Recently I installed a broadband router to share the internet between my PC and internet capable digital TV set top box (STB). However, I am having two problems with this setup. First, despite following the instructions for creating a home network with Windows XP Home Edition, I cannot “see” the network in My Network Places, and attempting to see other computers on the network produces an error message that I have insufficient permission. That said, both the PC and STB can access the internet, they just cannot see each other. Second, the PC rarely stays connected to the internet for more than five minutes. The only way to re-establish the connection is to restart the computer or repair the connection (although even this failed on one occasion). There appears to be no reason for this disconnection, although on a couple of occasions a dial-up connection dialog box appears. Scanning the computer with PC-Cillin 2007, Ad-Aware, Trojan Hunter, Spy Sweeper, and Windows Defender shows that the computer is free of any malware. How can I fix these issues?

Dealing with network problems is a challenging task at the best of times, and fixing such problems via correspondence (without being in front of the computer) is even more difficult. However, I will try to provide the best guidance possible without seeing the actual setup. Since both the PC and STB can access the internet (ignoring the fact the PC internet connection drops-out after 5 minutes) this indicates that the network communications are active. So, we need to determine whether the PC and STB can see each other by attempting to contact the machines via their IP addresses. Each computer on a network has an IP address, which is a unique numerical address (e.g. 192.168.1.1) that identifies a computer on a network. When two computers (or other devices) wish to communicate over a network they contact each other using these IP addresses. That said, computers can also contact each other using their hostnames, which is a friendly name for the computer (e.g. MarkPC, MarkSTB). When you attempt to contact a computer using the hostname this name is converted to an IP address (using a system called DNS, which is beyond the scope of our discussion here). As you can see, IP addresses are the core of network communication.

So, we want to check whether the PC and STB can see each other using IP addresses. As a first step, we need to determine the IP address of the PC and STB. To find the IP address of the PC on the computer, go to the “Start “menu” > “Run” and type “cmd” (without the quotes) and click OK. This will open a Command Prompt window. At the command prompt, type the following command:
ipconfig /all
Please make sure you note the space between the “ipconfig” and “/all” portions of the command. Once this command has been inputted, press the ENTER key to execute the command. All of the configuration for the network adapters on your computer will appear. Look for the Local Area Connection Properties, and note down the IP address of that network adapter. The IP address should be in the format 192.168.X.X or 10.X.X.X.

You will now need to determine the IP address of the STB. This is a more difficult process as the STB is not a normal computer. However, the menu system on the STB should be able to provide details on the network configuration, so look through the menu system on the STB to see whether it provides the network settings and current IP address. If you cannot find this information, log onto your router and check whether it provides a display of currently connected devices. This should have the PC and STB as currently connected to the router, together with their respective IP addresses.

Having found the IP address of the STB, return to the PC and open another Command Prompt. In the command prompt, enter the following command:
ping
This will send a series of “ping” packets to the STB. This simply sends a small message (ping) to the STB which asks the STB to reply (ping-reply). If the STB replies to the ping packets then the PC and STB can communicate with each other. If there is no ping reply, this may indicate that the devices cannot see each other. Please be aware that not getting a reply to a ping packet does not conclusively indicate a communications problem, as the other device may be running a firewall which blocks ping (technically known as ICMP) requests. However, for the purpose of our testing, I am assuming that since the STB is a relatively basic device it is not running any such firewall and thus should reply to ping packets if such packets are sent to the device.

If the STB replies to the ping packets sent by the PC then you should be able to connect to the STB from the PC. However, you will likely need to connect using the IP address rather than going through My Network Places (as it seems that My Network Places is not able to automatically detect the STB). You did not specify exactly why you want to connect to the STB, but I assume so that you can upload media to the STB, or play media on the STB which is stored on your computer. To upload media to the STB, you will need to connect to the STB from your computer. If the STB came with any special software for uploading then use this software and input the IP address of the STB. If there is no special software for the uploading, try accessing the STB using the method to access a normal Windows file share. Go to the “Start” menu > “Run” and type two backslashes followed by the IP address of the STB. For example: \\192.168.24.11. If successful, this will open a window displaying the files and folders on the STB and allow you to simply drag and drop files into the window to upload these to the STB.

In the more likely scenario that you wish to connect to the PC from the STB, allowing you to play media stored on the PC on your STB, you will need to setup your STB to communicate with your PC. This can probably be done through the menu system on the STB and you will just need to direct the STB to the IP address of your PC. Be aware, if you cannot connect to the PC then it is possible that the Windows Firewall on your PC is blocking the connection. To test this theory, on the PC go to the “Start” menu > “Control Panel” and open the “Windows Firewall” control panel (you may need to first click the “Security Center” category). In the Windows Firewall window that appears click “Off” and then OK. This will disable the Windows Firewall. Check whether you can establish a connection to the PC from the STB. Should this be working, you could leave Windows Firewall disabled, although this is not recommended as the firewall is providing your computer with protection. Instead, re-enable the firewall and configure an exception for the STB. Re-enable the firewall by clicking “On” and then click the “Exceptions” tab. Click “Add Port” and then add an exception for the port which the STB is using to access your computer. You will need to consult the documentation for your STB for this information. You can also lock-down the exception to only be applicable for the STB by clicking the “Change Scope” button and input the IP address of your STB.

Regarding your second question about the internet dropping out after 5 minutes, the fact that a dial-up connection window appears indicates that the connection may be hijacked by another process or application. As a starting point, try removing any dial-up network connections which may be present on your computer. Go to the “Start” menu > “Control Panel” and open the “Network Connections” control panel (you may need to first click the “Network and Internet Connections” category). In the Network Connections window find any dial-up connections. If you need to keep any of these connections make sure you note down their settings. Once you have written down any relevant settings, delete the dial-up connections. Now, go back into the Control Panel and open the Internet Options control panel. In the Internet Options window click the “Connections” tab and ensure that “Never dial a connection” is enabled. Click OK. Restart the computer, and check whether the problem continues.

If the problem continues, it is possible that a background process is causing the random dial-up connection window to appear. To diagnose the problem background process, we can try closing all the background processes to see whether the problem persists. Restart the computer, and once the computer has started press CTRL-ALT-DEL to open the Task Manager. In the Task Manager window, click the “Processes” tab. Click the “User Name” tab to sort the processes by user name. Where the User Name column is not visible, go to the “View” menu > “Select Columns” and tick “User Name”. Close all processes running under your user name by selecting the process and clicking “End Process”. You can close all the processes except “explorer.exe” (the Windows graphical user interface) and “taskmgr.exe” (the Windows Task Manager which you are currently using to close the processes). Once this has been done, check whether the problem continues. If not, one of those processes was causing the problem. In this case, restart the computer (so that all the processes load again) and then repeat the procedure, but only close one process and check whether the problem persists. If the problem does continue, restart the computer and close a different process, then check again. Repeat this procedure until the problem ceases, at which time you have found the process causing the problem. At this point you could always disable that process from loading on startup, using the System Configuration Utility which was discussed in the first question in today’s column, or contact me again with the name of the process and I will try to provide additional advice on how to resolve the problem.