Temperamental Network

[Trog Dog]

Why would this be?

3 PC lan all running WinXP Pro SP2. Accounts, Reception & Office (netbios
names). All are visible (normally) in workgroup (sometimes it takes a
refresh or reboot of all three). Accounts is the internet gateway which all
can access through ICS. All three can access either Office or Reception by
browsing the workgroup, but Accounts can't be accessed in this manner. Error
message is //Accounts is not accessable.... don't have necessary
permissions... contact network administrator

The kicker is the shared folders on Accounts can be accessed and files
copied, edited, and deleted by mapping them as a network drive.

This is illogical - either the other two PCs don't have permission to access
Accounts or they do - it shouldn't matter how they access Accounts.

Any ideas on why this is so?

 

[Rob Elder MVP-Networking]

By default, user accounts with blank passwords cannot access a resource over
a network.

You can also try disabling simple file sharing from folder options, view.

 

[Steve Winograd [MVP]]

Why would this be?

3 PC lan all running WinXP Pro SP2. Accounts, Reception & Office (netbios
names). All are visible (normally) in workgroup (sometimes it takes a
refresh or reboot of all three). Accounts is the internet gateway which all
can access through ICS. All three can access either Office or Reception by
browsing the workgroup, but Accounts can't be accessed in this manner. Error
message is //Accounts is not accessable.... don't have necessary
permissions... contact network administrator

The kicker is the shared folders on Accounts can be accessed and files
copied, edited, and deleted by mapping them as a network drive.

This is illogical - either the other two PCs don't have permission to access
Accounts or they do - it shouldn't matter how they access Accounts.

Any ideas on why this is so?

You're right: it's not a permission problem. It's a network browsing
problem. The error message is misleading.

It might help to enable the Computer Browser service on Accounts (the
Internet gateway) and disable that service on the other computers.

Make sure that NetBIOS Over TCP/IP is enabled on each computer:

1. Open the Network Connections folder.
2. Right click the local area network connection and click Properties.
3. Double click Internet Protocol (TCP/IP).
4. Click Advanced.
5. Click WINS.
6. Click the Enable NetBIOS Over TCP/IP button.

Run "ipconfig /all" on each computer and look at the "Node Type" at
the beginning of the output. If it says "Peer-to-Peer" (which should
actually be "Point-to-Point") that's the problem. It means that the
computer only uses a WINS server, which isn't available on a
peer-to-peer network, for NetBIOS name resolution.

If that's the case, run the registry editor, open this key:

HLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\Netbt\Parameters

and delete these values if they're present:

NodeType
DhcpNodeType

Reboot, then try network access again.

If that doesn't fix it, open that registry key again, create a DWORD
value called "NodeType", and set it to 1 for "Broadcast" or 4 for
"Mixed".

For details, see these Microsoft Knowledge Base articles:

Default Node Type for Microsoft Clients
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;160177

TCP/IP and NBT Configuration Parameters for Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;314053

--
Best Wishes,
Steve Winograd, MS-MVP (Windows Networking)

Please post any reply as a follow-up message in the news group
for everyone to see. I'm sorry, but I don't answer questions
addressed directly to me in E-mail or news groups.

Microsoft Most Valuable Professional Program
http://mvp.support.microsoft.com

 

[Trog Dog]

By default, user accounts with blank passwords cannot access a resource
over
a network.

You can also try disabling simple file sharing from folder options, view.

So why does it work on 2 out of 3 pc's in the same workgroup? Each with
identical settings, and no password and simple file sharing enabled.

I also have a working home network, admittedly it took a number of attempts,
that works without passwords.

 

[Trog Dog]

Hi Steve,

Sorry for the delay in replying - been out of the office for a couple of
weeks.

You're right: it's not a permission problem. It's a network browsing
problem. The error message is misleading.

It might help to enable the Computer Browser service on Accounts (the
Internet gateway) and disable that service on the other computers.

Disabled the browser service by changing it to manual Reception and Office.
This resulted in an icon (accountsdocuments on EntireNetwork) becoming
visible on Reception|My Network Places. Still couldn't access by clicking
this icon though. No change on Office. Both Office and Reception can still
access shared files on Accounts when they are mapped as a network drive.

It's interesting (strange) that the new icon listed the shared folder as
being available on EntireNetwork rather than Accounts as is the normal
practice.

Make sure that NetBIOS Over TCP/IP is enabled on each computer:

1. Open the Network Connections folder.
2. Right click the local area network connection and click Properties.
3. Double click Internet Protocol (TCP/IP).
4. Click Advanced.
5. Click WINS.
6. Click the Enable NetBIOS Over TCP/IP button.

Allready checked this.

Run "ipconfig /all" on each computer and look at the "Node Type" at
the beginning of the output. If it says "Peer-to-Peer" (which should
actually be "Point-to-Point") that's the problem. It means that the
computer only uses a WINS server, which isn't available on a
peer-to-peer network, for NetBIOS name resolution.

Initially, type was unknown but changed to types 1 and 4 with no difference.

If that's the case, run the registry editor, open this key:

HLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\Netbt\Parameters

and delete these values if they're present:

NodeType
DhcpNodeType

Reboot, then try network access again.

If that doesn't fix it, open that registry key again, create a DWORD
value called "NodeType", and set it to 1 for "Broadcast" or 4 for
"Mixed".

I'm at a loss - and although we can work around this problem it's annoying
that it's not working as it should.