Win2k and WinXP networking - help!

Zaphod B

Aaaargh! This has been going on for months, and I haven't got a clue what the problem is. Admittedly I'm not very good at networking at all, but then I have asked round and round and no one seems to know what's causing this.

I have Windows XP Home on this PC. On another one on the other side of the room I have Windows 2000. Both PCs have the same network card, and are connected with a 5-port hub. Previously I had Windows 98 on the other PC instead of 2000 and could share files and folders and use internet connection sharing (this WinXP one being connected) - and in general, each computers recognised the existence of the other. A friend then installed Win2K on the other PC, and the network and internet connection sharing continued to work exactly as it had done before. Then one day I installed ZoneAlarm on this PC in the foolish notion that it might be a good thing. Instead it stopped the network dead. No request for access rights, nothing. I went to the connection settings in ZoneAlarm and set the LAN as a safe network. No effect; both computers still refused to speak to each other. Eventually I uninstalled ZoneAlarm; the network still didn't work. I checked that the TCP/IP settings on both PCs were as they should be - they were. Tried turning off IPX and other unnecessary stuff apart from TCP/IP - still no effect.

Now a simple solution to this could have been to use the Windows XP 'Set up a small or home office network' wizard. Except of course that it didn't work this time, because...

"The Network Setup Wizard is only supported on computers using Windows 98, Windows 98 Second Edition, Windows Millennium Edition, Windows XP Home Edition, or Windows XP Professional."

Which is very helpful given that I have Windows 2000 now. It's also irrelevant though - surely if I've set the TCP/IP settings up properly the PCs should be able to speak to each other?

Any ideas? I know I haven't been very specific and I'm asking a very general question, but the truth is I just haven't got a clue any more. I [REALLY] don't understand the problem here, except that it makes it a little bit easier if I blame ZoneAlarm (whose FAQs and user forums have obviously never heard of such a problem). I would really appreciate any help you guys could offer, and whatever information you need I'll try and provide it. Big truckloads of thanks in advance.

Delboy79

The Zone Alarm Uninstaller doesnt remove all Zone Alarm Files.
Disclaimer :: Now that doesnt mean go on a rampage and start deleting Random files when you dont know what they do.

Giblet

I was ready to kill everyone and their children at the last LAN I was at.
I had ZoneAlarm running, so I immediatly thought, OK, I'll close down ZoneAlarm.

Still couldn't connect.

Went insane trying to figure it out.
Just turn off the firewall, and don't close ZoneAlarm.

Oh and make sure you have all the protocols installed for XP and 2000.

Serbian

Also make sure that the Internet Connection Firewall isn't enabled on the XP network connection. This more than likely isn't the problem but it's worth checking all the same.

Simply right click on the network connection in XP and choose Properties. Choose the advanced tab and make sure the box for the firewall is un-checked.

fatmander

you might be overlooking some other possible faults
1/ a dodgy Hub- try a crossover cable to link directly into the computers- no hub needed
2/ dodgy cable/s
3/ dodgy network card
Any of the above could cause your problems


Are you getting 'network cable disconnected' in your network connections on any computers(although hub can be bad and you still appear to be 'connected' in windows)
Double click on the active connection in windows- are there packets sent and recieved



afaik, could be wrong, lately only zone alarm pro lets you setup your computer as an ICS(internet connection sharing) gateway
older versions of zone alarm free did, but I think they removed it.
One possibility might be to reinstall zone alarm, then uninstall it properly as mentioned on their website below(without the reinstalling bit at the end)

http://forums.zonelabs.com/zonelabs/board/message?board.id=Off-Topic&message.id=591
hth

Zaphod B

Have reinstalled all protocols; no change. Disabled built-in Firewall on my Internet connection; also didn't help. I'm pretty sure the hardware has nothing to do with it - it was immediately after installing ZoneAlarm that this started so I'm 99.9% sure this is a software problem. Thanks for the suggestions though.

I'm now thinking of reinstalling and uninstalling ZoneAlarm as fatman suggests, but I'm not sure how well that would go with Sygate which I currently have installed (I have tried to get the network working with no firewall, that made no difference either except that every other bastard with a modem attacked me while online). I'm also not putting too much faith into the idea, since I've already deleted all the files and registry entries listed on their website.