Network workgroup problem

[Guest]

I have a problem with the workgroup I have just set up.

The network set up is as basic as you can get - one desk top PC and one
laptop

The wizard named my workgroup "MSHOME"

With regard to the PC when I click NETWORK PLACES/VIEW WORKGROUP COMPUTERS I
get the error message:
"MSHOME is not accessible. You might not have permission to use this network
resource."

I accessed NET DIAGNOSTICS and the the report was "DHCPServer =
255.255.255.255 (Invalid IP Address)

The card is a Belkin F5D7000

I have Windows XP Home Edition plus SP2

I am signed in to the PC as computer administrator

 

[Richard in AZ]

The subnet mask should me 255.255.255.0
As a bit of safety, I would change the workgroup name to something other than the default "mshome"
Choose any different name for the workgroup, but be sure to change it on both machines.

 

[Guest]

Thank you for responding.
Can you tell me how to change the subnet mask? I don't know how it managed
to be incorrect since the wizard set it.
I will also change the workgroup name as you advise.

 

[Chelsea]

Do you still get an error if you start the desktop first and the laptop a
few minutes later? The most powerful machine of the two will be designated
as the master browser(nothing to do with Internet Explorer or Firefox)-that
can be changed by a registry tweak if necessary.The master browser holds a
list of workgroup computers and is responsible for informing the other
workgroup computers what network computers are available-a bit like a
server-although its not called that.

Your machines should both have Computer names and they must be different. To
test this open My Computer and in the left side pane click on view system
information. and it will tell you the computer name and the workgroup name
'mshome'. You can change things by clicking the change button would you
believe.

If you change anything a reboot will be required. Now check that the
computer browser service is running on both machines. The setting is
automatic start. Lastly go to Network connections in the Control Panel.
Double click LocalArea Connection, then properties and double click Internet
Protocol. Obtain IP address automatically should be selected and the rest ie
DNS setting should be empty. Do the same thing on the other machine.

If all that is correct you should have a functional network. However one
thing the wizard will not have setup is the actual folders on the network
computers that are shared. You have to do that yourself. To test, create a
folder on the desktop machine, right click the folder and select "sharing".
Click the radio button adjacent to share this folder. Make up a name for the
share and click apply. The laptop should see the share you have just
created. Hope it works.


Chelsea

 

[Chelsea]

Just a revision to my previous post. I assumed for some reason that you have
Broadband and therefore a connected Router. If you do then great, because
you'll have a hardware DHCP server which will allocate IP addresses to your
two machines. If you don't have a DHCP server though you will have to use
static IP addresses on your two computers. Double click LocalArea Connection
in control panel, then properties and double click Internet Protocol. Select
the radio button marked as Use the following IP address and type in these
numbers 192.168.0.2 into the desktop computer and 192.168.0.3 into the
laptop-this is how it is written but you don't type the stops into the box.
On both machines type 255.255.255.0 into the Subnet mask box. Restart both
computers and they should restart with functional Static IP addresses.

Chelsea

 

[Guest]

Chelsea,

Thanks for your help messages.

With regard to the third paragraph of your first post can you tell me how I
check that the computer browser service is running on both machines? I would
like to ensure that it is set to ‘automatic start’ in accordance with your
advice.

With regard to your second post I do have broadband but it is connected via
a BT Voyager 105 modem and not a router. The network is set up for peer to
peer working.

I followed your instructions as to setting up static IP addressees on the
two computers and the subnet mask. Unfortunately I still get the ‘MSHOME is
not accessible’ error message.

Running NET DIAGNOSTICS produces the following error messages:

Belkin wireless card
IP address = 192.168.0.2 (FAILED)

WAN Miniport
DefaultIPGateway = 86.138.93.109 (SAME SUBNET)(FAILED)
DNSServerSearchOrder (FAILED)
IPAddress = 86.138.93.109 (FAILED)

The IP address reported for the Belkin and the WAN are different, is this a
clue?

Net DIAGNOSTICS on the laptop produced no errors.

Can you advise any other actions?

 

[Chelsea]

Hello,
You can find the computer browser service by going into control panel and
selecting Administrative Tools and then Services. It is generally in
alphabetical order so should be near the top of the list.

The net diagnostics report says you have a Wireless card in your desktop PC
and presumably you have the same on the laptop. How are these communicating
directly or through an access point?

Also I should have stated in the previous post that the desktop must have an
account setup for the laptop. So if the laptop login is say Grasshopper1
with a password, then there must be an account for Grasshopper1 on the
desktop system. If you login to both machines using the same login id and
password then the accounts are already setup on both machines.

Chelsea

 

[Guest]

Chelsea,

Thanks, I have checked the computer browser service on the PC and the laptop
and both are on automatic.

In answer to your second paragraph the PC and the laptop communicate
directly as I have set up peer to peer working which I believe MS refers to
as a workgroup.

I am really new at networking and am still trying to understand the
terminology, with your help I have made some progress. With regard to your
third paragraph how do I ensure that that the PC has an account setup for the
laptop?

Hope my lack of experience doesn't try your patience too much.

Regards
--
Bri

Hello,
You can find the computer browser service by going into control panel and
selecting Administrative Tools and then Services. It is generally in
alphabetical order so should be near the top of the list.

The net diagnostics report says you have a Wireless card in your desktop PC
and presumably you have the same on the laptop. How are these communicating
directly or through an access point?

Also I should have stated in the previous post that the desktop must have an
account setup for the laptop. So if the laptop login is say Grasshopper1
with a password, then there must be an account for Grasshopper1 on the
desktop system. If you login to both machines using the same login id and
password then the accounts are already setup on both machines.

Chelsea

 

[Chelsea]

Hi there,
You can check if the desktop pc has an account for your laptop by going to
Control Panel and double clicking on User Accounts.If the name you use to
login to your laptop isn't displayed there with a picture you will have to
setup an account. Click create a new account and type in the box the name
you use to access your laptop. On the next screen you need to put your
laptop into an administrative group-for now choose computer administrator
then press the create an account button.
Now click on change an account. Pictures will appear representing account
holders-click the one you just created for your laptop. From the options
presented select create a password and fill in the boxes with the password
you use on your laptop. This assumes you use a password on the laptop. If
you do not then it would be a good idea to set one as networking usually
expects a password. The procedure is the same as I have just stated. That
should give you full permissions as a user of your desktop pc. Now you need
to do exactly the same thing to create an account for the desktop PC on your
laptop. Otherwise the laptop can access the desktop but the desktop PC will
not be able to access the laptop. Lets see how that goes.

Chelsea

 

[Guest]

I created accounts on the PC and the laptop as suggested. No difference.

When I click NETWORK PLACES/VIEW WORKGROUP COMPUTERS I get the following
results:-

The laptop displays the laptop computer description name.

The PC displays "MSHOME is not accessible. You might not have permission to
use the network resource."

Going back to my post dated 4/7/2006 at 11:11 AM can you tell me what the
WAN Miniport is ? and is the reported IPaddress 86.138.93.109 significant? I
cannot find any way to change this address , I already changed the LocalArea
connection IP address to 192.168.0.2. by following your instructions.

Regards


--
Bri

Hi there,
You can check if the desktop pc has an account for your laptop by going to
Control Panel and double clicking on User Accounts.If the name you use to
login to your laptop isn't displayed there with a picture you will have to
setup an account. Click create a new account and type in the box the name
you use to access your laptop. On the next screen you need to put your
laptop into an administrative group-for now choose computer administrator
then press the create an account button.
Now click on change an account. Pictures will appear representing account
holders-click the one you just created for your laptop. From the options
presented select create a password and fill in the boxes with the password
you use on your laptop. This assumes you use a password on the laptop. If
you do not then it would be a good idea to set one as networking usually
expects a password. The procedure is the same as I have just stated. That
should give you full permissions as a user of your desktop pc. Now you need
to do exactly the same thing to create an account for the desktop PC on your
laptop. Otherwise the laptop can access the desktop but the desktop PC will
not be able to access the laptop. Lets see how that goes.

Chelsea

 

[Chelsea]

Hi,
I am running a little low on ideas. I bet its something obvious though! It's
interesting that the laptop does something when you try to use Network
Places. What it is doing is show the part of the network it is currently
able to see, which is just a single computer-itself. I think that probably
means the error is on the desktop PC as it doesn't see any network at all.

The WAN miniport probably is used by your internet connection and the
numbers 86.138.93.109 might be the IP address supplied to your connection. I
don't have an ADSL modem, but a router, so can only guess how it is setup.
I think it probably uses a dial up network connection. Does the adsl modem
put an icon in the system tray? If it does right click it and select the
support tab. Could you then tell me what is says for IP address, subnet mask
and default gateway. Now go into control panel and double click Network
Connections.Could you tell me the names of everything that is listed there.
I assume you are using service pack 2 -what antivirus software and firewall
software are you using?

The reason I asked about the physical structure of your network was that
there are quite a few ways of assembling a peer-peer network. The easiest
would be to just connect a cross over cable between the two network
adaptors. Slightly more advanced would be to connect the two computers by
cables to a device called a Switch. More complicated would be to do away
with the wires and communicate through a radio link-I think you are using
the latter, but can you confirm this?

Chelsea

 

[Guest]

The BT Voyager modem does put an icon in the system tray but there is no
properties or support tab to click for the details.

I use SP2 with Norton antivirus, I have tried switching both firewalls off
with no difference.

I am using a radio llink for the network.

I am going to try setting up everything up again from scratch and to ensure
there are no unhelpful registry entries I will use System Restore to a date
prior to my networking attempts.

Thanks for your helpful advice, I will let you know how things work out.

 

[Chelsea]

Best of luck. When you set it up make sure the wireless network isn't doing
anything fancy such as working with encrypted data. All you want to begin
with is a working connection between the two machines, so turn off
encryption as well as any other security features-as they can cause lots of
headaches. When you have a working network is the time to turn all the
security features back on again.

Chelsea

 

[Guest]

Having set everything up again I found the problem - the firewalls !

On disabling the firewalls in each machine the network sprang to life with
each machine able to see the other.

The error messages were not at all helpful and they did not give any clue
that the firewalls were the culprits.

Thanks for your help