Unable to ping certain machines on my local network

[Underscore]

Hello, dear forum people!

I've encountered a small problem setting up a shared drive between two of my computers on my local network at home as a stopgap solution until I have the money for a proper server setup. That problem being that they do not seem to be able to communicate at all with each other! The machines in question are my desktop and laptop. They won't as much as ping each other but both will happily ping another device on the network (My phone). Its just communication between the two that does not seem to work. A little info on the two machines;
- The desktop is the machine with the drive I am trying to network share
- Both machines are set up with static IP addresses
   - However, I have tried to give the laptop a DHCP address but it did not seem to help
- I've tried to run both with DNS addresses found on my router (DNS addresses presumably from/to my ISP) as well as some addresses from Google (8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4)
- My laptop is running on wifi whilst my desktop is running on a wired connection
   - However, it would seem as if both the wireless and the wired units on my network are pulling from the same IP-pool since my wired desktop can ping my wireless phone.
 

So, if anyone has any ideas for what I could try to resolve this it'd be greatly appreciated!
Thanks for your time!

[Donut417]

7 minutes ago, Underscore said:

Hello, dear forum people!

I've encountered a small problem setting up a shared drive between two of my computers on my local network at home as a stopgap solution until I have the money for a proper server setup. That problem being that they do not seem to be able to communicate at all with each other! The machines in question are my desktop and laptop. They won't as much as ping each other but both will happily ping another device on the network (My phone). Its just communication between the two that does not seem to work. A little info on the two machines;
- The desktop is the machine with the drive I am trying to network share
- Both machines are set up with static IP addresses
   - However, I have tried to give the laptop a DHCP address but it did not seem to help
- I've tried to run both with DNS addresses found on my router (DNS addresses presumably from/to my ISP) as well as some addresses from Google (8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4)
- My laptop is running on wifi whilst my desktop is running on a wired connection
   - However, it would seem as if both the wireless and the wired units on my network are pulling from the same IP-pool since my wired desktop can ping my wireless phone.
 

So, if anyone has any ideas for what I could try to resolve this it'd be greatly appreciated!
Thanks for your time!

Check to make sure AP isolation is not enabled in your router. 

[mortino]

Make sure the time is the same on your laptop and desktop.

[Underscore]

2 hours ago, Donut417 said:

Check to make sure AP isolation is not enabled in your router. 

Hey! It does not look like this is an option in the router settings. Sadly this is a sort of "all in one" package so its a router and TV box in one whilst only being a mediocre tv box and router. Looked around in the settings and did not find anything like this there sadly.

 

2 hours ago, mortino said:

Make sure the time is the same on your laptop and desktop.

Not actually sure if joking or not, but they are.

[Alex Atkin UK]

Can you try any other WiFi devices and see if they have the same problem, even if they will ping each other?

 

Failing that, you might need to get a second router to use as a WiFi Access Point and turn off WiFi on the main router entirely.

[Underscore]

58 minutes ago, Alex Atkin UK said:

Can you try any other WiFi devices and see if they have the same problem, even if they will ping each other?

 

Failing that, you might need to get a second router to use as a WiFi Access Point and turn off WiFi on the main router entirely.

I tried with another laptop I had lying around and it does indeed have the same issue, it can't ping any of the other two machines but can just fine ping my phone. Guess I'll have to have a talk with my ISP for some explanation on this matter. 

[Alex Atkin UK]

Strange, I would have expected client isolation to also apply between WiFi clients - seems a bit of a half-assed implementation.

[mortino]

23 hours ago, Underscore said:

Hey! It does not look like this is an option in the router settings. Sadly this is a sort of "all in one" package so its a router and TV box in one whilst only being a mediocre tv box and router. Looked around in the settings and did not find anything like this there sadly.

 

Not actually sure if joking or not, but they are.

No, I was absolutely serious, windows has a thing about file sharing and time sync, if the time and date are mismatched it will not allow you to share with another windows machine.

[Levisallanon]

Could you provide the IP adres and subnet mask of the devices you are using. and maybe give a small schematic overview of the setup?

[Brian Furious]

Maybe some firewall rules denying ICMP?

[Underscore]

8 hours ago, Brian Furious said:

Maybe some firewall rules denying ICMP?

I did think about this but I have not been able to find any tab for this on my local computers firewall settings/antivirus programs settings (Kaspersky Total Security), however, I haven't looked too hard so I might give it another go to see if there are anything obvious I did not see and as for my router the only firewall settings I can find there is a checkbox on or off (Amazing customizability!) which I have tried to disable and see if it helped but was still not able to ping my machine.

 

 

 

9 hours ago, Levisallanon said:

Could you provide the IP adres and subnet mask of the devices you are using. and maybe give a small schematic overview of the setup?

Sure, this might be counter to what you are asking but just as a super precaution I am censoring the first "sets" in my IP address just so I don't get smacked in the face months or years from now, hope this will still be able to offer some clarity (Note, I have entered four "x" marks to censor even further, just in case. I do know that max is 255):

 

Desktop:

IP: xxxx.xxxx.0.34

Subnet mask: 255.255.255.0

Default gate: xxxx.xxxx.0.1

 

Laptop:

IP: xxxx.xxxx.0.25

Subnet mask: 255.255.255.0

Default gate: xxxx .xxxx.0.1

 

As for a schematic of the setup, sure, prepare to be impressed, I guess? On second thought, maybe not...

[Levisallanon]

1 minute ago, Underscore said:

Desktop:

IP: xxxx.xxxx.0.34

Subnet mask: 255.255.255.0

Default gate: xxxx.xxxx.0.1

 

Laptop:

IP: xxxx.xxxx.0.25

Subnet mask: 255.255.255.0

Default gate: xxxx .xxxx.0.1

 

Don't need to know what it is but are the X's the same? so for example does the xxxx.xxxx always mean 192.168 ?
if it's not that, that does it start with 10 or 172? If not you are using public IP ranges in a private network and that could mean your routing goes wrong.

[Underscore]

4 minutes ago, Levisallanon said:

Don't need to know what it is but are the X's the same? so for example does the xxxx.xxxx always mean 192.168 ?
if it's not that, that does it start with 10 or 172? If not you are using public IP ranges in a private network and that could mean your routing goes wrong.

Yes, the xxxx.xxxx are always the same numbers. All the machines seem to be in the same "IP-pool". And I guess since its apparently very commonplace it is 192.168, so much for censoring  

[Levisallanon]

13 minutes ago, Underscore said:

Yes, the xxxx.xxxx are always the same numbers. All the machines seem to be in the same "IP-pool". And I guess since its apparently very commonplace it is 192.168, so much for censoring  

Try if this works:
https://www.howtogeek.com/howto/windows-vista/allow-pings-icmp-echo-request-through-your-windows-vista-firewall/

If see if maybe your router has a terminal or ping tool so you can try it from there and see if this is able to ping.

[Underscore]

On 30.7.2018 at 1:12 PM, Brian Furious said:

Maybe some firewall rules denying ICMP?

Ding ding ding, we have a winner! It ended up being a firewall issue. Managed to find my way to the Kaspersky firewall settings (Where one should probably look first...) and there seems to be quiet a few things that are restricted.

 

So then, now on to the final stretch! When it comes to this kind of stuff I am a real newb, any pointers as to which on these settings I should change and what consequences that might have? It works great when I disable the firewall completely, but I kind of like the firewall, it is my friend, so I'd like to keep it but still allow file transfer traffic between my two machines through.

[Alex Atkin UK]

I suspect your network has been set as public, changing it to trusted/private would appear to lift any restrictions.

 

Did you change anything there already?  It looks like ICMP is already enabled so ping should be working.

[Levisallanon]

26 minutes ago, Alex Atkin UK said:

I suspect your network has been set as public, changing it to trusted/private would appear to lift any restrictions.

 

Did you change anything there already?  It looks like ICMP is already enabled so ping should be working.

The problem is already solved ... read the post above you

[Alex Atkin UK]

No it says "It works great when I disable the firewall completely, but I kind of like the firewall, it is my friend, so I'd like to keep it but still allow file transfer traffic between my two machines through.".

Although granted, making the network private probably just disables the firewall anyway, but its the correct way to do it.  It may still monitor for suspicious activity vs disabling it outright.

Personally I never bother with a firewall on the LAN clients, that a job for the router.

[Underscore]

I've managed to get it working. Just some trial and error since there weren't so many options to pick from. Just set it to not block all traffic on the local services tcp and udp and I am now up and running with my drive connecting just fine to my other machine!