached the point of defeat and despite my love of solving problems just as crossword and sudoku addicts behave. In the end it looks like some sort of name/ip address resolution problem and before you ask I have tried just about every configuration of the DNS/NetBIOS/Etc settings and bearing in mind too that the same settings in the wireless interface work just fine.

[jlreich]

I have a PCMCIA wireless card that refuses to work on my company laptop (XP). I have tried and tried to get it to work and just won't. But as in your case a USB dongle works just fine. But in my case I get resource conflicts and it won't work in any way. No matter what drivers or what I disable it won't work. I have gotten it to work for a minute or two then then it decides it just can't have that and craps out on me. :rolleyes:

In my experience with PCMCIA cards, which isn't all that much, if the system/OS doesn't like them for whatever reason there isn't much you can do about it. :(

Perhaps we should swap cards. Maybe our systems will find the other card more agreeable and play nice. :p

[Paul Komski]

Perhaps we should swap cards.Maybe we should because I'm not going to throw any more good money after what appears to be badly spend money - though the card is automatically quite OK with various versions of Linux (out of the box) and with XP which has native drivers for the card but for which you must provide drivers for the NIC.

The layers of the cardbus interface must be a bit weird in general because the same port using usb 2 ports works with most peripheral USB devices I have attached to it - with the exception !! of my USB wireless dongle which only functions in the one and only on-board 1.1 port.

I suppose that's why working with PCs is both interesting and frustrating. Things certainly do not always go according to plan and can seem to defy logic!

;)

edit:-
On re-reading I see yours is a wireless PCMCIA; mine is for wired since there is no on-board NIC.

[jlreich]

The layers of the cardbus interface must be a bit weird in general because the same port using usb 2 ports works with most peripheral USB devices I have attached to it - with the exception !! of my USB wireless dongle which only functions in the one and only on-board 1.1 port..
Haha! That is so funny. :D And so typical of these things.

On re-reading I see yours is a wireless PCMCIA; mine is for wired since there is no on-board NIC.
My wired works fine, and my USB wireless dongle works fine. I just wanted to use a card because I only have two USB ports and the dongle gets in the way when I want to use the free port, and I would rather have a card that I could leave in than have to plug in the dongle every time I want to connect. And I am always afraid I or my kids are going to hit the dongle and damage the dongle and/or the USB port.

[classicsoftware]

My bad. I would look at the drivers for the cardbus themselves. I would uninstall from DM and let windows re-install them

[Paul Komski]

And I am always afraid I or my kids are going to hit the dongle and damage the dongle and/or the USB port.I "always"/usually attach them via a short extension cable, which is also supposed to improve their reception, to avoid snapping them off accidentally.

I would look at the drivers for the cardbus themselves. I would uninstall from DM and let windows re-install themYep - I've done all that as well. I looked as closely as possible at drivers because this has to be a software problem, whether related to drivers, settings in the registry or some occult networking or windows configuration since the hardware is so just fine elsewhere.

[Variable]

Hello all. I know it is a bit late in the game but I have a moment. Paul, if you can open sites via IP you have tcp/ip connectivity and you can simply narrow down why UDP 53 is not getting back to you.

On the problem PC, type

nslookup www.google.com

I assume it does not see a server:

If it cannot see the server then try to ping your DNS server. Can you ping it? Your machine has a Class C mask. Your DNS server is a class C non routable IP on a different subnet. So that IP must live on the LAN side?

It could be that the return DNS request is being dropped because the machine does not like the packet, possibly your router is overwriting the source IP.

You can test it by running a packet sniffer and doing another NSLOOKUP. If you see the reply come in to the machine then you know something about that packet is causing the machine to drop it.

[Paul Komski]

Thanks for replying. I no longer have Win2K installed on the machine; I just gave up in the end and now dual boot Win XP and Linux Puppy quite OK on it using the PCMCIA card connected to the router. If I ever try Win2K on it again I can try a bit of sniffing around.

There was no problem with the same DNS server settings using WinXP on identical hardware or when using a wireless dongle from the same installation of Win2K. The different subnet relates to the wireless ISP provider though I have had the same results using open DNS "proxies" at: 208.67.222.222 and 208.67.220.220