Lost connection to LAN, but...

[Guest]

....but still can get out to the internet and retrieve email from our SMTP
service. And, apparently, still get to internet newsgroups.

We run a small P2P LAN for our firm. Recently, we've had a spate of
occurances where one machine or another will have trouble seeing other
computers on the LAN, or can't connect to the LAN at all. On booting up
everything appears normal, but going into Windows Explorer and clicking on
My Network Places will cause endless frustration. Sometimes, My Network
Places\Entire Network\Microsoft Windows Network\OurLAN will show up in
Windows Explorer, but clicking on OurLAN only causes the computer to spin
for a while, then give a warning popup that the network path was not found
and that the machine may not have permission to access the OurLAN network
(never mind that it only had it a few minutes earlier).

Other times, OurLAN won't even show up in Windows Explorer. Only those
folders set to be shared on the affected machine show up in My Network
Places; all other previously open locations on the LAN are no longer listed,
or able to be accessed. Frankly, I don't know what to do about this; in the
past it seems to clear up on its own, but then this time we've got one
machine (mine) that has been unable to see anything on OurLAN for several
days.

I've checked the network settings on this machine (all seems to look normal,
but then I'm no networking expert, either). I've checked repeatedly for
malware, both on my machine and on others on the LAN (none of the scans have
found anything). In short, given the lack of experience and expertise
within our very NON-IT firm: WE IZ STUCK.

Any advice would be appreciated. TIA.

 

[Robert L [MS-MVP]]

it could be the master browser issue. check this case,

computer browser Can't see any or only some computers in My Network Places
One computer screw up the network Re-register NetBIOS name ...
www.chicagotech.net/browser.htm

Bob Lin, MS-MVP, MCSE & CNE
How to Setup Windows, Network, VPN & Remote Access on http://www.HowToNetworking.com
Networking, Internet, Routing, VPN Troubleshooting on http://www.ChicagoTech.net
...but still can get out to the internet and retrieve email from our SMTP
service. And, apparently, still get to internet newsgroups.

We run a small P2P LAN for our firm. Recently, we've had a spate of
occurances where one machine or another will have trouble seeing other
computers on the LAN, or can't connect to the LAN at all. On booting up
everything appears normal, but going into Windows Explorer and clicking on
My Network Places will cause endless frustration. Sometimes, My Network
Places\Entire Network\Microsoft Windows Network\OurLAN will show up in
Windows Explorer, but clicking on OurLAN only causes the computer to spin
for a while, then give a warning popup that the network path was not found
and that the machine may not have permission to access the OurLAN network
(never mind that it only had it a few minutes earlier).

Other times, OurLAN won't even show up in Windows Explorer. Only those
folders set to be shared on the affected machine show up in My Network
Places; all other previously open locations on the LAN are no longer listed,
or able to be accessed. Frankly, I don't know what to do about this; in the
past it seems to clear up on its own, but then this time we've got one
machine (mine) that has been unable to see anything on OurLAN for several
days.

I've checked the network settings on this machine (all seems to look normal,
but then I'm no networking expert, either). I've checked repeatedly for
malware, both on my machine and on others on the LAN (none of the scans have
found anything). In short, given the lack of experience and expertise
within our very NON-IT firm: WE IZ STUCK.

Any advice would be appreciated. TIA.

 

[Guest]

Thanks for the link. The issues raised on the site probably is the root of the occasional problems we've been having, because our network is indeed a mixed computer LAN (98SE, ME and XP Pro) and mostly--but not always--it's the XP Pro computers that loses the LAN. Unfortunately, none of the strategies listed on the website worked for this specific problem my computer is having. Despite trying all these tools, my 'puter still wouldn't find let alone connect to the LAN.

However, when discussing this with an acquaintance of mine, he suggested that the issue could be with the firewall software we use. After fooling around with the network settings within the firewall, we (woo-hoo) got the computer to find and connect to the LAN again. We recently updated to the most recent version of ZoneAlarm Pro, and the best guess is that during the re-install of ZA Pro on my machine something changed, though what it was we don't have a clue of. The fix was to add a range of IP addresses (matching those we use on our LAN) into ZA's Trusted Zone. I never needed them before, but apparently ZA and my computer got together and decided it was time that I DID need them. One of the other XP Pro machines also needed this added to ZA (though his problem occurred in an earlier version of ZA; it would've been NICE if that problem solver had told me about that earlier), but the others still do not, regardless of ZA version. Go figure.

Only 4 business days of (slow)down time, plus two over the past working weekend. And none of it billable. Life with computers (sigh).

it could be the master browser issue. check this case,

computer browser Can't see any or only some computers in My Network Places
One computer screw up the network Re-register NetBIOS name ...
www.chicagotech.net/browser.htm

Bob Lin, MS-MVP, MCSE & CNE
How to Setup Windows, Network, VPN & Remote Access on http://www.HowToNetworking.com
Networking, Internet, Routing, VPN Troubleshooting on http://www.ChicagoTech.net
...but still can get out to the internet and retrieve email from our SMTP
service. And, apparently, still get to internet newsgroups.

We run a small P2P LAN for our firm. Recently, we've had a spate of
occurances where one machine or another will have trouble seeing other
computers on the LAN, or can't connect to the LAN at all. On booting up
everything appears normal, but going into Windows Explorer and clicking on
My Network Places will cause endless frustration. Sometimes, My Network
Places\Entire Network\Microsoft Windows Network\OurLAN will show up in
Windows Explorer, but clicking on OurLAN only causes the computer to spin
for a while, then give a warning popup that the network path was not found
and that the machine may not have permission to access the OurLAN network
(never mind that it only had it a few minutes earlier).

Other times, OurLAN won't even show up in Windows Explorer. Only those
folders set to be shared on the affected machine show up in My Network
Places; all other previously open locations on the LAN are no longer listed,
or able to be accessed. Frankly, I don't know what to do about this; in the
past it seems to clear up on its own, but then this time we've got one
machine (mine) that has been unable to see anything on OurLAN for several
days.

I've checked the network settings on this machine (all seems to look normal,
but then I'm no networking expert, either). I've checked repeatedly for
malware, both on my machine and on others on the LAN (none of the scans have
found anything). In short, given the lack of experience and expertise
within our very NON-IT firm: WE IZ STUCK.

Any advice would be appreciated. TIA.