I am really stumped by this one. We have a small workgroup - 3 XP
Home machines (C, D, E) and 2 XP Pro machines (A & B). The pro machines
are acting as servers for folders and printer shares.

Everything has been fine with all the machines. Then we added a new XP
home machine (F). F can access A's shares but for some reason, most of
the time, it can't access B's shares. F can ping B fine. B can access
shares I create on F.

C, B & F are on the same unmanaged switch with a single cat 5 cable
going form that switch to the router that is acting as DHCP server. A
is plugged into the router. I created shares on C which is another
home machine. F can access C's shares no problem.

But again, there's something about B and / or F that keeps F from
reliably accessing B's shares. After a reboot the connection to the
shares works OK for a couple/few minutes, then drops out for a few
minutes, comes back for a minute or 2 then drops off again. AGAIN, I
CAN PING B FROM F ALL THE TIME AND F FROM B all the time. It's a
windows networking fluke.

I've tried turing off and turning on the windows firewall on either and
both machines
I've swapped ports on the switch
I've replaced the switch
I've connected the 2 machines with a crossover cable and get the same
symptons (they default to 169.x.x.x IP addresses for this. They
usually get 192.168.1.0/24 IP addresses.
I;ve run winsockxpfix on both machines.
I've run LSPfix on both machines and there's no unuaul LSPs
I've changed machine names on both machines.
All machines show the same info (other than IP, but they are in the
same subnet) when I do ipconfig /all. all machines are DHCP getting
their info from the linksys router


Again, B's shares can be accessed reliably from all the other machines.
It's only F that has a problem connecting to B's shares only. It can
connect to A and the other machines reliably. Everyone (including F &
B) can ping everyone consistently.

Any ideas?

On 4 May 2006 21:26:37 -0700, (E-Mail Removed) wrote:

>I am really stumped by this one. We have a small workgroup - 3 XP
>Home machines (C, D, E) and 2 XP Pro machines (A & B). The pro machines
>are acting as servers for folders and printer shares.
>
>Everything has been fine with all the machines. Then we added a new XP
>home machine (F). F can access A's shares but for some reason, most of
>the time, it can't access B's shares. F can ping B fine. B can access
>shares I create on F.
>
>C, B & F are on the same unmanaged switch with a single cat 5 cable
>going form that switch to the router that is acting as DHCP server. A
>is plugged into the router. I created shares on C which is another
>home machine. F can access C's shares no problem.
>
>But again, there's something about B and / or F that keeps F from
>reliably accessing B's shares. After a reboot the connection to the
>shares works OK for a couple/few minutes, then drops out for a few
>minutes, comes back for a minute or 2 then drops off again. AGAIN, I
>CAN PING B FROM F ALL THE TIME AND F FROM B all the time. It's a
>windows networking fluke.
>
>I've tried turing off and turning on the windows firewall on either and
>both machines
>I've swapped ports on the switch
>I've replaced the switch
>I've connected the 2 machines with a crossover cable and get the same
>symptons (they default to 169.x.x.x IP addresses for this. They
>usually get 192.168.1.0/24 IP addresses.
>I;ve run winsockxpfix on both machines.
>I've run LSPfix on both machines and there's no unuaul LSPs
>I've changed machine names on both machines.
>All machines show the same info (other than IP, but they are in the
>same subnet) when I do ipconfig /all. all machines are DHCP getting
>their info from the linksys router
>
>
>Again, B's shares can be accessed reliably from all the other machines.
> It's only F that has a problem connecting to B's shares only. It can
>connect to A and the other machines reliably. Everyone (including F &
>B) can ping everyone consistently.
>
>Any ideas?

Let's look at "browstat status", "ipconfig /all", "net config server" and "net
config workstation" from Computers A, B, and F, so we can diagnose the problem.
Read this article, and linked articles, and follow instructions precisely
(download browstat!). Do this when B and F can ping each other:
<http://nitecruzr.blogspot.com/2005/05/troubleshooting-network-neighborhood.html#AskingForHelp>
http://nitecruzr.blogspot.com/2005/0...#AskingForHelp

--
Cheers,
Chuck, MS-MVP [Windows - Networking]
http://nitecruzr.blogspot.com/
Paranoia is not a problem, when it's a normal response from experience.
My email is AT DOT
actual address pchuck mvps org.