Network problems

[Bill Stanley]

On 12/26/2010 06:48 PM, Lucio M Nicolosi wrote:
> On 12/26/2010 07:15 PM, Bill Stanley wrote:
>
>>
>> The ping problem:
>> When I use computer two to ping computer one I get some strange results.
>> If I specify computer one using its ip address (192.168.1.100) I fet a
>> ping back with an average time of 0.27 ms.  If I specify the computers
>> name (aragorn), sending a ping yields a time of 35.66 ms,  It's
>> suprising that it would be this much slower.  Maybe if I specify the
>> name, it is actually pinging some other computer (computer one has a
>> common name).   Sending a ping from computer one to computer two yields
>> nothing both for the ip-address (192.168.1.101) and the computers name.
>>
>> The file sharing:
>> I can't get a usable connection,  On looking at the /etc/samba log files
>> I can see that there is some indication that a connection was attempted
>> but the attempt failed. On both computers, the documents folder is
>> shared but the shares-admin program allows only sharing via  Unix-nfsm,
>> there ore no other choices even though there should samba listed (I
>> think).  Frankly, I don't think shares-admin is very good.
>>
>>
>> Using the Places/network desktop menu item on computer one the following
>> are the results.
>> 1. When I attempt to open a Windows network connection (NFS unix is not
>> one of the choices)
>> 2. When I open the windows network icon, I see nothing.  This is
>> interesting because yesterday, I could see the name of my home network.
>> In this respect, I have taken a step backwards,  I used to get an error
>> message saying that the shares list was not sent.  The same situation is
>> seen when I try to use computer rwo to connect to computer one.
>>
>> I hesitate to add the ancient (12 years old) computer to the mix.  Both
>> computers dual boot and I can boot on computer one to Windows 7,
>> Open-Suse or Unbuntu,  I almost exclusively use Unbuntu and I keep Win7
>> around just because it came pre-installed with it.  Computer two can
>> boot to Windows XP (Service pack 2) or Unbuntu.  I might try to
>> establish a network connection when computer two is booted to Win-XP.
>> If I can get a connection,I can at least rule out hardware problems.
>>
>
> What does it happen when you ping an external address with computer 2,
> both IP and Hostname, say www."someplace".com
> (http://www.hcidata.info/host2ip.cgi may help you to do this)? Would you
> observe the same latency discrepancies?
>
> Why hesitate? It would be nice to check the behavior of this "ancient"
> computer regarding pings.
>
> Wouldn't you have a spare lan board to test with the faulty PC?


It is interesting that you mention that!  Using computer two (the one 
that doesn't respond to a ping) I can get a response to a ping from 
computer one when I use the ip number (By the way, I am aware of the 
fact that its ip number, 192.168.1.100, is an internal ip number only). 
  Now when I tried pinging using its host-name I got an external 
computer.  Where this computer is I do not know but from its ip number 
is external to my home network.  I could have to come up with unique 
host-names but I don't want to complicate matters more than they now are.

I also booted computer two to Windowx XP.  I can ping both ways when 
booted to Windows but I am still unable to establish a network 
connection.  This proves that the ping problem is not hardware related. 
  Maybe I can't ping using the host-name is because I am not running 
host-name server software?  I doubt it and for security reasons, I would 
prefer that my computer host-names not be known outside of my home 
network.  (That is why I refer to them as computers one and two.)

I think I might have to try the ancient computer... It can dual boot 
Windows 2000 or Suse Linux.  As for the Lan board, I do not have one of 
those.  I might mention that I can run WireShark (a network snoop) but 
am not experienced enough with it to make too much sense of the output. 
  I can make sense of some of the output however.  If anyone out there 
knows how to use it properly in this context, I would appreciate any 
advice on its use.  I think that it might prove useful particularly if 
the third (ancient) computer is running it to look at the communication 
attempts between computers one and two.