Simple Microsoft Network - can't ping gateway but can access Internet

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lchiu7

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#145349 15-May-2014 17:28

Was helping out a friend with a simple office network.

DSL connection going to a switch with about 6 PC's. The gateway is the DSL router and there are a number of PC's on the network and a couple of IP connected printers.

Got called to say a PC could not print so came in and saw that the PC couldn't actually see the printer (no responses to ping, and not any responses to pings to any other device on the network). The PC is on Vista.

Yet strangely the PC could access the Internet.

Network addressed assigned statically (192.168 range), gateway the IP address of the router and DNS set to 1) IP of the router and 2) 8.8.8.8

Did the usual shutdown, restart, disable and re-enable the network adapter, start in safe mode to eliminate possibility of a virus and still nothing.

Anybody with ideas since I am at a lost. If I can't ping the gateway and also 8.8.8. but the browser can access the Internet, I just don't now how network traffic is getting out.

Thanks

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ubergeeknz

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Vocus

#1045687 15-May-2014 17:30

Network addressed assigned statically (192.168 range), gateway the IP address of the router and DNS set to 1) IP of the router and 2) 8.8.8.8

Any reason to statically assign the addresses rather than using static leases in DHCP as required? Sure you don't have a conflict or subnet mask issue?

graemeh

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#1045689 15-May-2014 17:37

Does the PC with the problem have the network set as a "public" network? I know on Windows 8 this will produce symptoms like you describe for being unable to see other machines or printers (not sure if it affects ping though)

See http://windows.microsoft.com/en-nz/windows/choosing-network-location#1TC=windows-vista

lchiu7

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#1045833 15-May-2014 21:12

Tried DHCP but got the dread 169 IP address so it looks like the router is not doing DHCP.

PC is running Vista so not sure if that has the option for Home, Work or Public networks but will check tomorrow.

Strange thing is it just happened during the working day and the user did not fiddle with anything. But since there is very little data on the PC itself one of the fixes they do is a System Restore(!) back to a previous day's setup. That seems to fix things but seems a bit drastic to me.

Might see if I can organise a Win7 upgrade.

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Regs

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Snowflake

#1045931 15-May-2014 23:27

probably using the wong subnet mask on one of the machines. e.g. 255.255.255.0 on one, and 255.0.0.0 (or variation) on another.

lchiu7

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#1046055 16-May-2014 09:03

Regs: probably using the wong subnet mask on one of the machines. e.g. 255.255.255.0 on one, and 255.0.0.0 (or variation) on another.

All things to check but the fact that it was going and then stopped without the user changing anything is baffling.

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ubergeeknz

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Vocus

#1046077 16-May-2014 09:26

I assume you already rebooted the PC?

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chevrolux

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#1046079 16-May-2014 09:28

Why not enable shop on the router then?

lchiu7

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#1046092 16-May-2014 09:41

ubergeeknz: I assume you already rebooted the PC?

:-) Umpteen times including having the user do a system restore.

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Zeon

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#1046101 16-May-2014 09:52

I would recommend switching to DHCP, static can lead to issues such as duplicate address usage or incorrect subnet masks etc. Maybe you will need to configure it on the router?

Speedtest 2019-10-14

trig42

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#1046132 16-May-2014 10:39

Check if DHCP works on any of the other PCs on the network (even plug your laptop in).

If it does, it suggests there is an issue with that Vista PC. You could try (in an elevated CMD prompt) netsh int ip reset log.txt then anetsh winsock reset and a reboot (it resets TCP/IP and Winsock).

If DHCP doesn't work (and it is turned on in the router), then there may be an issue with the router, or switch.

solival

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#1046259 16-May-2014 13:17

Also check with disabled windows firewall.

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lchiu7

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#1046264 16-May-2014 13:28

Well solved the problem. It wasn't Windows Firewall but McAfee Firewall(!). It has been set to allow only connections to the Internet, nothing internal! And since the subscription to AV has expired I plan on removing it completely and just relying on Windows AV and Firewall.

I suspect it came with the PC and was never updated.

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solival

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#1046266 16-May-2014 13:34

Removing McAffe can be also long journey with unexpected result :)

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