P.S.=> Clutch... Personally? For security's sake?? I think NetBEUI is his better bet! He has a tiny LAN there it sounds like of 2 systems so his performance should be ok, & on a tiny LAN like that I heard NetBEUI is fastest protocol broadcast vs. collisions speed wise & NetBEUI is not routeable to the net, & thus safer... if you can get him up & running on that?? Do so by ALL means... do you agree? apk
We actually covered this before, and I stated that NetBEUI was a much faster protocol, but I don't believe in using extra protocols for no real reason. If you are using a NAT/PAT scheme, NetBIOS calls are not forwarded out to the internet by default anyway as most of these systems close that port anyway. Hence, no security issue.
Here's why I pointed out the difference between your his running NetBEUI for LAN usage and your troubleshooting TCP/IP;
1. If he got it working that way, he would leave NetBEUI installed but would more than likely NOT be using it as NetBIOS over TCP/IP would be his functional name resolution protocol,
2. He might feel like the issue is solved, and think that NetBEUI was in fact working when it wasn't,
3. He still might not be using NetBEUI anyway, as I think TCP/IP ranks higher in protocol selection than NetBEUI by default for each adapter,
4. He wants to work on systems as a profession, and he should learn the differences between them, and also learn that NetBEUI is dead.
So, now you see why I was pointing out what you were showing. The information wasn't bad or incorrect, but while you may have the ability to troubleshoot this type of problem on your own, he currently does not. He just needed to see what was going on and probably wouldn't have known of the nuances between the protocols and what the resolution would have brought him.