RE: computers cannot be viewed on the same VLAN

Hello there. If a similar question has been asked, I apologize for the inconvenience. With regards to my situation, I am a beginning network administrator under the watch of 20 workstations in my classroom. Firstly, the computers have been set as a Windows workgroup. Once the network was handed over to me, I decided to set up a domain. However, this is just to give you a general background of the current situation with my network. Anyhow, back to my question. The local network is on the same VLAN. The workstations are running the following OSes: Win 9x, 2000, and XP. Additionally, The Domain Server cannot view the workstations that are currently connected to the Workgroup. Why can't some of the computers on the local network ping each other, or be viewed in Network Neighborhood? Mind you, the problem is intermittent. Thank you.

What version of XP are you using? Home or Professional?

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The local network is on the same VLAN. The workstations are running the following OSes: Win 9x, 2000, and XP. Additionally, The Domain Server cannot view the workstations that are currently connected to the Workgroup. Why can't some of the computers on the local network ping each other, or be viewed in Network Neighborhood? Mind you, the problem is intermittent.

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To understand your problem better.

1. These systems were all networked together without a problem originally.
2. Once you made the changes, can any of the system see eachother.
3. How did you make the change

In response to your questions:

1. The computers were all networked as a Windows Workgroup. And regarding XP, its Professional. The computers in the workgroup network are using the following protocol, if this helps: TCP/IP and NetBIOS. The original administrator has a 2003 server (which is still running, unchanged) as a "workgroup server". Let me explain: the workstations are able to connect to the server under the run command (go into run, type: \\[name of server or IP address]) It works great, but problems only arise when computers can't view each other. I don't know if this is a protocol issue, too many packets on network, or what.
Anyhow, my project entails bringing up an NT4 domain server (a dedicated server). I have it set as a primary domain controller. I figured I would be running into to plenty of problems the minute I decided to do this project, because this would interrupt the workgroup setting. However, I don't think that's the problem as to why only certain workstations are able to communicate w/ eachother.

In our classroom, the MIS department has designated it as "VLAN 2". I'm not too familiar with VLANs, but I take it workstations should be able to communicate constantly and not intermittently. Each station has its own drop or port, which I presume leads to a wiring closet. Now, the servers are also hooked to their own drop. I don't have any switches or routers set up. This is still beyond by scope... So there you have it. Each workstation has their own drop as well as the servers. I hope this is enough info. If I wasn't clear enough please inform me. I appreciate the help.

Sounds like you have a more basic network problem, forget about domains vs workgroups for the time being.

A vlan is a logical division of a switch(es) into separate segments, which means you need a router to route between vlans, but not within the same one. You need to identify what hosts can ping what hosts, and if not are any hosts on different subnets(ipconfig). Make sure each host can ping the default gateway as well. Come back and post your findings.