Can't connect to Vista In Workgroup

  • Thread starter Thread starter GaryDean
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GaryDean

I'm having problems and inconsistent behavior in my 5 machine workgroup that
involves my new Vista machine. I have a new laptop with 64bit Vista
Ultimate. The other machines (XP Pro and Server 2003) can usually see it
but not always. Today two machines Can't see it and one can. Error is:
machinename is not accessible. You might not have permission . blah blah
blah

Yesterday that same computer could see the vista machine just fine.

On the vista machine the firewall is OFF (I run a firewall on my router).
What can I do to eliminate this problem.
Thanks,
Gary
 
GaryDean said:
I'm having problems and inconsistent behavior in my 5 machine workgroup
that involves my new Vista machine. I have a new laptop with 64bit Vista
Ultimate. The other machines (XP Pro and Server 2003) can usually see it
but not always. Today two machines Can't see it and one can. Error is:
machinename is not accessible. You might not have permission . blah blah
blah

Yesterday that same computer could see the vista machine just fine.

On the vista machine the firewall is OFF (I run a firewall on my router).
What can I do to eliminate this problem.
Thanks,
Gary
Click to expand...

Assuming you have checked all of the properties in network & sharing:
private network, passwords off, network discovery on, public folder sharing
on, printer sharing on, etc I would double check your router firewall. I had
all my settings correct but I still could not get the XP machine to talk to
the vista machine. It turned out to be a firewall setting. Try disabling the
firewall in the router to see if that allows you to connect. Try also
pinging the IP address of the other machines.
 
Two things come to mind....

Firstly, are you sure they all have the same workgroup name? This may seem
a silly suggestion, but I was struggling with slow and erratic networking
until I realised that the default workgroup name for Vista is WORKGROUP,
whereas lots of XP machines have the workgroup name set to MSHOME.

Secondly, wireless networking can cause all sorts of odd problems like this
if the link isn't very good. Could that be it?

Sorry - can't think of anything else off hand.

SteveT
 
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