One machine inaccessible

[RipperT]

One of my computers has suddenly become unaccessible to the network.

Laptop #1 XP SP2
Laptop #2 Vista Home Premium
Laptop #3 Windows 7 Home Premium
Desktop #1 Windows 7 Enterprise
Desktop #2 XP SP 2

All connected and working previously - suddenly the XP Desktop says "MSHOME
is not available. You might not have permission to use this network
resource. Contact the administrator of this server to find out if you have
access permissions." when I click My Network Places.

Then it says (never seen this one before): "No more connections can be made
to this remote computer at this time because there are already as many
connections as the computer can accept."

Don't know what to make of that. I've recycled power to the router and modem
and rebooted. Router config page shows one entry for each machine except
desktop #1 shows two entries.

Turned off all firewalls and can ping each machine from each machine.
Installed Windows updates. What should I do?

Thanks,

Rip

 

[Bob Lin \(MS-MVP\)]

I am not sure all of these are one issue. Let us focus on "not accessible"
first. If you run net view command on the XP desktop, do you receive "MSHOME
is not available" message? If yes, check if the computer browser service is
running and make sure NetBIOS over TCP/IP is enabled. Also, are all
computers in the same workgroup name MSHOME?.

--
Bob Lin, Microsoft-MVP, MCSE & CNE
Networking, Internet, Routing, VPN Troubleshooting on
http://www.ChicagoTech.net
How to Setup Windows, Network, VPN & Remote Access on
http://www.HowToNetworking.com

 

[RipperT]

I am unfamiliar with the net view command, but I entered:

net view \\computername

at command prompt and hit enter and got this back:

Desktop Disk
HPPhotos5180 Print
Printer Print
My Documents Disk
SharedDocs Disk
HP Photosmart c5100 series
Quicken PDF Printer

No error msg saying MSHOME is not available. All machines are in the group
MSHOME.

Thanks!

Rip

 

[Bob Lin \(MS-MVP\)]

Assuming you get "MSHOME is not available" message when click MSHOHE in XP
Desktop, run "net view" (only). If you don't receive any errors, go back to
My Network Places, click MSHOME again. Also posting the result of ipconfig
/all on the xp desktop may help.

--
Bob Lin, Microsoft-MVP, MCSE & CNE
Networking, Internet, Routing, VPN Troubleshooting on
http://www.ChicagoTech.net
How to Setup Windows, Network, VPN & Remote Access on
http://www.HowToNetworking.com

 

[Ripper]

Net view does not produce any errors. When I click My Network Places on all
the machines, all the workgroup computers appear, and I can view all the
shares on each, except the XP desktop. On that one, noen of the shares will
open (except the printers), giving an error like "\\machinename\desktop is
not available. You might not have permissions..." All of these shares were
previously available.
thanks again,
Rip

 

[Jack [MVP-Networking]]

Hi
When configured on peer-to-peer Network.Win 7 has three types of Sharing
configurations.
Home Network = Works only between Win 7 computers. This type of
configuration makes it very easy to Entry Level Users to start Network
sharing.
Work Network = Basically similar to the previous methods of sharing that let
you control what, how, and to whom folders would be shared with.
Public Sharing = Public Network (like Internet cafe) to reduce security
risks.
The Work Network is the one that most of us are going (and need) to use.
Win 7 Work Network's Sharing settings are in principle similar to Vista's
configuration (some menu in locations in Win 7 might be in different place,
and look a little different, but it should not be a problem for a compute to
adopt)
So, maybe this can Help.
Make sure that the Software Firewall on each computer allows free local
traffic. If you use 3rd party Firewall On, Vista/XP Native Firewall should
be Off, and the active Firewall has to adjusted to your Network IP numbers
on what is some time called the Trusted Zone (consult your 3rd Party
Firewall instructions.
General example, http://www.ezlan.net/faq#trustet
Windows 7 Work Network,
http://www.onecomputerguy.com/windows7/windows7_sharing.htm
Vista File and Printer Sharing-
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb727037.aspx
Windows XP File Sharing -
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;304040
Printer Sharing XP -
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/networking/expert/honeycutt_july2.mspx
Windows Native Firewall setting for Sharing XP -
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/875357
Windows XP patch for Sharing with Vista (Not need for XP-SP3) -
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/922120
When finished with the setting of the system it is advisable to Reboot all
the hardware including Router and all computers involved.
Jack (MS, MVP-Networking).

 

[RipperT]

I appreciate the help, but there are no problems with the Win 7 machines;
the problem lies only the XP SP3 desktop. ('The MSHOME is not available'
error is now gone). All machines can see each other and each other's shares,
but the XP desktop's shares cannot be accessed by any machines, including
the XP Desktop. XP Desktop has 2 printers which ARE accessible, and 3 shares
which generate the error \\machine_name\share_name is not accessible. I have
rebooted all machines and router and modem many times...

How can a machine not access it's own shares via My Network Places? Someone
please help, I need access to this computer over the network.

Thank you,

Ripper

 

[RipperT]

Followed the instructions here
http://www.pcdoctor-guide.com/wordpress/?p=174 for registry adjustment of
the IRPStackSize, rebooted, re-ran network setup wiz, rebooted. Happiness.

Ripper