Network not working

[Kubla]

I am running Win 2000 and I have a wireless "G" network and for some reason
my network is not right. I can access the internet on both of my networked
computers but I cannot access the networked computers including the local
and remote one from my desktop.

When I click on My Network Places on my desktop, I have no "computers near
me" and when I
click on my network (workgroup "c1a321") I get an error message that says:

{c1a321 is not accessible.
The list of servers for this workgroup is not currently available. }

When I try and access my network from my remote computer I can access the
network and when I click on my network I get a message that I cannot access
the desktop and maybe I need to have permission and to contact my
Administrator. Also, the message says "the network path was not found." I
can access the remote computer itself, so I know the problem is with my
local desktop.

My router is accessible from both of my computers and everything is setup
the same as when everything was working right but I still cannot access
either the local computer or networked computer from each other. The router
sees both computers and both computers can see the router.

When I run "netstat -r" on my desktop, the route table shows my desktop as
192.168.1.108 but the Linksys routing DHCP clients table shows my desktop as
192.168.1.109. My remote computer (when I run "netstat -r") shows my remote
IP address the same as when I run the Linksys routing DHCP clients table.
This verifies my observation that the problem is only with my desktop.

By the way, I do have McAfee firewall and I tried all this with the firewall
disabled and my problem was still there. Also, I checked my Computer Browse
service and it is on Automatic and working I think.
..netBEUI is enabled on my desktop. My remote machine is running WinXP pro.

I did look though the posts on this forum and found nothing to solve my
problem.

Does anyone have a clue as to what I might look for or what my problem might
be?

Thanks.

 

[John John]

Do you have identical user names and passwords setup on each pc?

John

 

[Kubla]

Yes, John, I do. And thanks for the reply.
They have been that way for around three years. Just all of a sudden my
desktop won't let me access the network.

Don

 

[John John]

Hmmm... Any error messages in the Event Viewer?

What happens when you do NET VIEW?

John

 

[Kubla]

I get the message "There are no entries in the list."

 

[John John]

It sounds like there are no file or print shares at all. Do NET SHARE
and see what happens. Did you by any chance remove all the shares on
your drives/folders and printers? Did you disable file and print
sharing? Make sure your firewall isn't blocking anything, turn it off
and see what happens. Other than that I think this could be a Master
Browser issue, you either have no machine set to be Master Browser or
both are set to be. You didn't tell us if there is an Event ID and
error message in the event viewer, if something is there it may pinpoint
the problem, post the information here.

John

 

[Kubla]

John, I did NET SHARE and the message was: "There are no entries in the

 

[John John]

Are you sure that your shares didn't somehow get deleted or changed?
Select a folder you want to share then right click>Sharing and select
sharing to see if you can add a new share.

The Master Browser is set at the registry key:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Browser\Parameters

The 2 entries to verify are:
IsDomainMaster
MaintainServerList

The values can be:

MaintainServerList:
False - Workstation will not be a browser
True - The workstation may be a browser or backup browser.
Auto - The workstation may become master, backup, or potential browser.

IsDomainMaster:
True - Is the master browser
False - Is not the master browser
Auto: Resolve through browser elections (default)

The values can also be Yes, No, Auto or 0, 1, Auto.

MaintainServerList: The value can be set to Auto on both machines,
usually this causes no problems, this is the default value on W2K. It
can be True on both machines and usually causes no problems. It can
also be True on one machine and False or Auto on the other. It cannot
be False on both.

The IsDomainMaster key is where Master Browser issues can occur. There
is a "Pecking Order" involved here. If both operating system systems
are W2K then there is no "Natural Pecking Order" and a fight of sorts
can happen between the 2 computers as there can only be one Master
Browser. This Browser Election fight happens because W2K does not want
to cede to the other. Now, for obvious reasons both machines cannot be
set to False. Setting both machines to True causes a conflict as the
machines fight over browser election and neither can win as there is no
noble operating system. Setting both machines to Auto can cause the
same election fight. Setting one machine to True and the other to Auto
usually works and if not then set one machine to True and the other one
to False.

The reason for this browser election is quite simple. There needs to be
one Master Browser. In a 2 computer network like yours it doesn't
matter so much which is master because both machines need to be powered
on in order to have a network. If you have more than 2 machines then
one of the machines can be off and the other ones can still be on the
network, but there needs to be a Master Browser, if the machine that is
designated as the Master Browser is turned off then one of the other
machine takes over via browser election. The problem happens when no
machine can take control or all want to take control. See here for more
information on how that works:

Chapter 3 - Windows NT Browser Service
http://www.microsoft.com/resources/documentation/windowsnt/4/server/reskit/en-us/net/chptr3.mspx

(It's an NT Server document but applies to W2K).

John

 

[Kubla]

John John

Are you sure that your shares didn't somehow get deleted or changed? Select

a folder you want to share then right

click Sharing and select sharing to see if you can add a new share,<

I selected a couple of folders and added new shares. Problem remained.

The reason for this browser election is quite simple. There needs to be one

Master Browser. In a 2 computer network

like yours it doesn't matter so much which is master because both machines

need to be powered on in order to have a

network. If you have more than 2 machines then one of the machines can be

off and the other ones can still be on the

network, but there needs to be a Master Browser, if the machine that is

designated as the Master Browser is turned off

then one of the other machine takes over via browser election. The problem

happens when no machine can take control

or all want to take control. See here for more information on how that

works:<

I spent the last couple of days going over and over the information you sent
and that did not solve my problem. When I
looked at the registry key for MaintainServerList it was set on FALSE. I
changed it to AUTO and things remained the
same. Ditto with IsDomainMaster. It was set to AUTO.
I did notice that when I click on My Network Places, new shared drive icons
appeared. When I click on Computers
Near Me I get a text icon with blank text file. This makes me think
something is corrupt.
When I click on Entire Network, Microsoft Windows Network appears. When I
click on it, my network shows up after
about 30 seconds. When I click on my network, a blank page shows up after
about 40 seconds. Then I can go to search
and I can access my computer and all the folders.My local computer is still
invisible to my remote one.

 

[John John]

First make sure that you have the fewest number of protocols possible,
having umneeded protocols doesn't help matters and just bogs down the
network.

Then go in the registry on both machines and delete the folder key
{D6277990-4C6A-11CF-8D87-00AA0060F5BF}

To do that go to:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\RemoteComputer\NameSpace

Select this key:- (select the whole folder)

{D6277990-4C6A-11CF-8D87-00AA0060F5BF}

and delete it.

John

 

[Kubla]

Well, John, I deleted the Key as you suggested and it did not correct the
problem. My remote still cannot access my local machine and I get a message
that Maybe I don't have permission and to see my administrator. I still
don't understand that as everything was working and I changed nothing.
BTW, what was that registry entry that I deleted? Could you tell me what it
was supposed to do?
Thank you again for the time and help.

 

[John John]

{D6277990-4C6A-11CF-8D87-00AA0060F5BF} is an Explorer junction point.
For some reason or other often it just seems to slow down or prevent
network browsing on peer networks. It's nothing new, removing the key
is a common recommendation, just do a search on the net for the key and
you will get hits on this. I'm not 100% sure but I think that the key
has vague reference to Task Scheduler, when you try to browse the
network Explorer is looking for it for no apparent reason.

At this point I'm just about out of ideas. All seems to point to you
not having necessary permissions to the machine. In your initial post
you mentioned that you had NetBEUI enabled, that could be causing
problems. You should have the FEWEST necessary protocols enabled.
NetBEUI is a remnant from Windows for Workgroups 3.1 and is hardly
needed in todays networks. It is non-routable and could be causing a
conflict with your wireless router.

John

 

[Kubla]

Well, John. I finally got things fixed. What a relief.

Put two laptops on my wireless network and they were able to see each other
when my desktop (local) machine was off. When I turned on my local machine,
the two laptops could not access the networks. From this I surmised that
somehow my local machine was broadcasting something that wouldn't allow
access to the network. I turned off my McAfee Firewall and things stayed
the same.
I then just uninstalled my McAfee Firewall and lo and behold everything
started working again.

So it WAS my firewall that had somehow gotten corrupt and was not working
right. I reinstalled it and things are now the way they used to be.

I still have a minor problem: My "Computers Near Me" still has a text icon
and when I click on it, it is a blank text file. By any chance would you
happen to know how I can get my Computers Near Me back?

I want to thank you for taking the time with me to resolve this problem.
Even though the obvious was looking me in the face, I'm glad I went through
those exercises with you and I really learned a lot from your help.

Thanks very much again and have a great Holiday Season.

 

[John John]

Glad to see you got it fixed. Blasted McAffee! The "Computers Near Me"
is a shortcut, it may be corrupted. The problem might be fixed with an
adaptation of the instructions provided here:
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;257902

Thank you for letting me know how you finally got it fixed and a happy
holiday season to you too.

John

 

[Kubla]

Got it fixed, John. I used method #1. Thanks again.

 

[John John]

sweet...

John

Got it fixed, John. I used method #1. Thanks again.