Netgear Switch Problem?

[gaz_the_chav]

Hi Guys,

I am looking for some help with a Netgear switch issue I have. The switch is a Netgear FS108 I connect two laptops (one running vista and one running windows 7) which work fine and connect automaticlly by themselves. I am trying to connect two desktop XP pro machines to it and both keep on coming up with limited or no connectivity. The laptops can see the PCs but can't connect to them. All the computers are connected to the same workgroup.

Any help as I don't really know how to troubleshoot this sort of issue?

Many Thanks
Gareth

[mDust]

Hmmm...not many things can go wrong with a switch. Have you tried different ethernet cables or different jacks? They are patch cables and not crossovers right? Is it only the one switch between them all? Do you have another switch or router they can all plug into to rule out a software conflict? Do the XP machines communicate with each other if the Vista and/or 7 machine are disconnected? Are firewall and sharing settings correct? What type of errors are you getting, if any?

[gaz_the_chav]

Hmmm...not many things can go wrong with a switch. Have you tried different ethernet cables or different jacks? They are patch cables and not crossovers right? Is it only the one switch between them all? Do you have another switch or router they can all plug into to rule out a software conflict? Do the XP machines communicate with each other if the Vista and/or 7 machine are disconnected? Are firewall and sharing settings correct? What type of errors are you getting, if any?

Thanks for the reply. The only thingon that list not tried is the firewall. They are both clean installs of XP pro SP3 so I will try and disable the firewall and see what happens.

Cheers
Gareth

[x88x]

Just to make sure, you are manually setting the IP address and netmask on all the computers, right?

[mDust]

Just to make sure, you are manually setting the IP address and netmask on all the computers, right?

Ah, didn't even think about a lack of DHCP...

[gaz_the_chav]

I have tried manually setting the IP's on the XP machines. Not sure about netmask though? The Vista and 7 PC auto connect to each other?

Cheers

[mDust]

I just had a thought for once in my life: what is the link light on the the ethernet port doing? 1) Is it lit? 2) Is it solid or blinking? 3) What color is it?
I doubt that this problem is in the physical layer anymore, but I never asked this to begin with. If it's not lit, the port is non-functional...you could try enabling the port in the bios or updating the driver for it. If it's blinking, it generally means the port is on and functional, but there's no connection. The colors generally denote the connection speed. This all depends on the manufacturer though, they can make the light mean anything they want.

I have tried manually setting the IP's on the XP machines. Not sure about netmask though? The Vista and 7 PC auto connect to each other?

Cheers

Double check that each of the computers has a unique IP address and a netmask of 255.255.255.0. I would suggest changing the IP addresses of the XP machines no matter what...and when you do, make sure the first 3 quadrants for all the machines are the same, and each last quadrant is unique. Also, remember that your switch and any devices above that also have IP addresses that must be unique on the network.
If that doesn't fix it, ping your switch:
start>run>"cmd" + enter>"ping [ip of switch]"+ enter
If all 4 packets are acknowledged, then ping the other computers or google.com if there is a net connection.

[x88x]

If that doesn't fix it, ping your switch:
start>run>"cmd" + enter>"ping [ip of switch]"+ enter
If all 4 packets are acknowledged, then ping the other computers or google.com if there is a net connection.

This switch won't have an IP address, but you could try pinging one of the other computers instead.

[gaz_the_chav]

Wicked! Thanks alot guys appears to be sorted now. Just one computer that wont conect but I'm wiping that anyway and starting again.

Cheers Again
Gareth

[mDust]

Wicked! Thanks alot guys appears to be sorted now. Just one computer that wont conect but I'm wiping that anyway and starting again.

Cheers Again
Gareth

Wicked indeed!