Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with windows and networking

ThinkPad T42 wireless connection problem

mr_crash_davis mark II: Jazz Odyssey — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 17:40:00 -0800

Windows XP Home network connection issues. My son's girlfriend has an IBM ThinkPad T42. In the last couple of days its network connectivity has gone haywire. It has an Intel PRO/Wireless 2200BG adapter and an Intel Pro/1000MT wired connection, and the laptop is running XP Home, Service Pack 3. Here's what it does:

As soon as I enable the wireless adapter and connect to a network (either secured or unsecured) the connection bounces from disconnected to connected and back again, over and over ad infinitum.

I can't enable the wired adapter at all (it just stays disabled while the "Local Area Connection - Enabling" message shows, after which it disappears with the connection still disabled), which is what makes me think this is a software problem rather than a hardware problem. I have tried all of the following (not necessarily in this order):

1) reset the TCP/IP stack ("netsh int ip reset resetlog.txt")

2) Uninstalled and reinstalled TCP/IP

3) removed and reinstalled the network adapter drivers

4) system restore to earlier restore point

5) installed a PCMCIA wireless card (same result - connected/disconnected over and over)

6) run Malwarebytes (no malware detected)

At this point I am ready to throw in the towel and reinstall Windows unless someone has any better ideas. I don't really mind doing this, but it always irritates me to resort to a reinstall when it seems like there really should be a simpler fix.

Any ideas?

Why do large file downloads stall (with no error message or any feedback)?

bradn — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 11:49:42 -0800

Why do large file downloads stall (with no error message or any feedback)? I am not sure how to troubleshoot this.

Pertinent info: Win7 (also had the problem with previous OS, Server 2008), Firewall disabled, Gigabyte motherboard with LAN (Nforce 570 SLI), Asus router with DD-WRT installed behind an AT&T U-verse 2Wire RG.

I can't seem to download a large file. Anything in the single MBs is fine, but larger files stall out in both Firefox and IE. The progress meter remains still, "x minutes remaining -- xx of xx MB (xx KB/sec)" remains still, no error message or timeout of any kind. It will stay this way for days. Incedentally, there is no issue with torrent downloads in Vuse. I am also having trouble with Netflix Watch Instantly (via WDTV Live) giving me "Your internet connection has slowed" errors, and think that it might be related.

I did a few random trials: Foxit Reader (5.1MB) downloaded fine. Batman Arkham Asylum Demo (2.0 GB) currently stalled at 62.9MB, and two attempts at XBMC for Windows (81.1MB) stalled at 25.9 and 26.7.

I tried disabling the firewall and AVG antivirus. I updated the Nforce drivers.

Any other ideas?

Can you save remote desktop connections to log in to different user accounts?

Mokusatsu — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 12:36:27 -0800

Is it possible (in Windows Vista Ultimate) to save remote desktop connections to the same computer but for different users? i.e. have icons in my quick launch menu which log me in with a click to user1 or user2? I have a computer which is used for several specific purposes, accessed only by remote desktop (i.e. it sits in a back room and is rarely used in person).

I want to be able to quickly access each of the individual accounts by saving an RDP file and then shortcutting to that from my quick launch bar.

So I enter the credentials for user1 and "save as" the RDP file as username1.rdp and drag it onto the quick launch bar.

Clicking on this RDP logs me in to user1's account.

Then I open remote desktop again, enter the credentials for user2 and save username2.rdp.

When I click on username2.rdp, I get instantly logged in to user2's account.

So far so good.

But if I close that and click on username1.rdp, I get logged into user2. If I manually change the credentials by opening remote desktop and enter the credentials to user 1, username1.rdp will on the next attempt log me into user1's account, as does username2.rdp.

So saving a connection doesn't save the credentials, it possibly saves the computer I'm logging into, but not the user.

Am I doing it wrong or does an RDP file just not contain credentials? Is there some way I can set it up so I can one-click log in via several icons to any one of several accounts?

Networking Mac and Windows via ethernet

snarfois — Sun, 07 Jun 2009 08:18:55 -0800

Please help me troubleshoot my (cross-platform) home network. Networking already works via wi-fi, but not via ethernet cable. I'm networking a Windows XP PC to a Mac Mini running OS X Leopard. I have already succeeded in setting it up so that I can browse the Mini from Windows in "My Network Places" or via a mapped drive letter, but this is slow (802.11g) and I want to transfer large files.

I have bought a 20 meter cat5 cable (crossover) and connected the two computers, and disconnected the wi-fi adapter. Can I expect the network to work straight away without further configuration? Anyway, it doesn't. Please help!

(Irrelevant background: I only need to do this because the Mac Mini's DVD burner is useless -- I keep getting the "failed to calibrate the laser power level" error. So I'm forced to use the PC for burning.)

OSX can't see my XP drive

middleclasstool — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 11:50:15 -0800

Suddenly my Mac can't see my Windows PC, and I'm stumped. So I have a Windows PC (XP, latest service pack) and a new Macbook Pro (latest up-to-date version of Leopard). When I first got the Mac I was able to connect to my XP drive over wifi just fine by going to Finder and choosing "Connect to server" and typing in smb://bill (Bill's the XP PC's name, natch).

But suddenly it's not working anymore and I'm stumped. When I try to connect, using either that PC's name or IP address, it says it can't connect. When I ping that IP address, it sees it just fine.

The only thing I can think was awhile back I attempted directly connecting a Linux box to the Win PC to try to share its wifi connection. I did some tweaking of local network settings, but it never worked quite right, so I reverted changes. It could well be that something is still configured incorrectly on the Windows box, but damned if I can see what.

Any ideas?

How can I make Vista share with xp with no problems?

mrbenn — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 11:49:00 -0800

My new (XP) Netbook is refusing to open shared folders on my Vista main PC, yet if i reboot main pc it will suddenly work again! Can anyone help stop me tearing my hair out? Netbook is a Compaq 702EA running XP home and connected to network through wifi, main pc is running Vista Home Premium. When both machines are freshly booted, Netbook can open, read etc all shares on main pc. However, if I put netbook into hibernation and then turn it on again (next day or whenever) it suddenly gets permission denied errors when trying to access main pc shares. If I reboot main pc, all will be well again until netbook sleeps and then cycle starts all over! Netbook can access shares on 2 other vista pcs in the house with no problem, just the main one. Have googled and tried numerous things (static ip on both, chaged workgroups, network setup wizard on XP, netbios over tcp/ip enabled etc etc). Can ping using ip or computer name both ways. At end of my tether trying to figure it out, can someone help???
(Netgear Router ties the network together and no firewall on either pc is enabled)

Why does Ubuntu/linux make it so freaking difficult to do the equivalent of the Windows command "Map Network Drive"?

Jackie_Treehorn — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 05:08:22 -0800

For the purposes of using Amarok on my laptop, which can not be told that my music folder is located in a shared folder on my media center (as far as I can see), I need to permanently mount the shared music network folder in Ubuntu. They don't make it very easy it seems. Have to use a bunch of comand line editing to get it done? Come on Ubuntu!

So, how does Windows transmit an IP?

converge — Sun, 23 Nov 2008 23:45:58 -0800

I've two wireless connections on the same box. So, how does windows choose which one to use? Sort of related: I've a dotnet client/server application which is IP specific for its database (MYSQL) and two LAN connections on the same server (one for local, one for the internet). How do I force that application or database to use the right one (the local)?

Why are my file servers not releasing their hard drive space when I delete files

jeffreyclong — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 11:29:26 -0800

Why are my file servers not releasing their hard drive space when I delete files I have 3 file servers each running window xp on a network. These are serving educational videos to 21 students. I've discovered that I'm having sharing problems because more then 10 students are accessing each machine at a time which isn't allowed in xp. So I need to rearrange where the files are located on each shared volume so that only 8 users are connected to a file server at a time.

I'm logged into these machines from my macbook pro. I've been moving files around and deleting them from each file server. But I've discovered that though I delete the files, the hard drive space remains the same. I've deleted tons from one machine, and yet it keeps showing on 7gigs available. What gives? I've tried emptying the trash directly on the machines themselves, but still, the space available is 7gigs. I've also tried deleting these files from one of the windows machines. Same result.

Thanks for any help.

How do I enable simple file sharing on Server 2008 and stop my network from crashing?

Magnakai — Sat, 09 Aug 2008 09:15:12 -0800

How do I transparently share files from a Windows Server 2008 box to several XP computers? I want it to stop asking for a username and password when people try to access files. Also, can anyone point me in the right direction to solving this weird network issue I've been having? I've been assigned to run the IT stuff for the small business that I part-time for. They have four machines running Windows XP. One of them used to host all the office documents in a shared folder, enabling it to be accessed from across the network. They're connected via brand-new Cat 6 cables going into a wireless router, which is connected via another brand-new cable to a rather ancient 4-port ADSL modem.

They now have need of a dedicated server, and because of some incoming (in the next year) custom written software, it needs to be Windows Server 2008. I built them a low-cost machine with stable components and it seems to run fine.

I hooked it up to the network, connected to current share and transferred all the office files over. I then shared that directory. I created accounts that have the same username and passwords as the default accounts on the XP machines. I gave access to the office file directory to Everyone. At the top of that screen, it specified that if you selected Everyone, it wouldn't ask for a username or password. But it does!

When they were shared from the previous workstation, you could happily access them without entering a password. Is there any way to revert to this level of behaviour?

My second question follows from this - I tried accessing the folder from one of the comptuers on the workgroup, and I then entered Administrator and the password for the server into the request box that popped up. It connects absolutely fine. But once it's connected, at regular but random intervals, it seems to hang the workstation for a period of time and kill the network connection for the server. Other computers were able to access the network and connect to the internet fine. I can reproduce this problem Can anyone give me pointers to trying to diagnose this error, as obviously it makes the whole endeavour rather useless!

Any advice would be greatly appreciated, and thank you for reading this long question.

How can we better secure our network?

4ster — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 11:04:41 -0800

My (very) small office has two desktops running XP Pro (SP3), that are networked using a cable. They also share a DSL internet connection, which can also be accessed wirelessly via our Linksys router. The internet connection isn't password protected, which is nice in that it allows people who visit to have an easy time getting online. However, I'm pretty sure that free and easy access to wireless network=anyone can access our shared folders on those two desktops. Clearly, this is bad, but I'm not sure what to do. Please explain a fix to me like I'm five. Thanks. Also, both computers are running a third-party (not the built-in-to-Windows) firewall.

Thanks in advance to everyone.

A new kind of dial-up internet hell.

Jimbob — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 02:11:25 -0800

Archaic Windows dial-up networking question; why do I randomly lose internet connectivity (with dial-up still online) and can't get it back without restarting the computer? OS: Windows Vista

Due to a recent move to an internet black hole (Tasmania), we've had to resort to dial-up internet. We've been having a problem where we will randomly (as far as we can tell) lose network connectivity. Browsers (Firefox, IE, Opera, whatever) will no longer access sites, saying the sites "Exist but cannot be reached".

Similarly, other software (Yahoo messenger, Putty!) will also refuse to connect.

However, if I open up a command prompt, I can happily ping, nslookup, tracert without a problem.

Killing the dial-up connection and redialing doesn't help at all. Rebooting the PC fixes the problem 100% of the time.

I've tried disabling the only thing I can think of that might cause a problem, the anti-virus software (Avast!), but that doesn't help.

Any ideas how I can diagnose this problem? Why would every program that accesses the internet claim it can't connect, but low-level command-line utilities can?

Vista Business won't join a Windows 2000 domain

evanm — Wed, 07 May 2008 16:52:02 -0800

How can I get a computer running Vista Business to join a Windows 2000 Server Domain? I've googled this question extensively to no avail. I've tried making my workgroup name match that of the domain I'm trying to join; I've tried inputting my DNS IP addresses manually (although I'm not totally sure I was inputting the correct IP addresses); I have disabled the Windows Firewall and there is no anti-virus or third-party software messing with network access. I've also tried matching the settings of a working Vista machine that is already on the domain, but apparently there is some setting that I can't find because I still can't get this machine to join.

I am desperate--if anyone with expert knowledge in Windows networking wants to contact me directly to work on this issue, we could discuss compensation.

What's in a "File Server"?

danbeckmann — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 15:43:21 -0800

ITGeekFilter: My office needs a new (Windows) file server. My boss is kinda cheap (and won't give me a budget); why do "File Servers" sold as such cost so much? Unfortunately, we have to stick with Windows due to some lightweight license management programs. Right now we're running an old Dell desktop with WinXP Pro (on a Celeron 2.4GHz and 256MB RAM) , and two 250GB hard drives that are nearing capacity. There are only six users on our network, and I think that our system runs really slowly. One problem is the software backup that is mirroring files from one hard drive to another - it runs daily and takes about 12h. (This is the first thing that has to go.) I'd like to add some sort of RAID implementation to improve speed (of backups and serving), but have a couple of questions:

1) Why are new file servers sold as such so powerful and expensive? Even the Dell machines that are billed to only serve flat files have a Quad-Core Xeon processor...

2) Are standalone NAS devices worth their salt? Even if I can find one with RAID?

3) Would it be worthwhile to find a RAID controller that will work in our current box and put more drives in it?

4) How is Windows Storage Server better?

Sambafilter

ijoyner — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 06:16:17 -0800

Issue with Samba (on Ubuntu) file sharing and ownership of files. How do I set it so the ordinary user will not take ownership when saving over a file? (more details inside) Environment: about 20 windows client computers connecting to an Ubuntu Samba server. The Ubuntu box is mainly administered through Webmin and users are added with the “users and groups” module in webmin and when users are created in there, they are also created in the Samba users module.

Backups are made on one of the workstations with Acronis True Image Workstation to an external hard drive.

Problem: As users open files and save them, they take ownership of them, thus locking out other users from changing and saving the documents because they do not own them.

Where do I set security up to avoid this from happening? Is the file security stored on the individual files (thus having to run chmod or chown) or in Samba?
I guess I need to create groups and give the group ownership of the files so that everyone in the group (practically all clients) can access/change/delete files at will. There will also be 1 or 2 superusers running backups or doing administration activities. How do I give them access without allowing them to take ownership of the files and lock everyone else out?

Why won't this Xbox 360 stream media from this Windows XP SP2 machine?

idledebonair — Sun, 20 Jan 2008 10:34:01 -0800

I cannot stream media from my PC. The Xbox 360 will connect to Xbox Live, but will not pass the "Test Media" option. It always fails after successfully acquiring an IP address. This Xbox has successfully connected to streaming media before on another computer. The connection has been deleted from within the Xbox settings. OS: Windows XP SP2.

All drivers are current.
UPnP is on, both on the router and on the PC.
HTTP SSL is on.
SSDP Discovery Service is on.
Windows Media Sharing Service is on.

The network is handled by a WRT54G (v1.1) over a wired connection and the firmware is current.
The security settings are disabled on the router.
The Windows Firewall is off.
Internet Connection Sharing is off.

Using the Zune software, I enable sharing and select my folders and the Xbox does not find the computer.

Using Windows Media Player 11, I receive and error that says "Media sharing has been turned off because a required Windows setting or component has changed. For additional assistance, click Web Help." Clicking web help takes me to http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/player/webhelp/default.aspx?&mpver=11.0.5705.5043&id=C00D0FF4

After performing those steps, I still get no response from the Xbox and when I click Media Sharing... again in Windows Media Player, I get the same error message.

I have tried several solutions to this problem:

1) Rebuilding the library, the zachd.com method. 2) Deleting the contents of the C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\DRM folder. 3) Rollback to Windows Media Player 10 and re-install Windows Media Player 11 4) Rollback to Windows Media Player 10 and install Windows Media Connect 2.0

Using Windows Media Connect 2.0, it appears on the computer that everything should work, but the Xbox still does not register any computer to connect to.

Any ideas?

Oh, please help Me(fi)!

tmcw — Mon, 27 Aug 2007 11:57:00 -0800

So I thought I knew computers... but this network is killing me. I can connect, full strength, etc. But I can't actually connect to the internet. My IP is 192.168.10.32. Using an 850G (motorola) WAP, Cox SurfBoard modem. Other computers (this one, which is 192.168.10.28, connect fine, it seems. There's no encryption on the network right now. I'm connecting to the right one. One thing that's in the mix is that I'm using a Thinkpad that, since the last set of changes that I've done, uses Windows to manage wireless connections, not Access Connections. Access Connections seems to do some things though, but it can't detect networks at all. Ipconfig is intermittently giving me a device error.

My laptop connects, as I said before, but can't get out to the internet. I don't know what the f is wrong. Any clues as far as which device should be the DHCP server? Any settings that are default / recommended, standard?

Yes, I know it should have encryption. But I'm desperate, and I just want a connection any way that it can work.

And school starts in two days. I'm pretty pissed. Any help?

Managing remote computing resources

jpdoane — Thu, 09 Aug 2007 13:02:48 -0800

I need a good tool for monitoring remote wondows machines At work, we have a bank of 5 high performance machines to run computationally intensive simulations. These machines run XP Pro 64. Our desk machines run XP (32) Pro. We typically access these machines by logging in via remote desktop (which only one person at a time can do). Alternatively, we can run the GUI locally on our desk machines, but run the solver process remotely, which doesn't require logging in, and therefore mutliple people can do simultaneously on the same machine.

Many of our sims are small enough that several can run at once. Some are large enough that they take all the resources. This all requires a lot of coordination for our team: who's logged in to what machine, are there enough resources available to run another simuation remotely, etc.

I would like a tool that easily monitors the CPU and memory usage of mutiple remote machines, and tells me who is currently logged in to what machine. Ideally, this would be a lightweight application that could run in the background, perhaps sitting in the system tray, with an easy to read interface showing me all the info I want at a glance

I have tried Remote Task Manager, and it falls short in several ways: you can monitor only one remote machine at a time, there is no easy way to see who's currently logged in, and it has a clunky interface - way too much detail spread over too many tabs.

Is there a better tool out there for what I want to do?

Additionally, If I am logged in to a machine and want all the resources dedicated to the sim I'm running, can I deny other users the ability to run remote solver processes? Is there a simple apllication that automates this process? Everyone involved is an administrator on all remote machines.

IP over Firewire in Vista

nervestaple — Sat, 04 Aug 2007 12:36:12 -0800

I see that Microsoft has quietly dropped IP networking over Firewire/1394 from Windows Vista. Is there any possible way to enable it, using third-party drivers or software?

What's the best wifi PCI card for Windows 2000?

spiderskull — Fri, 02 Feb 2007 00:53:25 -0800

Which PCI wireless networking adapters have the best (meaning fastest and most lightweight) drivers and software for Windows 2000? I can't upgrade to XP, and I've found the software that manufacturers package for Windows 2000 tends to be utter crap. So, I'm looking for a higher quality wireless adapter (needless to say, it's for a desktop machine).

I currently have a LinkSys WMP11, and I hate it because of its software. I've tried the Netgear WM111 USB adapter, but their software also caused major issues (it would frequently lock the system completely, mouse included, for 3-5 minutes).

The only good wireless experience I've had in W2K is with my Dell laptop, and that's because of Intel's driver/software package. They don't sell any PCI wireless adapters, unfortunately.

The desktop machine is aging, at approximately 5-6 years old, but it runs great when I disable any wireless devices.

Connecting an XP box to two networks simultaneously

good in a vacuum — Sun, 28 Jan 2007 14:41:51 -0800

I have two Windows XP boxes with their own separate DSL connections, and one wireless router. I'm having trouble connecting these two machines with a wireless connection. Here's a crude diagram of the setup I've got. The two computers have internet access, and computer B can ping the wireless router over the wifi connection. However, it seems to be having trouble "joining" the local network that computer A is on.

I think it is because of some sort of conflict between IP addresses: the ISP to which it is connected (via DSL) has assigned it one IP address, but the wireless router needs to assign it a different IP address (the usual 192.168.1.xxx that Linksys routers default to). My knowledge of networking is admittedly limited, so I'm not sure how computer B can have two IP addresses simultaneously on two different networks, or if this is even possible.

Crazy port-forwarding setup

jacobsee — Sat, 13 Jan 2007 23:14:52 -0800

Complicated port-forwarding situation not working: ICS on Win 2000 into WRT54GL, trying to port-forward to uTorrent. I have an old Windows 2000 (SP4) box with my internal pci DSL modem supplying my internet connection. This is running Internet Connection Sharing (ICS) to the LAN which feeds into a Linksys WRT54GL router. I'm trying to set up uTorrent on my main Windows XP (SP2) pc with a port forwarded from outside but can't get it to work.

I'm pretty confident that I have the router set up correctly, following the instructions here

I'm less confident about my ICS forwarding setup. I've gone into the ICS setup, Services tab and added two services for uTorrent, one for UDP, one for TCP, with the correct port number. But I'm unsure of the IP address to use. I've tried every combination I can think of without it working yet. I've redialed the DSL connection each time, unsure as to whether the changes take effect without resetting the connection. One thing I haven't done yet is to reboot the Win2000 box because it takes forever to reboot.

Ip of Win2000 gateway is 192.168.0.1

Ip of my linksys is 192.168.1.1

static IP of my PC inside the linksys is 192.168.1.11

I've tried all these plus the computer name of the pc.

I've disabled the XP firewall on the pc and no firewall is running on the gateway computer.

uTorrent is working but very slowly. Apparently if I can get this port forwarding to work it will speed things up. Thanks!

Windows networking problems for modem connection

jacobsee — Fri, 15 Dec 2006 16:04:00 -0800

I'm trying to set up an non-internet-connected Windows XP computer to receive incoming connections via modem. Somewhat reproducibly, the "Incoming Connections" icon in the Network Connections dialog goes away after a reboot. I've seen this on several computers, both XP SP1 and XP SP2. It doesn't always happen but it happens quite often with this latest machine. I've also just discovered that the icon can go away and I can still connect in certain situations. For example, logged in with VNC I can restart the computer and then dial back and connect again a few minutes later. Interestingly in this case, the Server IP changed (auto-assigned in the 169.254.X.X range). Not sure if that means anything...

Now I'm trying to reproduce the problem and can't get it to happen again, whether I restart/shutdown directly or remotely. I'll fill in more clues as I find them. Does anyone have any insight on how this stuff works or things I can try to shed more light on the problem?

Domain restructuring on TOP of organizational restructuring...ARGH.

Richat — Fri, 08 Dec 2006 06:22:17 -0800

Windows SysAdmin question: I need to add a global security group to the local admin group on machines in multiple OUs. Any ideas? Due to some restructuring, the current OU Admin group will be abandoned, and a new OU admin group will be implemented. I can't seem to sort out a decent solution to add the new group. Ideally, I would love to be able to turf the old group too, once the transition is complete.

I have some experience with both batch files, and some vbscripting, but most scripts seem to only deal with adding LOCAL users to LOCAL groups, or DOMAIN users to DOMAIN groups. I need to mix the two.

A small follow up might be...can you recommend any good web resources for this sort of thing?

Help me fix my "limited connectivity" in Windows Vista RC2

superboy422 — Thu, 26 Oct 2006 12:39:47 -0800

EarlyAdopterFilter: After several happy months of running Windows Vista RC1, I've upgraded to RC2. Ever since that day, I've been intermittently getting a "Limited connectivity" error that requires my network adapter to be reset. I don't want to go back to XP or RC1, so I need to make this work. My specs: a Pentium D on an Intel board with integrated PRO/1000 PM network adapter. Linksys WRT54G v4 router, connected over wire.

The problem seems to be worst when the connection is consuming a lot of bandwidth (particularly when using uTorrent).

So far, I've tried a few things (based on extensive research):

1. Reinstalled the network card drivers
2. Changed the advanced settings to turn IPv4 and IPv6 checksums off
3. Disabled SPI firewall on the router.
4. Installed the DD-WRT firmware (v23SP2) on my router.
5. Decreased the number of allowable half-open connections in uTorrent to 2.
6. Unchecked the IPv6 protocol in my network settings.
7. Switched from using the router's DHCP to a static IP on my machine.

After all of these things, I still have intermittent connection drops where the lovely yellow triangle with an exclamation mark in it proclaims that I have limited connectivity. It seems to me to be more like *zero* connectivity, as I can't usually even reach my router once this happens.

Based on all the research I've done, I really feel like Vista's relationship with my router (specifically after the installation of RC2) is the area of trouble. I've considered going back to RC1, or XP, but I would like to resolve this issue if at all possible.

Thanks in advance for preventing me from having to reinstall my OS! ;)