Network Connection Problem - Intermittent

[John]

I have 3 computers on a private home network. Here is my current setup:



XPS-710

- Vista Ultimate

- McAfee Security Center



SERVER

- Vista Home Premium

- Zone Alarm



LAPTOP-PC

- Vista Business

- Norton AV 2009

- Zone Alarm



This information is common for all systems:

- Private Network

- Same Workgroup

- Network Discovery: ON

- File Sharing: ON

- Public Folder Sharing: ON

- Password protected sharing: OFF



I am able to connect to all systems from all other systems without a
problem.



Occasionally, a problem occurs and I am not able to access SERVER from
XPS-710. When this problem occurs, I am able to ping SERVER from a CMD
prompt both by name and IP address, but I am not able to access any files.



This time, I tried a NET VIEW from XPS-710 and received the following:



C:\Users\John>net view

System error 6118 has occurred.



The list of servers for this workgroup is not currently available



C:\Users\John>ipconfig /all



Windows IP Configuration



Host Name . . . . . . . . . . . . : XPS-710

Primary Dns Suffix . . . . . . . :

Node Type . . . . . . . . . . . . : Hybrid

IP Routing Enabled. . . . . . . . : No

WINS Proxy Enabled. . . . . . . . : No

DNS Suffix Search List. . . . . . : hsd1.nj.comcast.net.



Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection:



Connection-specific DNS Suffix . : hsd1.nj.comcast.net.

Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Broadcom NetXtreme 57xx Gigabit
Controller

Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-19-B9-3F-10-5A

DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : Yes

Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes

Link-local IPv6 Address . . . . . : fe80::c0c2:a31d:7ad:a33a%9(Preferred)

IPv4 Address. . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.105(Preferred)

Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0

Lease Obtained. . . . . . . . . . : Friday, February 06, 2009 6:15:10 PM

Lease Expires . . . . . . . . . . : Tuesday, February 10, 2009 6:15:09 AM

Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.1

DHCP Server . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.1

DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . : 68.87.64.146

68.87.75.194

68.87.71.226

NetBIOS over Tcpip. . . . . . . . : Enabled



Tunnel adapter Local Area Connection* 6:



Media State . . . . . . . . . . . : Media disconnected

Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :

Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Teredo Tunneling Pseudo-Interface

Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 02-00-54-55-4E-01

DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : No

Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes



Tunnel adapter Local Area Connection* 7:



Media State . . . . . . . . . . . : Media disconnected

Connection-specific DNS Suffix . : hsd1.nj.comcast.net.

Description . . . . . . . . . . . : isatap.hsd1.nj.comcast.net.

Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-00-00-00-00-00-00-E0

DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : No

Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes









Five minutes later, I was able to access SERVER from XPS-71- without a
problem.



C:\Users\John>net view

Server Name Remark



-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

\\LAPTOP-PC

\\SERVER

\\XPS-710

The command completed successfully.







The only thing I did was to re-boot LAPTOP-PC. I am not sure why that would
have had an effect.



Any suggestions on what I should try the next time the problem occurs?



Thanks,

John

 

[Robert L. \(MS-MVP\)]

Any errors in the event viewer? Or this search result may help.
System Errors
2) If you use the net view command, you may receive "System error 6118
has occurred. The list of servers for this workgroup is not currently
available. ...
www.chicagotech.net/systemerrors.htm


--
Bob Lin, MS-MVP, MCSE & CNE
Networking, Internet, Routing, VPN Troubleshooting on
http://www.ChicagoTech.net
How to Setup Windows, Network, VPN & Remote Access on
http://www.HowToNetworking.com

 

[Robert L. \(MS-MVP\)]

The article also mentioned other two possible causes:

2) This may occur if the workgroup name and the domain name are the
different.
3) No master browser. Starting Computer Browser Service on one of w2k/xp
computers should fix the problem.

Any error if using browstat.exe?

--
Bob Lin, MS-MVP, MCSE & CNE
Networking, Internet, Routing, VPN Troubleshooting on
http://www.ChicagoTech.net
How to Setup Windows, Network, VPN & Remote Access on
http://www.HowToNetworking.com

 

[John]

Robert,

As I said:

the Workgroups names are the same and there are no XP computers on the
network

browstat.exe is an XP utility and I did not have it when the problem
occurred. I downloaded a copy and ran it with this result.

Status for domain XXX on transport
\Device\NetBT_Tcpip_{B01C84FD-B7EC-4E5E-8B54-B5BB6F64CE7C}
Browsing is active on domain.
Master browser name is: SERVER
Could not connect to registry, error = 53 Unable to determine build
of browser master: 53
\\\\SERVER . Version:06.00 Flags: 51003 NT POTENTIAL MASTER
1 backup servers retrieved from master SERVER
\\SERVER
There are 3 servers in domain XXX on transport
\Device\NetBT_Tcpip_{B01C84FD-B7EC-4E5E-8B54-B5BB6F64CE7C}
There are 1 domains in domain XXX on transport
\Device\NetBT_Tcpip_{B01C84FD-B7EC-4E5E-8B54-B5BB6F64CE7C}