Network problems

[Bill Stanley]

On 12/25/2010 04:00 AM, Lucio M Nicolosi wrote:
> On Sat, Dec 25, 2010 at 2:50 AM, Bill Stanley<bstanle at wowway.com>  wrote:
>>>
>>
>> This is a real interesting (puzzling) problem!  I can send and receive
>> pings from one machine but not the other.  Also, I installed samba and I
>> looked at the samba logs of both computers.
>>
>> 1. It seems that there is **SOME** communications happening but not
>> enough to make a connection.   Although I didn't give the computer name
>> of the other computer to either computer, I can see in the logs the name
>> of the other computer.  This wouldn't happen if there was no
>> communications.
>>
>> 2. The computer that accepts and gives pings tries to open samba file
>> sharing but gets nothing back.  It then gives an error message that it
>> hasn't received a share list from the other computer.  On both computers
>> I am sharing the documents directory.  Does one computer have to be
>> running server software or are equal peers acceptable?
>>
>> 3.  On the sharing program (shares-admin) I can't get any other opition
>> other than Unix network nfs when I investigate the properties of the
>> documents folder.  Maybe this is the problem?  By the way, the
>> shares-admin program is really a poor program.  Is there a better one
>> out there.  Either that or what file needs to be manually edited?
>>
>> 4. I now wonder if the ping problem is really the cause of the network
>> problems.  Maybe they are two separate but related problems.
>>
>> I know that this might be too much information but in my experience
>> sometimes a minor detail gets us on the right track.  Thanks for the
>> help even if the problem isn't yet solved.
>
> Bill,
>
> Sometimes Samba can perform weirdly. The network is there, but only
> reachable if you use the IPs of the connections, like
> smb//:192.168.0.99/ - otherwise you receive a "Unable to mount
> location" message.
>
> I think you should stick to the ping stuff that seems to point the
> underlying problem.
>
> Check the ping man page at:
> http://manpages.ubuntu.com/manpages/maverick/man8/ping.8.html for
> useful parameters and information on errors.
>
> Also consider the possibility of hardware fault, either cable or lan
> board (circuit). If you have one available, try to install an extra
> lan board on the faulty unit to check if you still face the same
> condition.

There is the possibility of a hardware problem but wouldn't there be 
other problems?  Other than connections from the two computers, I have 
encountered no other problems.  I can access the Internet (without any 
hint of problems) from both computers.  Nonetheless, I will try using 
different cabling and router ports to see if that makes any difference.