Network path was not found

[John]

I have 3 WinXP Pro computers on a home wired LAN, connected to a cable modem.
AVGIS is installed on each computer, and the firewalls are all turned off.
All computers have unique names and the same workgroup name "Southpark".

Each computer can access the internet fine via the LAN, but every time I try
to access the workgroup to connect to another computer I get the following
msg:

"Southpark is not accessible. You might not have permission to use this
network resource. Contact the administrator of this server to find out if you
have access permissions. The network path was not found."

I need to share files and printers.

I appreciate your help, John

 

[Malke]

I have 3 WinXP Pro computers on a home wired LAN, connected to a cable
modem. AVGIS is installed on each computer, and the firewalls are all
turned off. All computers have unique names and the same workgroup name
"Southpark".

Each computer can access the internet fine via the LAN, but every time I
try to access the workgroup to connect to another computer I get the
following msg:

"Southpark is not accessible. You might not have permission to use this
network resource. Contact the administrator of this server to find out if
you
have access permissions. The network path was not found."

For XP, start by running the Network Setup Wizard on all machines (see
caveat in Item A below).

Problems sharing files between computers on a network are generally caused
by 1) a misconfigured firewall or overlooked firewall (including a stateful
firewall in a VPN); or 2) inadvertently running two firewalls such as the
built-in Windows Firewall and a third-party firewall; and/or 3) not having
identical user accounts and passwords on all Workgroup machines; 4) trying
to create shares where the operating system does not permit it.

A. Configure firewalls on all machines to allow the Local Area Network (LAN)
traffic as trusted. With Windows Firewall, this means allowing File/Printer
Sharing on the Exceptions tab. Normally running the Network Setup Wizard on
XP will take care of this for those machines.The only "gotcha" is that this
will turn on the XPSP2 Windows Firewall. If you aren't running a
third-party firewall or have an antivirus/security program with its own
firewall component, then you're fine. With third-party firewalls, I
usually configure the LAN allowance with an IP range. Ex. would be
192.168.1.0-192.168.1.254. Obviously you would substitute your correct
subnet. Refer to any third party security program's Help or user forums for
how to properly configure its firewall. Do not run more than one firewall.
DO NOT TURN OFF FIREWALLS; CONFIGURE THEM CORRECTLY.

B. For ease of organization, put all computers in the same Workgroup. This
is done from the System applet in Control Panel, Computer Name tab.

C. Create matching user accounts and passwords on all machines. You do not
need to be logged into the same account on all machines and the passwords
assigned to each user account can be different; the accounts/passwords just
need to exist and match on all machines. DO NOT NEGLECT TO CREATE
PASSWORDS, EVEN IF ONLY SIMPLE ONES. If you wish a machine to boot directly
to the Desktop (into one particular user's account) for convenience, you
can do this. The instructions at this link work for both XP and Vista:

Configure Windows to Automatically Login (MVP Ramesh) -
http://windowsxp.mvps.org/Autologon.htm

D. If one or more of the computers is XP Pro or Media Center, turn off
Simple File Sharing (Folder Options>View tab).

E. Create shares as desired. XP Home does not permit sharing of users' home
directories or Program Files, but you can share folders inside those
directories. A better choice is to simply use the Shared Documents folder.

F. After you have file sharing working (and have tested this by exchanging a
file between all machines), if you want to share a printer connected
locally to one of your computers, share it out from that machine. Then go
to the printer mftr.'s website and download the latest drivers for the
correct operating system(s). Install them on the target machine(s). The
printer should be seen during the installation routine. If it is not,
install the drivers and then use the Add Printer Wizard. In some instances,
certain printers need to be installed as Local printers but that is outside
of this response.

Malke

 

[John]

This helped a lot to make the network config the same on all 3 computers.
While setting the netbios to run over TCP/IP, I found the file sharing add-n
not checked on the laptop. After checking this item, the laptop showed up on
the network and I could access files and printers on it. Whenever I reboot
the laptop tho, the sharing network add-in becomes unchecked and I have to
re-enable this to access the laptop over the network. What is causing this
and how do I get this check box to remain checked?

Thx again for your help, John

 

[Malke]

This helped a lot to make the network config the same on all 3 computers.
While setting the netbios to run over TCP/IP, I found the file sharing
add-n
not checked on the laptop. After checking this item, the laptop showed up
on
the network and I could access files and printers on it. Whenever I
reboot the laptop tho, the sharing network add-in becomes unchecked and I
have to
re-enable this to access the laptop over the network. What is causing
this and how do I get this check box to remain checked?

Running XP Pro? What security/antivirus programs do you have installed? Many
of these types of programs will "protect" the computer from changes.
Examples are McAfee, Norton, Spybot Search & Destroy, Ad-aware.

Also check the problem child's firewall.

Malke

 

[John]

I'm running AVGIS w/ firewall turned off. Neither SpyBot or AdAware or any
other anti-spy ware installed. Did find WinXP firewall was running and
disabled it - this seems to have fixed the problem. I'll keep an eye on it
for a couple days to see if it stays fixed. Thx for your help, -John