[Avg]

You guys helped me figure how to connect three routers together in this thread here (http://www.ocforums.com/showthread.php?t=372684), now I did that I'm able to connect to the internet on all pcs but I can't seem to be able to share files and printers, three pcs are running winxp while one is using win200, file and printer sharing is installed and printers are set to be shared, but I still can't see them or any files that used to work fine before. What can I do to fix this?

TIA

[klingens]

Your problem is most probably the many routers you use: filesharing across routers doesn't work, or is clumsy to do needing special magic called "port forwarding".

And now for the rant:
You were told before: use a single router. NOT FRIGGIN THREE of them.
Double NAT in a home setup is just bad knowledge on the techie part. Triple NAT is grounds for execution of said techie.
Tho, I guess one is not a router but an AP (would make sense with the knowledge you exhibited so far)...

Btw: fast ethernet can run 100M without a repeater, so except for laying the cable, distance is no excuse. And those 3 routers don't run without cable either when only one is wireless. Unless your client is a multimillionaire with a bigger house than Bill Gates, cables are no problem..

[Avg]

I wasn't the one who put the three routers there, she had hired a guy a couple of years back and he wired the whole house with cat5 wires, and the three routers, and one of the routers was added later just so she could connect her laptop from anywhere in the house. I'm not very familier with networks and I told her that on the first day but she insisted that I gave it a shot, and I tried and at least got her connected to the internet, and the only problem that I was having yesterday was the file and printer sharing.

The computers are set up like this, two are directly connected to the main router while the laptop and the third pc is connecting to the main router through the middle router with dhcp turned off, yesterday before I left I got the two pcs connected to each to share there files, but not the ones that went through the second router, and this is where your explanation made sense to me, so I think if I have a chance I'll go there today and exchange her router for a wireless adapter and try that.

Thanks for the help, I guess i deserved the rant for trying to do it the hard way, while the forum was down I did a little searching on port forwarding and along with it I saw something about dmz which open every port instead of just forwarding(tunneling) one port, would tha work to share that files, don't worry I wont' try this but I'm just trying to learn as much as I can about networks.

[UnseenMenace]

I would personally suggest taking two of her routers and selling them, thus generating enough money to buy a wireless point and wireless USB or PCMCIA card for the laptop so that it could be used anywhere in the home.
From my perspective I simply would not even attempt the task being mentioned here as the effort would be greater than the rewards.
A DMZ allows a single computer on your LAN to expose ALL of its ports. When doing this, the exposed computer is no longer ‘behind’ the firewall. Considering that you have more than one router which is unrequired all this will effectively do is bypass some of the routers features... Which would bring me back to the suggestion... If you do not require the router have you ever thought about selling two of them and buying a wireless access point and wireless point and wireless USB or PCMCIA card for the laptop so that it could be used anywhere in the home....

[Avg]

I'll do that then, I think I can still return/exchange one linksys for a wireless nic, and keep the USRobotics I bought for her since it's faster then the old wireless linksys she has, I don't think it would be worth it to try and sell her wireless linksys it doesn't support 802.11g only a and b, and if I was to sell that it wouldn't even be worth the trouble, I maybe take my wireless nic over there today just to make sure everything works fine and get her a new one from staples.

Man I was feeling so crappy last night when I left her house, I even told her to call the other dude to finish the job, but know I don't think that is best judging from who you guys are saying that using multiple router in one house was a mistake, I was just happy to know that the multi router setup was cousing the problems.

thanks a lot

[Kendan]

with a multi router set up like that you have to make sure that all routers except the one connected to the cable modem are not using the WAN port, that they have DHCP turned off, and that they have their IP changed so that you can still access their web configs. As I mentioned in the other thread. Now for the file and printer sharing we need to know what OS's are being used and what works and what does not. For the XP machines make sure that the windows firewall is off. and make sure if you have another firewall that it is set to allow file and printer sharing on the internal network. you very well may need an account on all boxes with the same username and password.

[Avg]

Originally Posted by Kendan

with a multi router set up like that you have to make sure that all routers except the one connected to the cable modem are not using the WAN port, that they have DHCP turned off, and that they have their IP changed so that you can still access their web configs. As I mentioned in the other thread. Now for the file and printer sharing we need to know what OS's are being used and what works and what does not. For the XP machines make sure that the windows firewall is off. and make sure if you have another firewall that it is set to allow file and printer sharing on the internal network. you very well may need an account on all boxes with the same username and password.

Did all of that already, well not all have the same username but the only that is different is is able to acess shared files and printer, one thing though is that I tried not using the wan port like they said on the other thread and it didn't workd, it worked when I tried here at home but it didn't work there while when connected with the wan port to lan port worked, I'll do the simpler thing and get rid of the extra routers and go wireless.

[Avg]

I'm also having another problem with my own computer, since I installed a new driver I'm not able to file and printer share on it, I had e-mailed USR about it but got no response so I decided to post it here. My pc is connected to the router by wire while the other pc is using a wireless nic, I used to be able to share stuff with a router of the same brand/model before, I've reset it and still nothing.

[AEsnowboarding]

Yup if these are your regular run of the mill $50 routers you are going to have troubles communticating through multiple routers. You would have to have protocols like RIP or EIGRP-IGRP, and I doubt any of your routers have them.

[Avg]

I sure the Usr have the rip option and i think I saw some rip option in the linksys too.

[Kendan]

Originally Posted by Avg

Did all of that already, well not all have the same username but the only that is different is is able to acess shared files and printer, one thing though is that I tried not using the wan port like they said on the other thread and it didn't workd, it worked when I tried here at home but it didn't work there while when connected with the wan port to lan port worked, I'll do the simpler thing and get rid of the extra routers and go wireless.

If you use the wan port on the second router you will NOT be able to get file or printer sharing working.

[Avg]

But the internet won't work at all if it's not using wan port, I had to leave it in wan because I had to leave and couldn't work out the problem at that time. Right now If I get a chance to go there again I'm gonna go for the wireless nic, it would be easier, simpler, less expensive and I wouldn't have to troubleshoot anything, my only worry is that I won't be able to pick up a signal coming from the basement to the second floor.

[Avg]

Hey guys, just bringing this post up to thank everyone, I finally got everything to work did exactly what was said here and it is working just fine now, mostly the reason why i wasn't able to share the files was firewall on the computers themselves, so if they cause any problems again ill uninstall them and use the router's firewall, and the other problem was the pc running win2000, it wasn't pickking up the other pcs on the network automatically so I just had to type the pc's address in the address bar and all of a suden all pcs were able to see each other. A little excited right now, guess I got a lot more to learn.
thanks a lot