Lost Shares in Win98 Peer-to-Peer Network
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I've been fighting with a small network for a few weeks. It has 4 Win98 hosts and one WinMe in a peer-to-peer arrangement, with multiple shared folders distributed around the network. I've had to replace one NIC, not because it failed, but because it was consistently connecting at a low rate rather than the high rate it used to, and since it was frequently 'falling off' the net it seemed that the NIC was the most likely culprit. That seemed to clear up a problem with that particular host, but shortly after that was done, another host suddenly lost contact with the rest of the network. I've checked and rechecked everything and can't find anything wrong - all hosts have TCP/IP configured correctly and selected as the default protocol, and all have NetBEUI installed by default. If for some reason TCP/IP acts up, the NetBEUI should pick up the slack, albeit badly. NetBIOS on TCP/IP is enabled on all, too. I've explained to the users that the order of startup is important - a host can't automatically connect to a share that isn't present on the network, so the serving hosts have to start up first. These machines are losing a connected share while in use! I can't find any reason for this behavior. Any ideas?
"Ask not for whom the bell tolls;
It tolls for thee..." -
I've been fighting with a small network for a few weeks. It has 4 Win98 hosts and one WinMe in a peer-to-peer arrangement, with multiple shared folders distributed around the network. I've had to replace one NIC, not because it failed, but because it was consistently connecting at a low rate rather than the high rate it used to, and since it was frequently 'falling off' the net it seemed that the NIC was the most likely culprit. That seemed to clear up a problem with that particular host, but shortly after that was done, another host suddenly lost contact with the rest of the network. I've checked and rechecked everything and can't find anything wrong - all hosts have TCP/IP configured correctly and selected as the default protocol, and all have NetBEUI installed by default. If for some reason TCP/IP acts up, the NetBEUI should pick up the slack, albeit badly. NetBIOS on TCP/IP is enabled on all, too. I've explained to the users that the order of startup is important - a host can't automatically connect to a share that isn't present on the network, so the serving hosts have to start up first. These machines are losing a connected share while in use! I can't find any reason for this behavior. Any ideas?
"Ask not for whom the bell tolls;
It tolls for thee..."In a similar case like that I found it was a faulty cable that was the culprit. And the fauly cable wasn't even near the host experiencing problems. (The cable was marked with different resistance than the rest!) jhaga CodeProject House, Paul Watson wrote: ...and the roar of John Simmons own personal Nascar in the garage. Meg flitting about taking photos.Chris having an heated arguement with Colin Davies and .S.Rod. over egian values. Nish manically typing *censur*. Duncan racing around after his pet *c.* Michael Martin and Bryce loudly yelling *c.* C.G. having a fit as Roger Wright loads up *c.* . Anna waving her *c.* and Deb scoffing chocolates in the corner. ...Good heavens!
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In a similar case like that I found it was a faulty cable that was the culprit. And the fauly cable wasn't even near the host experiencing problems. (The cable was marked with different resistance than the rest!) jhaga CodeProject House, Paul Watson wrote: ...and the roar of John Simmons own personal Nascar in the garage. Meg flitting about taking photos.Chris having an heated arguement with Colin Davies and .S.Rod. over egian values. Nish manically typing *censur*. Duncan racing around after his pet *c.* Michael Martin and Bryce loudly yelling *c.* C.G. having a fit as Roger Wright loads up *c.* . Anna waving her *c.* and Deb scoffing chocolates in the corner. ...Good heavens!
jhaga wrote: it was a faulty cable That must have been really annoying!:) Something like 80% of network problems are caused by interconnect faults, so the cables and connectors were the first things I checked - all good. I'm thinking that there's something goofy in the Browser service, but I don't know what will fix it if that's the case; maybe setting one of the PCs to Master will help.
"Ask not for whom the bell tolls;
It tolls for thee..." -
jhaga wrote: it was a faulty cable That must have been really annoying!:) Something like 80% of network problems are caused by interconnect faults, so the cables and connectors were the first things I checked - all good. I'm thinking that there's something goofy in the Browser service, but I don't know what will fix it if that's the case; maybe setting one of the PCs to Master will help.
"Ask not for whom the bell tolls;
It tolls for thee..."Did you solve this problem? Just in case I ever see something similar. jhaga CodeProject House, Paul Watson wrote: ...and the roar of John Simmons own personal Nascar in the garage. Meg flitting about taking photos.Chris having an heated arguement with Colin Davies and .S.Rod. over egian values. Nish manically typing *censur*. Duncan racing around after his pet *c.* Michael Martin and Bryce loudly yelling *c.* C.G. having a fit as Roger Wright loads up *c.* . Anna waving her *c.* and Deb scoffing chocolates in the corner. ...Good heavens!
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Did you solve this problem? Just in case I ever see something similar. jhaga CodeProject House, Paul Watson wrote: ...and the roar of John Simmons own personal Nascar in the garage. Meg flitting about taking photos.Chris having an heated arguement with Colin Davies and .S.Rod. over egian values. Nish manically typing *censur*. Duncan racing around after his pet *c.* Michael Martin and Bryce loudly yelling *c.* C.G. having a fit as Roger Wright loads up *c.* . Anna waving her *c.* and Deb scoffing chocolates in the corner. ...Good heavens!
I thought so, as it was running great for a while. I swapped the switch they were using with one I had at home and the problem went away. I really wish I had some decent tools for isolating this stuff - I feel like an idiot telling them that there's no way to isolate it to one component. Sadly, I just found out that it failed again last weekend. Once again, the shares had to be remapped on each of the client machines, and I can't figure out how the heck they fall off in the first place! I hate to set one to be the master browse controller, as I never know when they'll turn a machine off. Maybe a master LMHOSTS file will help, copied on each machine.
"Ask not for whom the bell tolls;
It tolls for thee..." -
I thought so, as it was running great for a while. I swapped the switch they were using with one I had at home and the problem went away. I really wish I had some decent tools for isolating this stuff - I feel like an idiot telling them that there's no way to isolate it to one component. Sadly, I just found out that it failed again last weekend. Once again, the shares had to be remapped on each of the client machines, and I can't figure out how the heck they fall off in the first place! I hate to set one to be the master browse controller, as I never know when they'll turn a machine off. Maybe a master LMHOSTS file will help, copied on each machine.
"Ask not for whom the bell tolls;
It tolls for thee..."A network sniffer that captures every packet on the network could be one possibility. I am at the moment working on a program that would store the last 2 GB into a file and report everything that is out of the normal. But this is only a work in progress like always... jhaga CodeProject House, Paul Watson wrote: ...and the roar of John Simmons own personal Nascar in the garage. Meg flitting about taking photos.Chris having an heated arguement with Colin Davies and .S.Rod. over egian values. Nish manically typing *censur*. Duncan racing around after his pet *c.* Michael Martin and Bryce loudly yelling *c.* C.G. having a fit as Roger Wright loads up *c.* . Anna waving her *c.* and Deb scoffing chocolates in the corner. ...Good heavens!
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A network sniffer that captures every packet on the network could be one possibility. I am at the moment working on a program that would store the last 2 GB into a file and report everything that is out of the normal. But this is only a work in progress like always... jhaga CodeProject House, Paul Watson wrote: ...and the roar of John Simmons own personal Nascar in the garage. Meg flitting about taking photos.Chris having an heated arguement with Colin Davies and .S.Rod. over egian values. Nish manically typing *censur*. Duncan racing around after his pet *c.* Michael Martin and Bryce loudly yelling *c.* C.G. having a fit as Roger Wright loads up *c.* . Anna waving her *c.* and Deb scoffing chocolates in the corner. ...Good heavens!
That would be a big help, especially if it highlights abnormal packets rather than the user having to wade through pages of log files. Need I say, "Hurry!"?:-D
"Ask not for whom the bell tolls;
It tolls for thee..."