Workgroup Servers Not Available

[Guest]

When a software firewall is engaged under XP Pro, you often see the following
error when trying to access My Network Places: Workgroup is not accessible.
You might not have permissions to use this network resource. Contact the
administrator of this server to find out if you have access permissions. The
list of servers for the workgroup is not currently available.

By turning on File & Printer Sharing in the ICF or Trusting the IP Subnet in
Norton Internet Security, this problem is normally solved.

However, I have all Firewall(s) off and still receive the error, while other
computers can access shared resources over the LAN on the problem PC.

Where else can I check for permissions to allow an Adminstrator account to
be able to access My Network Places? As a computer consultant I see this
rather frequently and have reached critical mass where I need it solved.

Final note - I noticed that when a PC has this problem they are often
missing two network providers in My Network Places: Microsoft Terminal
Services and Web Client Network. They only need the Microsoft Windows Network
provider, but thought the missing providers might be a clue to the problem.

 

[Chuck]

When a software firewall is engaged under XP Pro, you often see the following
error when trying to access My Network Places: Workgroup is not accessible.
You might not have permissions to use this network resource. Contact the
administrator of this server to find out if you have access permissions. The
list of servers for the workgroup is not currently available.

By turning on File & Printer Sharing in the ICF or Trusting the IP Subnet in
Norton Internet Security, this problem is normally solved.

However, I have all Firewall(s) off and still receive the error, while other
computers can access shared resources over the LAN on the problem PC.

Where else can I check for permissions to allow an Adminstrator account to
be able to access My Network Places? As a computer consultant I see this
rather frequently and have reached critical mass where I need it solved.

Final note - I noticed that when a PC has this problem they are often
missing two network providers in My Network Places: Microsoft Terminal
Services and Web Client Network. They only need the Microsoft Windows Network
provider, but thought the missing providers might be a clue to the problem.

Hughes,

When you're looking at My Network Places (or trying to), you're looking at
output from the browser subsystem. There are several ways the browser subsystem
could cause a problem.

The Microsoft Browstat program will show us what browsers you have in your
domain / workgroup, at any time.
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=188305

You can download Browstat from either:
<http://www.dynawell.com/reskit/microsoft/win2000/browstat.zip>
<http://rescomp.stanford.edu/staff/manual/rcc/tools/browstat.zip>

Browstat is very small (40K), and needs no install. Just unzip the downloaded
file, copy browstat.exe to any folder in the Path, and run it from a command
window, by "browstat status". Make sure all computers give the same result.

For more information about the browser subsystem (very intricate), see:
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=188001
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=188305
<http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/winntas/deploy/prodspecs/ntbrowse.mspx>

Also, look at registry key [HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\Lsa], value
restrictanonymous, on the computes that you can't view. The browser depends
upon anonymous access, because it's a background process. If there's a browser
problem, that's not relevant to the account that you are signed on with at any
time.
<http://www.microsoft.com/windows200...2000/techinfo/reskit/en-us/regentry/46688.asp>
<http://www.jsifaq.com/subf/tip2600/rh2625.htm>
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=246261
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=296403

The above articles refer to Windows 2000. Remember WinXP is NT V5.1, and Win2K
is NT V5.0.

Have you used the Registry Editor before? If not, it's a scary tool, but it's
pretty simple once you get used to it. Here are a couple articles that might
help:
<http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/...home/using/productdoc/en/tools_regeditors.asp>
<http://www.annoyances.org/exec/show/registry>

Just remember to backup the key (create a registry patch) for
[HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\Lsa] before making any changes, if
appropriate.

From the Annoyances article:
You can create a Registry patch by opening the Registry Editor, selecting a
branch, and choosing Export from the File menu. Then, specify a filename, and
press OK. You can then view the Registry patch file by opening it in Notepad
(right-click on it and select Edit). Again, just double-click on a Registry
patch file (or use Import in the Registry Editor's File menu) to apply it to the
registry.