Solved Win 8.1Pro will not connect to print server on my network

Hi Guys, I have read a number of posts here about networking issues but none seemed specific to my issue... I had a Windows 7 environment and just recently purchased a Windows 8 laptop.. .well win 8.1 Pro to be exact. On all of my windows 7 machines I can ping 192.168.1.199 and get solid response and go to that address in the browser and no issue. On the new Window 8.1 laptop I ping that address and sometimes get 1 timeout with 3 responses... other times it just times out and sometimes I get all 4 replies... The print server has a web interface but I am unable to connect to it at all - is there something I need to set in Win 8?

C:\Users\Ron>ping 192.168.1.199Pinging 192.168.1.199 with 32 bytes of data:
Reply from 192.168.1.199: bytes=32 time=4ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.1.199: bytes=32 time=3ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.1.199: bytes=32 time=2ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.1.199: bytes=32 time=2ms TTL=64
Ping statistics for 192.168.1.199:
Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 2ms, Maximum = 4ms, Average = 2ms

Then I get

C:\Users\Ron>ping 192.168.1.199
Pinging 192.168.1.199 with 32 bytes of data:
Request timed out.
Request timed out.
Request timed out.
Reply from 192.168.1.199: bytes=32 time=6ms TTL=64
Ping statistics for 192.168.1.199:
Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 1, Lost = 3 (75% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 6ms, Maximum = 6ms, Average = 6ms

Welcome to Eight Forums,

This could be a network card driver issue and depending on the chipsets of your computer. Some Users have encountered disconnection issue after upgrading from 8 to 8.1, possible solution is to try downloading the latest driver for your network card from the manufacturer's site. Also, please check out this Thread.

For Broadcom NIC drivers try downloading the Windows 7 driver, check out this Thread.

Hi Guys,
I figured this one out!! Turns out Windows 8 uses AppContainers now which by default, are forbidden from sending network traffic to the local computer (loopback). Once I used the enable loopback utility and added all of my apps to the exemption list all began to work properly. Thanks for all of your responses!

Hi there
glad it worked - however could you as a favour tell me what the "Loop back" container is --I don't seem to have any problems accessing an HP network wireless (wi-fi) printer from any of my systems (W2003 server / w2012 server, XP, W7, W8, W8.1

I'm not a networking guru - sometimes things just "work" although I've never heard of "app containers" before.

How do I enable "The loopback utility" in case I need this in the future.

Cheers
jimbo

Fiddler works for this and the link explains how it works. Basically it's for creating exemptions to allow App's to communicate through the network. The usual boring network explanation.

Configure Fiddler for Windows 8 Metro-style applications

How to enable loopback and troubleshoot network isolation (Windows Store apps) (Windows)