Can access other PC by IP, but not by UNC name

[Charles Blaquière]

My home network has two XP Pro machines, Tinman and Charlotte. Charlotte has
the IP address 192.168.0.2. On Tinman, my main machine, I can ping Charlotte
both by name and by IP address. Windows Explorer, however, is a different
story. I can enter "\\192.168.0.2" and see the contents of the other PC just
fine; but, if I enter "\\charlotte", I get the dreaded message "\\charlotte
The device cannot recognize the command."

Thinking it's a browser issue, I ran "browstat status" and got the following
results:
__________

TINMAN:

Status for domain 1912 on transport \Device\NwlnkNb
Browsing is NOT active on domain.
Master name cannot be determined from GetAdapterStatus.


Status for domain 1912 on transport
\Device\NetBT_Tcpip_{B53F1853-2635-4C02-8FB6
-7DD39C211231}
Browsing is active on domain.
Master browser name is: TINMAN
Master browser is running build 2600
2 backup servers retrieved from master TINMAN
\\CHARLOTTE
\\TINMAN
There are 2 servers in domain 1912 on transport
\Device\NetBT_Tcpip_{B53F185
3-2635-4C02-8FB6-7DD39C211231}
There are 1 domains in domain 1912 on transport
\Device\NetBT_Tcpip_{B53F185
3-2635-4C02-8FB6-7DD39C211231}


Status for domain 1912 on transport \Device\NwlnkIpx
Browsing is NOT active on domain.
Master name cannot be determined from GetAdapterStatus.
__________

CHARLOTTE:

Status for domain 1912 on transport
\Device\NetBT_Tcpip_{77293F49-E5F7-42CB-9107
-EFA17A1EEC78}
Browsing is active on domain.
Master browser name is: TINMAN
Could not open key in registry, error = 5 Unable to determine build
of br
owser master: 5
\\\\TINMAN . Version:05.01 Flags: 51403 NT POTENTIAL MASTER
2 backup servers retrieved from master TINMAN
\\CHARLOTTE
\\TINMAN
There are 2 servers in domain 1912 on transport
\Device\NetBT_Tcpip_{77293F4
9-E5F7-42CB-9107-EFA17A1EEC78}
There are 1 domains in domain 1912 on transport
\Device\NetBT_Tcpip_{77293F4
9-E5F7-42CB-9107-EFA17A1EEC78}
__________

Right away, I'm not too keen on that "Could not open key in registry, error
= 5" message on Charlotte. How can I resolve this browser problem? Thanks.

 

[Ovidiu Popa]

Doublecheck if the built in firewall is disabled on both machines.
Run ipconfig /all on both machines and repost the results.

Ovidiu Popa
MVP

 

[Charles Blaquière]

Doublecheck if the built in firewall is disabled on both machines.
Run ipconfig /all on both machines and repost the results.

The Windows firewall is disabled on both machines.
They are both running ZoneAlarm Pro, however.

On Tinman, ZA reports my home network (192.168.0.0, subnet mask
255.255.255.0) is in the Trusted zone; the zone's security setting is set to
medium (meaning all ports to this zone are open by default), with several
maximum-level exceptions in the Custom window:
- "allow broadcast/multicast" is checked.
- allow UDP port 6257 (incoming & outgoing)
- allow incoming TCP ports 47, 50-51, 500, 1723, 3389, 5766, 6699
- allow outgoing TCP ports 1723, 3389

On Charlotte, ZA reports my home network (192.168.0.0, subnet mask
255.255.255.0) is in the Trusted zone; the zone's security setting is set to
medium (meaning all ports to this zone are open by default), with several
maximum-level exceptions in the Custom window:
- "allow broadcast/multicast" is checked.
- allow outgoing DNS (UDP port 53)
- allow outgoing DHCP (UDP port 67)

On Tinman, ipconfig /all reports: (some entries have been [deleted])

Windows IP Configuration

Host Name . . . . . . . . . . . . : TinMan
Primary Dns Suffix . . . . . . . :
Node Type . . . . . . . . . . . . : Unknown
IP Routing Enabled. . . . . . . . : Yes
WINS Proxy Enabled. . . . . . . . : Yes

Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection 2:

Connection-specific DNS Suffix . : bloor.phub.net.cable.rogers.com
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : NVIDIA nForce MCP Networking
Controller
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : [deleted]
Dhcp Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : Yes
Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes
IP Address. . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.0.5
Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0
Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.0.1
DHCP Server . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.0.1
DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . : 24.153.23.66
24.153.22.67
Lease Obtained. . . . . . . . . . : Wednesday, June 16, 2004
11:30:57 AM

Lease Expires . . . . . . . . . . : Saturday, June 19, 2004 11:30:57
AM

On Charlotte, ipconfig /all reports: (some entries have been [deleted])

Windows IP Configuration

Host Name . . . . . . . . . . . . : Charlotte
Primary Dns Suffix . . . . . . . :
Node Type . . . . . . . . . . . . : Unknown
IP Routing Enabled. . . . . . . . : Yes
WINS Proxy Enabled. . . . . . . . : Yes

Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection:

Connection-specific DNS Suffix . : bloor.phub.net.cable.rogers.com
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : SOHOware 10/100 PCI Network
Adapter
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : [deleted]
Dhcp Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : Yes
Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes
IP Address. . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.0.2
Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0
Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.0.1
DHCP Server . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.0.1
DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . : 24.153.23.66
24.153.22.67
Lease Obtained. . . . . . . . . . : June 16, 2004 11:22:12 AM
Lease Expires . . . . . . . . . . : June 19, 2004 11:22:12 AM