I have a curious question. I have a small network that I just set up at home
based on D-Link HPNA2.0 phonelink adapters (PCI). After some fiddling
around, I managed tonight to get the network working. I have both TCP/IP and
NetBEUI protocols bound to each adapter (NIC and the dialup adapter). Client
for MS Networks and of course File and Printer sharing are turned on. I have
set up specific IP addresses for each computer, of the type 192.168.0.x

When I click Network Neighborhood, each computer shows the list of itself
and the other 3 computers on the network. I am easily able to move and share
files across the network, so it is clear that the damn thing must be
configured correctly (I presume).

The curious thing is that if I drop to DOS and try to PING from one computer
the to other, I more often than not get a timed out response and no ping.
Computer 1 is able to ping computer 3, but not 2. Computer 2 is able to ping
computer 3, but computer 3 is not able to ping computer 2. Neither 2 or 3
are able to ping computer 1, and so on. I would have thought that if the
PINGing didn't work, then there was a problem in the network, and yet there
it is working away.

I have not yet tried to set up internet connection sharing on my cable modem
(next step), since I wanted to trouble shoot this curious thing first before
I add another layer of complexity. Plus I am concerned that if I can't ping
reproducibly and reciprocally, then TCP/IP is not established properly and
my internet connection sharing will fail.

How do I reconcile the lack of PINGing with the obvious fact that the
network is able to communicate and share files etc???

Michael

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