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General discussion

Cannot connect to home network

Mar 15, 2004 12:23PM PST

Hey,

I have a simple home network, just a workgroup connected with a Netgear Router.

The trouble is, when I connect to my college network and then come home, my laptop cannot connect for file sharing and print sharing - in other words, I suddenly cannot see anyone else on my network - Internet ok, everything else not.

Any suggestions?

Discussion is locked

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Re:Cannot connect to home network
Mar 15, 2004 5:57PM PST

Are you part of a Domain on the school network vs a Workgroup at home?

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Re:Re:Cannot connect to home network
Mar 16, 2004 6:21AM PST

There is a domain at school, but I am not a part of it - I simply plug in and get an IP address to use the Internet, I have no file access or anything like that.

At home, its a workgroup.

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Re:Re:Re:Cannot connect to home network
Mar 16, 2004 9:20AM PST

Is the workgroup name the same for all computers at home and is anything set to share?

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Re:Cannot connect to home network
Mar 16, 2004 2:54PM PST

See if you have the ICF (Internet Connection Firewall) turned on in XP, which could prevent you from seeing networked computers. To do this: Go to the network settings via the control panel. Find your network connection there (if you see a little lock on it, you probably have the ICF on). Right click the connection and go to properties. Once there, go to the advanced tab where you should see a setting for the Internet Connection Firewall. If the box is checked, uncheck it and turn it off. It may ask you to restart, and if not, I'd restart anyway since it always makes me feel better to do so. Once you have rebooted, check your LAN to see if you can view the computers on your workgroup/home network.

If that doesn't work, try running the home networking wizard in the network connections, making sure to choose your particular home network setup. When you do so, make sure again that the ICF is not on when you try to connect to other computers on your LAN.

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Re:Re:Cannot connect to home network
Mar 17, 2004 7:40AM PST

Thanks - I've tried all this and still nothing.

Its getting frustrated not being able to print - but I tried this, I can ping the router and other computers.

Any other ideas?

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Re:Cannot connect to home network-release and renew?
Mar 17, 2004 9:23PM PST

Have you tried releasing and renewing your network adapter? In your RUN box, type CMD, then enter. A command line window will open. Starting at the blinking cursor, type: ipconfig /release then enter. Hit the F3 button and backspace to the 'L' and type over the 'L' so that it reads 'renew'- should look somthing like this C:\XXXXX>ipconfig /release ENTER. Then C:\XXXXX>ipconfig /renew ENTER. Note the space before the forward slash.

I'd also double check that your workgroup name at home hasn't changed- right click My Computer, left-click properties, left-click Computer name, left-click the ''Change'' tab, and see if you are in fact a part of your home work-group, or if the workgroup name has somehow automagically changed- every now and then, my laptop workgroup name changes back to ''Workgroup''. Turn off all firewalls like ZoneAlarm while trouble-shooting. If you do connect after troubleshooting, then lose your connection, check your firewall configuration; actually, I'd simply turn off ZoneAlarm or another other software firewall first before anything else. Could be somethin as simple as that. Hope this was of some help. Good luck.