Weird Networking Issue

[Longhorn_Fan68]

Let me paint a picture:
Two days ago every computer in my office was working fine -
everyone could see everybody and all shared files and
printers were online. That night, we had a huge storm. i
came back in the offic the next day and my computer
wouldn't boot. I deemed to be the power supply and indeed
it was. Next day, I get into the office and the computer
is on, but not responding. I reset the BIOS and
everything is peachy until I login and realize I can't
seen any computers on the network. I reinstalled NetBIOS
and now can see two out of six computers. I've tried
everything I know. Any ideas?
.

 

[RaizerAlum]

do you have any network activity at all? If not, I'd check the NIC. We had a storm here once that fried about 15 cards.


edit- didn't read that last part about seeing a few. do those you're not seeing have any network activity?

 

[Longhorn_Fan68]

all other computers can see each other, and can see me, but get error message saying my puter is not found when they try to access it - the same message i get for all other computers.

 

[idigTexas]

You didn't specify your network configuration, so this may or may not apply.

I'd verify that the systems you can't see have valid IP addresses. If they don't, then they aren't seeing your DHCP server for some reason, or they weren't when they last attempted to renew. Renewing may be all that is required at this point.

If the IP addresses all appear to be normal, I'd reset the switch. Power outages can permanently fry them, but yours may just need to be reset (unplug it, count to 20, plug it back in).

Beyond those 2 basic suggestions, I'd need to know more about your network.

 

[Longhorn_Fan68]

Based on what you just said, would that explain why all the other computers can see each other, but mine can't?

All computers are set up to ask for IP's, but the DNS servers are specified.

 

[idigTexas]

DNS setting configuration on DHCP clients is usually handled by the DHCP server. In most cases, the DNS server that is passed to the clients is the DHCP server itself, which is usually configured to forward requests to actual DNS servers, either on your LAN, or on the internet. If you hard code the DNS servers on each machine, then those settings should override what the server distributes. You can verify this by running IPCONFIG /ALL to see what the clients are using for DNS.

If all your other PCs see each other just fine, but your system is having issues, then I'd suspect the network card or the drivers (assuming everything is configured properly).

I'd start by running IPCONFIG /ALL to verify that the settings match what the other clients have. From there, I'd reinstall the latest drivers for your NIC (make sure you completely uninstall the NIC and it's drivers first), and then I'd resort to pulling a NIC from one of the other machines to see if it works in your system. If all the NICs in your network are on the motherboard, then you'll have to pony up $20 or so to buy a cheap PCI NIC.

If you still can't get there after all of that, then it is possible that your registry has become hosed. You could try a system restore at that point, but if that doesn't work, then you are down to reloading, or you have a more serious hardware problem that may be tough to track down (doubtful).