Computer Management Error on Home Network

[John C. Pearson]

ERROR: Computer \\<ComputerName> cannot be managed. The network path was
not found.
Choose "Connect to another computer" from the Action menu to manage a
different computer.

OBJECTIVE: I'm trying to setup my home network so that I can perform
management functions on my other computers. There are no servers in my
network environment. The network is p2p joined by a router.

HARDWARE:

Box 1: Win2K
Box 2: Win2K
Box 3: WinXP
Box 4: WinXP

Every article I've read on this so far has a server in the scenario -
Since my network does not, I'm not sure what does and does not apply to
me.

Assistance appreciated.

John

 

[Rob Elder, MVP-Networking]

You can manage these remotely in a peer to peer environment. Sounds like a
name resolution issue. Test this by using the IP address of the remote PC
instead of the computername.

 

[John C. Pearson]

Rob,

I tried to use the IP but no go - ERROR: "Cannot connect to the computer
<192.168.x.x>. The error was:
The network path was not found."

Here is some more information that I failed to give on the original
post:

I can ping the WinXP computer - both by name and IP (tried this again
after attempting to manage by IP)
I can see the XP computer with "net view" and "My Network Places"
I can access the shared folder on the XP computer and all of the
documents contained within
I can successfully connect between the two w/MS Netmeeting, share
desktop and take complete control of the XP box from Win2k.

I still canNOT conduct a "net send" between the two boxes (2k and XP)
(The messenger service is started on both machines)
The error is:

An error occurred while sending a message to <computer name>
The message alias could not be found on the network.
More help is available by typing NET HELPMSG 2273.
(This has been going on a long time...I'm about "over it" as far as
figuring out what is wrong)

Maybe the two problems are related?

John

 

[Rob Elder, MVP-Networking]

Any firewall software running on the PC your trying to connect to?

 

[John C. Pearson]

Rob,

Yes - Zone Alarm - but I've disabled them on both sides and tried
everything we've discussed and still no go.

John