Wireless and wired won't connect to each other

[Davidc]

I use a 3 Com Office Connect wireless router to connect my computers, laser printer, and other bits together. It has wireless, a 4 port 100Mb/s wired hub, and ADSL connection.

Computers on the wireless bit have stopped connecting to those on the wired bit. Both can talk to an HP printer that's on the wired bit. Everything inluding a Freesat HD box can still connect to the broadband internet connection.

I've been through the setup of the router and can't see any reason for this. It has worked in the past, and has only shown up because of a small change in our use of the system. Nothing I know of has changed with the configuration of the computers.

Any suggestions?

 

[ACS]

Try running a test with the firewall switched off.

If all else fails, try resetting the router back to default and may be check to see if you are using thelatest firmware version.

Is the orange 'alarm' light blinking? If so there is a lot of advice on the HP site (they now own 3com)

 

[Davidc]

No, I've tried all of those!

What I find perplexing is that some connections happily cross the boundary, for example printing, while others don't. My first suspicion was firewall, but it's exactly the same on or off , my second effort was to reset it to factory settings and manually reload everything without using the saved config file, that didn't change it, and from what I can find on the web site and users forum it should just do what it used to and treat the wired + wireless as one LAN, with the firewall protecting both from the internet.

There are times when I'm inclined t join my wife in chants of "I hate computers" and "I hate technology"

I tried reloading the firmware but it refused on the grounds that it was already running the version I was trying to install, and I haven't kept the earlier versions.

Perhaps it's telling me that it's 6 1/2 years old and wants to be retired/ recycled?

 

[ian turner]

What is the change in the use of the system ?
What OS are installed and how many of each are on the wired/wireless sections ?

 

[Davidc]

What is the change in the use of the system ?

We've been using facilities (3TB of hard drive, mirrrored) on a desktop used occasionally as a server, which hadn't been doing much for 6 months. It's wired unless I'm fiddling with the system.

What OS are installed and how many of each are on the wired/wireless sections ?

All computers on XP. Wireless/ wired depends where we're using the 2 laptops, so any permutation. Everything is p-p and the router provides the DHCP service.

 

[ian turner]

can you ping between the wired and wireless ?

 

[S_t_e_v_e]

Are all the computers part of the same workgroup? and can you browse other computers using 'my network places'?

 

[Davidc]

can you ping between the wired and wireless ?

I haven't tried that, didn't think of it. Occurred to me while out riding that I could try connecting using their IP addresses from the browser.

I'll try both when it's all back on tomorrow.

Are all the computers part of the same workgroup? and can you browse other computers using 'my network places'?

Yes. If they're all on one side of 'the divide' no problem, opposite sides, no, can't browse. They just don't 'see' each other

*************

It didn't make any difference whether they were wireless or not in the past, so something has changed and I can't see what.

 

[Davidc]

can you ping between the wired and wireless ?

No, the invisibility cloak is total!

 

[ACS]

What happens if you switch off the DHCP on the router and static IP the devices?

Pain I know but may be worth a punt.

 

[Davidc]

What happens if you switch off the DHCP on the router and static IP the devices?

Pain I know but may be worth a punt..

Probably get shouted at for stopping the wife's internet and video file access!

I don't know is the real answer.

Two of the addresses are set to fixed on the router.. One is the printer, which does work 'across the divide' and the other is the NAS in a laptop docking station, which doesn't. Later on I'll try setting both of those to static IPs (the same ones) and turn the DHCP off and see what happens.

I'm beginning to suspect that there's either a fault or a firmware corruption.

I've asked someone who's coming here this afternoon to unplug her identical router and bring it round. I know it's the same - I ordered it for them at the same time I ordered mine, and I put the last firmware upgrade on it. I'll pt the config from mine in it, plug it in, and see what happens.

Won't be until late afternoon unfortunately.

 

[ACS]

The sub net mask is correct of course.

192.168.x.x. = 255.255.255.0

 

[Davidc]

The sub net mask is correct of course.

192.168.x.x. = 255.255.255.0

Yes - that's the default setting (along with the corresponding IP range) and no real reason to change it.

There's no problem with any of it provided you don't want something on the wireless side of the LAN to talk to something on the wired side. I'm puzzled even more by the printer being the exception, it doesn't seem to care.

Be interesting to see wha happens when I swap out the router.

 

[2Loose]

It does sound like a software firewall on (at least) one of the machines blocking things. Very unlikely to be the router ime.

To test, unplug router from the outside world and then turn off disable the firewalls on every machine on the network before re-trying to access the shared folders from each direction. After testing, re-enable firewalls before plugging the 'tinternet back into the router.

What firewalls are being used? I only ask because iirc one of them left all ports closed after turning it off, but disabling opened all the ports again.

Do try and ping the ip addresses from each machine, it may help determine which direction the traffic is being stopped from flowing.

 

[Davidc]

She forgot to bring its twin. Groan.

The traffic failure is both ways across the boundary. I've tried turning off all of the firewalls, to no effect, but it has occurred to me that the internet security package (same on all 3 = kaspersky) may be blocking traffic so that's next. That is the only thing that's changed that could do this sort of trick since it all last worked.

It doesn't really affect us much except when being lazy and sitting in an armchair to use a laptop, but it's really annoying that it doesn't work.