My Network Places giving error

[S]

I have Windows XP Professional SP2 working on Pentium IV.
I have the following problem:
When I use My Network places to list the computers on my Local Area Network,
it sometimes lists 5 PCs, sometimes 20, and sometimes all the PCs on the
network (the network has more than 50 PCs in a single workgroup, and there
are about 7 workgroups). When it does not show any PC in a particular
workgroup, it gives an error message that "You dont have the permission to
view the workgroup..................." etc.
Also when I try to open a particular PC on the network, sometimes it opens
the shared folder on it, but often it does not and instead gives me the
message that "You dont have the permission to view......" etc.
As for the listing of workgroups, sometimes it lists all the wokgroups,
sometimes it lists only the a few of them, and sometimes it lists none of
the workgroups. I have tried to reformat my PC and re-install windows many
times and have updated all the patches from the windows update site, still
the problem remains.

Please help

 

[Steve Winograd [MVP]]

I have Windows XP Professional SP2 working on Pentium IV.
I have the following problem:
When I use My Network places to list the computers on my Local Area Network,
it sometimes lists 5 PCs, sometimes 20, and sometimes all the PCs on the
network (the network has more than 50 PCs in a single workgroup, and there
are about 7 workgroups). When it does not show any PC in a particular
workgroup, it gives an error message that "You dont have the permission to
view the workgroup..................." etc.
Also when I try to open a particular PC on the network, sometimes it opens
the shared folder on it, but often it does not and instead gives me the
message that "You dont have the permission to view......" etc.
As for the listing of workgroups, sometimes it lists all the wokgroups,
sometimes it lists only the a few of them, and sometimes it lists none of
the workgroups. I have tried to reformat my PC and re-install windows many
times and have updated all the patches from the windows update site, still
the problem remains.

Please help

Network browsing through My Network Places is notoriously unreliable,
even in small networks. I don't think that it will ever work well
with the number of computers and workgroups on your network. You can
spend a lot of time troubleshooting and trying to fix it, but I don't
think the effort is worthwhile.

I recommend not using My Network Places at all. To access another
computer's shared folders, type the other computer's name in the Start

Run box in this format:

\\computer

That works regardless of which workgroup either computer is in.
--
Best Wishes,
Steve Winograd, MS-MVP (Windows Networking)

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