Filesharing between wirelss & LAN

[rkr1958]

The following is an email I sent to d-link tech support ... Setup: Two desktops running Win2000 Pro SP4 connected via LAN, laptop (Centrino) running WinXP Home SP2 connected via wireless & TIVO connected via wireless (D-Link DWL-122). With my old D-Link router DI-514 ... no problems with all devices connecting to the internet & no problems with filesharing between the two desktops & the wireless laptop. The two desktops and the laptop are using the NetBEUI networking protocol & have NetBios over TCP/IP enabled.

The response I got from them (which I won't post) I considered very weak and I felt totally missed the point. The basic issue, which I apparently didn't convey very well to them, was that everything else was the same between the two setups except the router (DI-514 & DI-624). With the DI-514 I can share files between the wireless notebook and the two desktops, with the DI-624 I can only share files between the two desktops. I searched the web and found that many have this same problem with the DI-624. What I was hoping for was some configuration setting in the DI-624 that I could change and that would fix this.

I'm posting this here in the hopes that someone has some ideas on other things I might could try. I'm at a loss ... I like the DI-624 with the exception of this problem ... I just thought it'd be a simple swap out and re-configure and I'd have higher bandwidth. By the way, I did flash the DI-624 (RevC) to the latest firmware ... no help.

Thanks again and any ideas would be greatly appericated.

EDITED / ADDED:
One more piece of info ... I hooked up the laptop via LAN and was able to share files & share the printer ... This implies that the problem seems to lie in the router wireless configuration. Any thoughts there?

[rkr1958]

SOLVED ... The problem was with ZoneAlarm Pro ... I figured out that the ZoneAlarm Pro firewall was blocking my wireless laptop. Once I added the IP address of the laptop to "Zones" under the Firewall Tab filesharing and printer sharing seems to be working fine. Next I went into my DI-624 router configuration setting and assigned that IP address as static to the MAC address for the wireless adapter.

[rkr1958]

One last thing that I finally solved, that I thought was worth passing along ... Everything was networked and sharing like I wanted except that I could not see the shared folders on the laptop from either of the two desktop machines. Both desktops could successfully ping the laptop by IP and by computer name. The solution ... unbelieveable ... the description of the computer (not's name but it's description) was too long. Once I shortened it ... I could see if from both desktops. I discovered this through a google search ... I took me several searches and three nights so I thought that I'd pass it along. [See response number 8 from http://www.computing.net/networking/wwwboard/forum/24890.html ]

Also ... I posted this on another forum and I'm getting a little heat for using the NetBEUI networking protocol instead of TCP/IP. Is this really an issue? Basicly, no that I got everything working like I want are the any reasons that I should switch from NetBEUI to TCP/IP?

Thanks in advance.

[Soulhunter]

Originally posted by rkr1958

Basicly, no that I got everything working like I want are the any reasons that I should switch from NetBEUI to TCP/IP?

Not sure, but isnt TCP/IP faster than NET-BIOS !?!


Bye

[rkr1958]

Originally posted by Soulhunter
Not sure, but isnt TCP/IP faster than NET-BIOS !?!


Bye I've been doing some web research (i.e., google) on this issue. My networking knowledge, by far, is very limited; but, based on my research I've run acrossed several threads that state for small home networks that NetBEUI is actually faster than TCP / IP. I've also found that NetBEUI is a non-routable protocol, whatever that means, and that it resolves computers on network by name and not IP address. I guess resolving by name was the reason that the long computer description, which I talked about above, caused the laptop not be to seen when I went to Network Neighborhood on either of the two desktops.

I'm wondering if the push, on the other forum, for TCP/IP instead of NetBEUI is by IT types who work with large computer networks.

Based on my web research so far, it's inconclusive to me (at least) which one is faster for my setup.

When it comes to computer hardware and software I've learned the hard way the lesson, "If it ain't broke ... don't fix it".

[TotalChaos]

netbios is a microsoft only protocal used mainly on peer to peer (most home networks) networks to locate computers. If "laptop" was the name of your laptop you would type "\\laptop\shareA to find it and connect to the shared folder "shareA". This idea of using host names to locate computers has evovled from older methods like "host name files" where names like laptop and it's associated address were written and queried by computers on the network. I'm not sure about the speed differences between each protocal, but I'm sure that differnce is nothing you will notice without some net tool. TCP/IP however IS the preffered protocal for any network these days. Any router/gateway you buy for home use is going to use TCP/IP. Most computer apps like games are going to require TCP/IP. TCP/IP is highly configurable and robust. It's almost completely plug and play when used with DHCP (another protocal used by gateway/routers to distibute IP addresses and relevent DNS/gateway IP information.

The routing thing refers to traffic on your network being able to pass from inside your home network to any other network (the internet being the main network you'll be connecting too) thru a router/gateway. If your broadband device is itsself a router, which many DSL modems are actualy routers/gateways, your going to require TCP/IP to use it.

In short now this forum is pushing for TCP/Ip too...lol
btw I'm not an IT.

post or PM if you have any question.

[rkr1958]

TotalChaos,

Thanks for your reply. I guess I'm just an "old dog". I only learn "new tricks" when the old ones don't work well anymore. I have not doubt that someday soon I'll have to completely switch to TCP/IP and get away from NetBEUI.