My computers can't see each other on the net

[Guest]

I'm running XP pro on my desktop wired to a Belkin Modem/Router, and XP home
on the laptop which is wireless to the Router. Both machines have perfect
access to the internet, but I can't see either machine from the other, or
share any files, although I could a few weeks ago before my daughter used the
laptop!!.
I can ping both machines from each other using the ip address, but not using
computer names.
Workgroups are named the same on both machines, and computer names are
different. I have the same password protected accounts on both machines.
If I try to view workgroup computers in My Network Places, the desktop shows
itself, but the laptop comes up with an error message suggesting
"Workgroup is not accessible. You might not have permission to use this
network resource. Contact the adninistrator of this server to find out if you
have access permissions The list of network servers for this workgroup is not
currently available"
I'm logged on as an administrator so I assume that isn't the problem.
Anyone got any ideas?

 

[Karl Winters]

I just came out of fixing the same problem. Make sure you have Simple File
Sharing enabled on both computers. And if you have firewalls in use (such as
Zone Alarm) make sure all firewalls have an opening to the network IP of each
other (or set up a range of IPs). That fixed that little issue for me.

 

[Lorien]

The most likely cause of the problem is Windows Firewall or ICF or a third
party firewall that's blocking access. Try disabling that (especially on
the PC that isn't directly connected to the internet because the firewall
shouldn't be necessary on that machine and it's a known problem with some
network file sharing).

The fact that you're getting a message on the laptop saying that the
workgroup is not accessible means that you're making contact with it and
that it's not a matter of network connectivity (but perhaps one of
permissions). Make sure the computer that's rejecting the sharing is set up
to share the files/folders you're trying to access.

Although enable Simple File Sharing might solve your problem, that shouldn't
be necessary if you've set up proper sharing in a more normal way (and
simple file sharing prevents you from using NTFS permissions and other
security measures you might prefer to have).

 

[Guest]

Thanks for the advice, I had the Windows firewall and NIS personal firewall
enabled on both machines, plus the firewall within the Belkin Router. I've
disabled Windows Firewall on both machines, and ensured that NIS is
configured to allow ip adresses of the 2 machines to work. This has improved
things somewhat - on the laptop now it sees itself when I look for other
workgroup computers, but still neither machine can see the other.
I'm reluctant to disable firewalls completely on either machine, as I assume
because both connect directly through the modem/router to the internet, both
machines need their own firewall protection enabled.
Can you think of anything further?

 

[Chuck]

Thanks for the advice, I had the Windows firewall and NIS personal firewall
enabled on both machines, plus the firewall within the Belkin Router. I've
disabled Windows Firewall on both machines, and ensured that NIS is
configured to allow ip adresses of the 2 machines to work. This has improved
things somewhat - on the laptop now it sees itself when I look for other
workgroup computers, but still neither machine can see the other.
I'm reluctant to disable firewalls completely on either machine, as I assume
because both connect directly through the modem/router to the internet, both
machines need their own firewall protection enabled.
Can you think of anything further?

Pegasus,

Can you ping each computer by name now?

Start by looking for a browser conflict. The Microsoft Browstat program will
show us what browsers (I'm not talking about Internet Explorer here) 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 list the same master
browser.
For more information about the browser subsystem (very intricate), see:
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=188001
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=188305
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=231312
<http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/winntas/deploy/prodspecs/ntbrowse.mspx>
<http://www.microsoft.com/technet/archive/win95/w95brows.mspx>

The browser requires anonymous access, so look at registry key
[HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\Lsa], value restrictanonymous.
<http://www.microsoft.com/windows200...2000/techinfo/reskit/en-us/regentry/46688.asp>
<http://www.jsifaq.com/subf/tip2600/rh2625.htm>
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=246261
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=296403

For browsing to work (for each computer to be listed by a browser), each
computer must have a restrictanonymous value of "0".

The above articles refer to Windows 2000. Remember Win2K is NT V5.0, and WinXP
is NT V5.1.

Have you used the Registry Editor before? If not, it's a scary tool, but it's
pretty simple once you get used to it. Here are a couple articles that might
help:
<http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/...home/using/productdoc/en/tools_regeditors.asp>
<http://www.annoyances.org/exec/show/registry>

Just remember to backup the key (create a registry patch) for
[HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\Lsa] before making any changes, if
appropriate.

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

 

[Guest]

Chuck,
No success pinging by name, but i'm not certain i'm doing it right -
ping ****
where **** is the name of the other computer, and with a space between ping
and the name - ie replacing the ip address with the name, or should there be
\\ in there somewhere?

Thanks for the advice, I had the Windows firewall and NIS personal firewall
enabled on both machines, plus the firewall within the Belkin Router. I've
disabled Windows Firewall on both machines, and ensured that NIS is
configured to allow ip adresses of the 2 machines to work. This has improved
things somewhat - on the laptop now it sees itself when I look for other
workgroup computers, but still neither machine can see the other.
I'm reluctant to disable firewalls completely on either machine, as I assume
because both connect directly through the modem/router to the internet, both
machines need their own firewall protection enabled.
Can you think of anything further?

Pegasus,

Can you ping each computer by name now?

Start by looking for a browser conflict. The Microsoft Browstat program will
show us what browsers (I'm not talking about Internet Explorer here) 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 list the same master
browser.
For more information about the browser subsystem (very intricate), see:
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=188001
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=188305
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=231312
<http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/winntas/deploy/prodspecs/ntbrowse.mspx>
<http://www.microsoft.com/technet/archive/win95/w95brows.mspx>

The browser requires anonymous access, so look at registry key
[HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\Lsa], value restrictanonymous.
<http://www.microsoft.com/windows200...2000/techinfo/reskit/en-us/regentry/46688.asp>
<http://www.jsifaq.com/subf/tip2600/rh2625.htm>
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=246261
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=296403

For browsing to work (for each computer to be listed by a browser), each
computer must have a restrictanonymous value of "0".

The above articles refer to Windows 2000. Remember Win2K is NT V5.0, and WinXP
is NT V5.1.

Have you used the Registry Editor before? If not, it's a scary tool, but it's
pretty simple once you get used to it. Here are a couple articles that might
help:
<http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/...home/using/productdoc/en/tools_regeditors.asp>
<http://www.annoyances.org/exec/show/registry>

Just remember to backup the key (create a registry patch) for
[HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\Lsa] before making any changes, if
appropriate.

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

 

[Chuck]

Chuck,
No success pinging by name, but i'm not certain i'm doing it right -
ping ****
where **** is the name of the other computer, and with a space between ping
and the name - ie replacing the ip address with the name, or should there be
\\ in there somewhere?

Just "ping nameofcomputer" or "ping ipaddressofcomputer" - no "\\".

What exact error do you get when pinging by name?

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

 

[Guest]

Chuck,
I've run cmd to keep the window open, and pinged from that. If I ping the
name straight from the run window, nothing happens (or I'm too slow to read
it!!).
When I ping the laptop (acer) from desktop (StudyDesktop) I get "Ping
request could not find host acer. Please check the name and try again."
The same happens trying it from the desktop.
If I try to ping the acer from itself using the name, I get
"Pinging acer(192.168.2.2) with 32 bytes of date" and then the request times
out. Same if I try that on the desktop

 

[Chuck]

Chuck,
I've run cmd to keep the window open, and pinged from that. If I ping the
name straight from the run window, nothing happens (or I'm too slow to read
it!!).
When I ping the laptop (acer) from desktop (StudyDesktop) I get "Ping
request could not find host acer. Please check the name and try again."
The same happens trying it from the desktop.
If I try to ping the acer from itself using the name, I get
"Pinging acer(192.168.2.2) with 32 bytes of date" and then the request times
out. Same if I try that on the desktop

Name resolution problems are frequently caused by corruption of the LSP /
Winsock subsystem.
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=318584
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=811259

If XP RTM or Service Pack 1:
1. Backup and delete the following registry keys:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\Winsock
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\Winsock2
2. Reboot.
3. Open the network connections folder, right click your network connection, and
click Properties.
4. Click Install | Protocol | Add.
5. Click "Have Disk...", type "\windows\inf" in the box, and click OK.
6. Click "Internet Protocol (TCP/IP)", then click OK.
7. Reboot.

If XP SP2:
1. Start - Run - "cmd".
2. Type "netsh winsock reset catalog" into the command window.

Give LSP-Fix <http://www.cexx.org/lspfix.htm>, WinsockFix
<http://www.tacktech.com/display.cfm?ttid=257>, or WinsockXPFix
<http://www.spychecker.com/program/winsockxpfix.html> a shot.

If no help yet, reset TCP/IP.
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=299357

Start - Run - "cmd". Type "netsh int ip reset c:\netsh.txt" into the command
window.

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

 

[Lorien]

Perhaps you might consider connecting to the internet through one of the PCs
and using ICS to connect the other one. Then both won't be directly
connected and you can disable the firewall on the PC that isn't connected
directly. I feel certain that your problem is related to the firewalls
(especially if you're using Windows AND NIS AND the one on the Belkin Router
all together) - especially since you showed some improvement when you
performed a partial disabling.

 

[Guest]

Chuck,
I developed another problem and the laptop lost all internet connection, so
I removed NIS from it, and eventually got it back and working as normal.
I typed "netsh winsock reset catalog" into the command window on both
machines & rebooted both, but no success. Then I tried LSP-fix on both and
rebooted, but still no better.
Then came success, I ran WinsockFix on the desktop and having rebooted it,
now both machines can see each other and file/printer sharing is working.
Is it worth running WinsockFix and WinsockXPFix on both machines as well now
that they seem to be running? or should I quit while I'm ahead?

 

[Chuck]

Chuck,
I developed another problem and the laptop lost all internet connection, so
I removed NIS from it, and eventually got it back and working as normal.
I typed "netsh winsock reset catalog" into the command window on both
machines & rebooted both, but no success. Then I tried LSP-fix on both and
rebooted, but still no better.
Then came success, I ran WinsockFix on the desktop and having rebooted it,
now both machines can see each other and file/printer sharing is working.
Is it worth running WinsockFix and WinsockXPFix on both machines as well now
that they seem to be running? or should I quit while I'm ahead?

LSP-Fix, WinsockFix, and WinsockXPFIx are simply 3 different LSP / Winsock
repair tools. They only repair the problems that they can find. Each program,
along with the XP SP2 "netsh winsock reset catalog", appears to work at times
when one or more of the other 3 won't.

LSP / Winsock corruption seems to be such an amorphous condition that we haven't
really gotten a handle on it, but experiences like yours help us get a handle on
identifying when it's necessary.

If you have no problem now, then just enjoy the fact that you resolved the
problem that you did have. And be thankful for the creators of WinsockFix.

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

 

[Guest]

Lorien,
Thanks for your advice as well, having spoken to Belkin, they advise keeping
some form of software firewall running on both machines in addition to the
built in one on the router.
I've configured NIS on both to allow network communication, and disabled the
windows firewall, and it seems Ok at the moment.