New Machine on Network Can't See Other Machines Files

G

Greg Dunn

I just set up a new machine on my home network with XP Professional. I ran
the Networking Setup Wizard and succeeded in getting the new machine so it
could share the internet connection and see the web; however, it is unable
to see other machines on its workgroup. I'm using the same user id and
password (for an adminstrative user) on the new machine as the others, and
all the other machines can see each other just fine. The other machines can
see the new machine, too, but not any folders on it. (I made sure I shared
one.)

The message I get, in both directions, is

TUVXYZ [the workgroup name] 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.

All the machines are running XP with service pack 2 and all current updates.

What am I missing?

Thanks

Greg D
 
G

Guest

Can you ping the other machines? Double check and make sure printer and file
sharing are enabled.
You might be able to try booting into safemode with networking to isolate
the problem.
 
G

Greg Dunn

No, I am unable to ping the other machines. What does that indicate?

Greg d

mobilePCtech said:
Can you ping the other machines? Double check and make sure printer and
file
sharing are enabled.
You might be able to try booting into safemode with networking to isolate
the problem.

Greg Dunn said:
I just set up a new machine on my home network with XP Professional. I
ran
the Networking Setup Wizard and succeeded in getting the new machine so
it
could share the internet connection and see the web; however, it is
unable
to see other machines on its workgroup. I'm using the same user id and
password (for an adminstrative user) on the new machine as the others,
and
all the other machines can see each other just fine. The other machines
can
see the new machine, too, but not any folders on it. (I made sure I
shared
one.)

The message I get, in both directions, is

TUVXYZ [the workgroup name] 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.

All the machines are running XP with service pack 2 and all current
updates.

What am I missing?

Thanks

Greg D
 
G

Greg Dunn

If I start in Safe Mode with networking, what should I then test?

Thanks,

Greg d

mobilePCtech said:
Can you ping the other machines? Double check and make sure printer and
file
sharing are enabled.
You might be able to try booting into safemode with networking to isolate
the problem.

Greg Dunn said:
I just set up a new machine on my home network with XP Professional. I
ran
the Networking Setup Wizard and succeeded in getting the new machine so
it
could share the internet connection and see the web; however, it is
unable
to see other machines on its workgroup. I'm using the same user id and
password (for an adminstrative user) on the new machine as the others,
and
all the other machines can see each other just fine. The other machines
can
see the new machine, too, but not any folders on it. (I made sure I
shared
one.)

The message I get, in both directions, is

TUVXYZ [the workgroup name] 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.

All the machines are running XP with service pack 2 and all current
updates.

What am I missing?

Thanks

Greg D
 
M

Malke

Greg said:
If I start in Safe Mode with networking, what should I then test?

Thanks,

Greg d

It sounds like a firewall problem. Your new XP machine probably has
Service Pack 2. Service Pack 2 automatically enables the Windows
Firewall. If you are not running a third-party firewall, go to the
Windows Firewall applet in Control Panel and enable File & Printer
Sharing on the Exceptions tab. If you are using a third-party firewall
(and have properly configured it to allow your lan traffic as Trusted),
then turn the Windows Firewall off. You don't want two firewalls
running, and a third-party program will be better than the WF. All
firewalls must be properly configured to allow lan traffic as Trusted.

Malke
 
G

Greg Dunn

Thanks, Malke.

Yes, I've installed SP2 on both machines, and am using only the Windows
firewall.[1] The File and Print Sharing option is enabled on both. But
even if I turn the Windows firewall off on both machines, I get the
following behavior:

On the original machine, I am able to see the new machine under Microsoft
Windows Network\WorkgroupX. However, if I try to click on the new machine
(under Workgroup X), I get the following message:

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
\\NewMachine is not available. You may 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.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

On the new machine, if I try to click on the WorkgroupX folder under
Microsoft Windows Network, I get the message I cited previously:

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
WorkgroupX 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.

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

What should I look at next?

Greg

[1] There is a firewall on the gateway that connects the network to the
internet, but that has never gotten in the machine of machine-to-machine
communications within the network.
 
M

Malke

Greg said:
Thanks, Malke.

Yes, I've installed SP2 on both machines, and am using only the
Windows
firewall.[1] The File and Print Sharing option is enabled on both.
But even if I turn the Windows firewall off on both machines, I get
the following behavior:

On the original machine, I am able to see the new machine under
Microsoft
Windows Network\WorkgroupX. However, if I try to click on the new
machine (under Workgroup X), I get the following message:

------------------------------------------------------------------------
\\NewMachine is not available. You may 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.

Since you have XP Pro and have made identical user accounts/passwords on
both machines, make sure Simple Sharing is turned off on both machines
(from Folder options). Here is a link to an article about sharing in XP
Pro:
http://www.practicallynetworked.com/sharing/xp_filesharing/index.htm

If that doesn't help, then carefully take the time to go through this
troubleshooter by MVP Hans-Georg Michna:

http://www.michna.com/kb/wxnet.htm

It will pinpoint the problem area(s). If you need more help after
completing the t-shooter, post back with the results.

Malke
 
G

Greg Dunn

Malke:

Thanks very much for those links and your other assistance. I have solved
the problem (before using the XP Network Problem Solver). Just to complete
the record here for anybody who Googles this in the future, it was a
combination of the following things:

1. I am configuring the new machine as a Virtual PC host, a fact I did not
mention before because it seemed (and in many ways is) an irrelevant
complication. But in any event, in configuring the new machine, I had both
the main, or host, version of Windows XP, and a virtual machine (and then
eventually a second virtual machine) running under that host copy of XP.
The only real relevance of all this is that my suggestion to anyone doing
the same would be to make sure all your communications are running properly
on the host copy of the OS before setting up any virtual machines, just to
reduce the potential for confusion.

2. As it turns out, there *was* an additional firewall running on the new
machine - part of PC-Cillin, a 90-day trial copy of which I installed for
temporary virus protection. Turning it off was the main thing that solved
the problem. And that, of course, was the first thing you suggested that I
look at.

One additional note: once the extra firewall had been turned off, several
seconds and a number of forced refreshes were required to get the the
virtual machine running on the same box to show up on the network. The
established machines didn't show up at first, even with several forced
refreshes. But after I left the computer for a period of a time, came back
to it, and checked again, there they were. If anybody understands the
reason for this latency, I would like to know the explanation. It certainly
added to the confusion.

3. One of the two new machines involved (the host, or the first virtual) did
have Simple File Sharing enabled (setting available through Tools / Folder
Options / View tab in Windows Explorer), so that needed to be unchecked.

4. There was also an issue with a programmable keyboard that I use, in that
I'm not sure the password I entered on the new host machine exactly matched
the one on the old machine because when I entered it, I may not yet have had
the key re-mapping set properly for the new machine. I won't elaborate on
this since it's a highest esoteric problem.

Thank you again, Malke, for your invaluable assistance; and thanks also to
mobilePCtech for your initial response regarding my problem.

Greg Dunn


Malke said:
Greg said:
Thanks, Malke.

Yes, I've installed SP2 on both machines, and am using only the
Windows
firewall.[1] The File and Print Sharing option is enabled on both.
 
M

Malke

Greg said:
Malke:

Thanks very much for those links and your other assistance. I have
solved
the problem (before using the XP Network Problem Solver). Just to
complete the record here for anybody who Googles this in the future,
it was a combination of the following things:

1. I am configuring the new machine as a Virtual PC host, a fact I did
not mention before because it seemed (and in many ways is) an
irrelevant
complication. But in any event, in configuring the new machine, I had
both the main, or host, version of Windows XP, and a virtual machine
(and then eventually a second virtual machine) running under that host
copy of XP. The only real relevance of all this is that my suggestion
to anyone doing the same would be to make sure all your communications
are running properly on the host copy of the OS before setting up any
virtual machines, just to reduce the potential for confusion.

2. As it turns out, there *was* an additional firewall running on the
new machine - part of PC-Cillin, a 90-day trial copy of which I
installed for
temporary virus protection. Turning it off was the main thing that
solved
the problem. And that, of course, was the first thing you suggested
that I look at.

One additional note: once the extra firewall had been turned off,
several seconds and a number of forced refreshes were required to get
the the
virtual machine running on the same box to show up on the network.
The established machines didn't show up at first, even with several
forced
refreshes. But after I left the computer for a period of a time, came
back
to it, and checked again, there they were. If anybody understands the
reason for this latency, I would like to know the explanation. It
certainly added to the confusion.

3. One of the two new machines involved (the host, or the first
virtual) did have Simple File Sharing enabled (setting available
through Tools / Folder Options / View tab in Windows Explorer), so
that needed to be unchecked.

4. There was also an issue with a programmable keyboard that I use, in
that I'm not sure the password I entered on the new host machine
exactly matched the one on the old machine because when I entered it,
I may not yet have had
the key re-mapping set properly for the new machine. I won't
elaborate on this since it's a highest esoteric problem.

Thank you again, Malke, for your invaluable assistance; and thanks
also to mobilePCtech for your initial response regarding my problem.

Greg Dunn

Greg, thank you so much for taking the time to post the complete
solution. Yes, as you discovered, giving the full circumstances would
have been helpful. I would have referred you to the
microsoft.public.virtualpc newsgroup, for one thing. I'm very happy
that you got things working and it was generous of you to share the
information. It will help someone else one day.

Cheers, and have a good (insert localized time of day here),

Malke
 
G

Greg Dunn

Yes, as you discovered, giving the full circumstances would have been
helpful. I would have referred you to the microsoft.public.virtualpc
newsgroup, for one thing.
<<

Well, but...it really wasn't a Virtual PC issue: I don't want anyone to be
left with that impression. Virtual PC just complicated the situation by
allowing me to introduce some extra "machines" into the picture. The same
situation would have been created if I'd put three new physical computers on
the network at the same time. I felt that if I solved the problem for one
of those machines, I'd have solved it for all of them, which in fact turned
out to be the case.

I did mean to mention that part of the failure in my process was that I
didn't specifically test the inter-machine communications, once I got the
new machine to see the internet. If I'd had checked those and realized they
weren't working, I wouldn't have started installing the virtual machines
until I got that problem solved on the host machine. But again, it would
have been no different if I had been setting up multiple new physical
machines on the network.

Thanks again,

Greg
 

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