Can't set up file sharing

[Robin]

I'm trying to redo my network to fix previous problems. I
have a Linksys BEFW11S4 wireless router. In my previous
network; my two XP machines connected wirelessly to the
router. Both connected to the internet fine, but I was
never able to set up file sharing between them. Each PC had
an XBox that it shared it's internet connection with. Both
XBox's connected with the internet fine, but could not
system link together. Last night I moved the router to a
more central location in the house and ran ethernet directly
to the router for both PC's and both XBox's. All have good
internet connections. The XBox's can now system link, and
can also host games after I configured the router for DMZ
hosting for each of them. Both PC's were able to share
files. Today they can not. No settings had been changed on
either PC or the router. (I did the DMZ hosting thing
today, after discovering the file sharing problem) I've
rerun the network wizard after disabling the wireless
adaptors on each PC. The error I am getting is MS home is
not accessible. You might not have permission to use this
network resource. Contact the administrator to find out if
you have access permission. The list of servers for this
workgroup is currently unavailable. The computers have
dissimilar names, but I have noticed that one XP machine ( a
Media Center 2004 machine) has a period at the end of the
network name. I did not put it there, and each time I try
to change the name the period reappears. Oh, one more
thing; before I disabled the wireless adapters and reran the
wizard on both machines, neither pc could access the other's
files. After doing this, the non- MCE2004 machine can
access the MCE machine, but the MCE still has the same
error.

Any ideas on how to solve this issue? It's not a major
issue since the MCE machine is the library. It just bugs me
that it doesn't work, since I did want to set up a network
printer on the other machine.

Please put advice in layman's terms as much as possible.

Thanks,
Robin

 

[Chuck]

I'm trying to redo my network to fix previous problems. I
have a Linksys BEFW11S4 wireless router. In my previous
network; my two XP machines connected wirelessly to the
router. Both connected to the internet fine, but I was
never able to set up file sharing between them. Each PC had
an XBox that it shared it's internet connection with. Both
XBox's connected with the internet fine, but could not
system link together. Last night I moved the router to a
more central location in the house and ran ethernet directly
to the router for both PC's and both XBox's. All have good
internet connections. The XBox's can now system link, and
can also host games after I configured the router for DMZ
hosting for each of them. Both PC's were able to share
files. Today they can not. No settings had been changed on
either PC or the router. (I did the DMZ hosting thing
today, after discovering the file sharing problem) I've
rerun the network wizard after disabling the wireless
adaptors on each PC. The error I am getting is MS home is
not accessible. You might not have permission to use this
network resource. Contact the administrator to find out if
you have access permission. The list of servers for this
workgroup is currently unavailable. The computers have
dissimilar names, but I have noticed that one XP machine ( a
Media Center 2004 machine) has a period at the end of the
network name. I did not put it there, and each time I try
to change the name the period reappears. Oh, one more
thing; before I disabled the wireless adapters and reran the
wizard on both machines, neither pc could access the other's
files. After doing this, the non- MCE2004 machine can
access the MCE machine, but the MCE still has the same
error.

Any ideas on how to solve this issue? It's not a major
issue since the MCE machine is the library. It just bugs me
that it doesn't work, since I did want to set up a network
printer on the other machine.

Please put advice in layman's terms as much as possible.

Thanks,
Robin

Robin,

A browser conflict between the non-MCE2004 computer and the MCE2004 computer
could indeed cause inability for one computer to access the other.

The Microsoft Browstat program will show us what browsers you have in your
domain / workgroup, at any time.
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=188305

You can download Browstat from either:
<http://www.dynawell.com/reskit/microsoft/win2000/browstat.zip>
<http://rescomp.stanford.edu/staff/manual/rcc/tools/browstat.zip>

Browstat is very small (40K), and needs no install. Just unzip the downloaded
file, copy browstat.exe to any folder in the Path, and run it from a command
window, by "browstat status". Make sure all computers give the same result.

For more information about the browser subsystem (very intricate), see:
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=188001
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=188305
<http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/winntas/deploy/prodspecs/ntbrowse.mspx>

If no help there, provide ipconfig information for each computer, so we start
diagnosing your problems.
Start - Run - "cmd". Type "ipconfig /all >c:\ipconfig.txt" into the command
window - Open c:\ipconfig.txt in Notepad, make sure that Format - Word Wrap is
NOT checked!, copy and paste entire contents into your next post. Identify
operating system (by name, version, and SP level) with each ipconfig listing.

--
Cheers,
Chuck
Paranoia comes from experience - and is not necessarily a bad thing.
My email is AT DOT
actual address pchuck sonic net.