Vista / MacOS Networking problem

[cowasaki]

I am asking this on here rather than the Mac forum because I am sick of patronising idiots answering questions when they know less than the person asking them!

Hopefully there will be some other networking types on here that might have come across this problem.

I have a router which I have no choice but using due to its TV link feature. It is fixed at IP 192.168.1.254 and is acting as a DHCP server giving IP addresses in the range 192.168.1.70-99 I have an Apple airport extreme set with the IP address 192.168.1.1 which is also using DHCP but only to its wireless clients and giving out IP addresses 192.168.0.100-120 Now I have 1 phone, 4 Mac Laptops, 1 PC Laptop and a PS3 attaching wirelessly plus 2 Vista PCs, 1 XP PC, 1 Xbox 360 and 2 Macs attaching via cable.

Now if I look at the the clients on the router it shows everything that is connected both wired and wireless with their correct IP addresses. They are all in the same subnet.

All the Windows machines can see each other but not the Macs and all the Macs can see each other but not the PCs. They can both see the airport extreme which appears as 'SERVER' and the computer games work as they should.

The above setup worked with my old router but I can't get it to work with the new router but it should do as they are all on the network with different IP addresses, they can all use the internet and see computers of the same type !!!

If nobody can help i'll have to ask on the Mac forum but i'll get dozens of stupid answers!

Oh and they can all ping each other by NAME or IP address!!

And they are in the same workgroup.

And the problem remains even if I switch my Mac laptop to using the new router rather than the airport extreme!

Thanks everyone.....

 

[LeeP]

Can you confirm the subnet masks being allocated to all of the devices are 255.255.255.0 ?

I run Mac's and Vista machines here. The very strange this is, up to about 1 week ago, I could see the Windows machines on the Mac, but not the Mac on the Windows!!

I've just checked now and it's still not seen.

Just to cofirm that in system Preferences / Sharing on the Mac you have File Sharing enabled and correct privildges?

Also - is the Airport Extreme patched into your router/switch or are you "bridging" them wirelessly?

If so - how have you created this?

Send me a PM if you get stuck

 

[Slapo]

If the router can do it, make it use the mac addresses of the NIC of both of your macs and pcs to assign them the same IP address all the time (look for static dhcp or something similar).
Try disabling the windows firewall temporarily to check it's not in the permissions. You might need to enable the guest account (although it shouldn't be enabled for security reasons).
Don't forget to reboot your PCs, sometimes it just won't work without it (even on windows xp or vista) and restart the samba daemon on the mac os x.

 

[cowasaki]

I've just had to type the reply to this post twice because Vista decided that it's upgrading was more important that my typing and just restarted without even bothering to ask me first!

Can you confirm the subnet masks being allocated to all of the devices are 255.255.255.0 ?

Yes everything on the network is set to 255.255.255.0

I run Mac's and Vista machines here. The very strange this is, up to about 1 week ago, I could see the Windows machines on the Mac, but not the Mac on the Windows!!

I've just checked now and it's still not seen.

When I started the switch to Macs last year everything just went straight onto the network and was visible straight away without any problems. I have made a number of changes in the last month or so though: Switched 2 PCs to Vista (1 ultimate and 1 home extra); All the Macs bar one are now on Leopard; the router has been changed (because of an upgraded service); the settings on the extreme has been changed to fit in with the FIXED settings.

Just to cofirm that in system Preferences / Sharing on the Mac you have File Sharing enabled and correct privildges?

As far as I can tell everything is set up correctly on all the machines. Several of the machines worked correctly before the changes were made and therefore their settings are still the same. File sharing and network browsing are on on the Vista machines.

Also - is the Airport Extreme patched into your router/switch or are you "bridging" them wirelessly?

If so - how have you created this?

The router is plugged in downstairs next to the telephone master socket. From there a cat5 runs to the gigabit unmanaged switch. From there all the wired machines are connected plus the airport extreme. There is one computer downstairs near the router which is now plugged into that instead of the switch (it is one of the Vista machines)

Send me a PM if you get stuck

Thanks for all your help and the offer.

 

[cowasaki]

If the router can do it, make it use the mac addresses of the NIC of both of your macs and pcs to assign them the same IP address all the time (look for static dhcp or something similar).

Unfortunately the router has been well designed for home networking numpties. Virtually nothing is adjustable but it has a lovely web based graphical interface !!! Its fast though!! Basically you can only really adjust the WAN settings and then only about 5 of them. Other than that it does what it does.

Try disabling the windows firewall temporarily to check it's not in the permissions. You might need to enable the guest account (although it shouldn't be enabled for security reasons).

Tried this too, I just turned off the firewall temporarily and it made no difference.

Don't forget to reboot your PCs, sometimes it just won't work without it (even on windows xp or vista) and restart the samba daemon on the mac os x.

I have restarted them over and over, its just so frustrating because they can all ping each other using names so clearly there is a physical connection and as they can find each other by name it is obviously nearly there !!

 

[Slapo]

This might sound silly, but are you sure you set mac os x to join a windows network using samba or cifs?
I don't know what the default protocol is for macs, hence the question.

 

[LeeP]

In Vista, open up the networking and sharding centre.

Ensure that File Sharing is enabled in there.

Also - if you havent done so already, make sure that the network is configured as a 'Private Network'. This should enable the filesharing, enable you to discover the machine and its services etc.

This is the only thing that I can think of at the moment.

Obviously, the Mac's can break out to the internet, as can the Vista machines. I assume you can ping the gateway address also.

Simple things I know ... :bang:

 

[cowasaki]

The faults lie with VISTA and MacOS 10.5 Leopard !!

Found out how to fix the Macs !!!

1. In the System preferences select Network.
2. Where it says "Location: Automatic" click on the arrow and select "edit location".
3. Click on the "+" and add a location with your workgroup's name.
4. Click on your connection method eg Ethernet 1 and click "Advanced" in the bottom right of the window
5. Click 'DNS' and then click '+' below 'DNS Servers' and add your router's IP address (or DNS server)
6. Click 'Search Domains' and add your workgroup.
7. Click "WINS" and in the drop down for Workgroup select your workgroup from the list.
8. Click "OK" at the bottom right.
9. If it is not already selected select your workgroup in the location field at the top of the screen
10. Click "APPLY" at the bottom right !!!


Now why didn't I just do all that in the first place :bang:

Why is networking on a Mac such a faff, nothing else is just networking!!! After I worked it out I checked the Mac forum and it is full of bizarre ideas about modifying the registry and all manner of things!

Oh well hope this helps anyone else who has a Mac and upgrades to Leopard !!!

How to fix the Vista machine:

Vista Ultimate

1. In Run type "secpol.msc"
2. Click on "Local Policies" then "Security Options" then find "Network Security: LAN Manager authentication level"
3. Double-click it to get its Properties set this to "LM and NTLM - use NTLMV2 session security if
negotiated".
4. Reboot {well it is windows!}

In Vista Home Premium

1. Run the registry editor and open this key:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Lsa
2. If it doesn't exist, create a DWORD value called "LmCompatibilityLevel"
3. Give it the value "1"
4. Reboot {well it is windows}