XP Home & Workgroup Visibility

[Adam]

I have a wireless netwoork through a Buffalo 11g Router.
Desktop hardwired to Router. Two laptops (one XP Pro the
other XP Home) connected wireless. All belong to the same
workgroup.

The two laptops can see all PC's in the workgroup and
file share. The desktop cannot see any PC's in the
Workgroup. It cannot even see itself.

Desktop has SP2. Windows firewall switched off. McAfee
firewall in place but tried with McAfee firewall both on
and off. Still no visibility.

No hair left... any clues?

 

[Wayne B.]

Try this, it just worked for me. (after I remembered what
to do) Go to "view network connections" in the "my
network places" window. Right click the icon that
represents your connection to the network in question and
choose 'Status'. Then hit 'properties' down at the bottom
of 'network connection status'. Hit the 'advanced' tab at
the top of the window titled 'network conecto properties'.

My ICF box was checked, and I unchecked it. Also, I
checked the box that states "Allow other network users to
conect through the computer's Internet conection. Hope
this helps. Wayne B.

 

[Chuck]

I have a wireless netwoork through a Buffalo 11g Router.
Desktop hardwired to Router. Two laptops (one XP Pro the
other XP Home) connected wireless. All belong to the same
workgroup.

The two laptops can see all PC's in the workgroup and
file share. The desktop cannot see any PC's in the
Workgroup. It cannot even see itself.

Desktop has SP2. Windows firewall switched off. McAfee
firewall in place but tried with McAfee firewall both on
and off. Still no visibility.

Adam,

I know the no hair situation. Maybe I can help you save some of yours.

McAfee firewall wouldn't be the first personal firewall to cause problems with
file sharing, even if switched off. Try switching it back on, and configure it
to allow file sharing. You may have to read the manual a bit. On a wireless
LAN, you absolutely should have a PF on each computer.

Can the two laptops see the desktop also, and file share with it? That narrows
the problem down a bit.

Make sure the browser service is running on the desktop. Control Panel -
Administrative Tools - Services. Verify that the Computer Browser, and the
TCP/IP NetBIOS Helper, services both show with Status = Started.

Cheers,
Chuck
Paranoia comes from experience - and is not necessarily a bad thing.

 

[Quaoar]

I have a wireless netwoork through a Buffalo 11g Router.
Desktop hardwired to Router. Two laptops (one XP Pro the
other XP Home) connected wireless. All belong to the same
workgroup.

The two laptops can see all PC's in the workgroup and
file share. The desktop cannot see any PC's in the
Workgroup. It cannot even see itself.

Desktop has SP2. Windows firewall switched off. McAfee
firewall in place but tried with McAfee firewall both on
and off. Still no visibility.

No hair left... any clues?

....also the internet connection firewall and internet connection sharing
service needs to be enabled.

Q

 

[Lou Ramsey]

...also the internet connection firewall and internet connection sharing
service needs to be enabled.

He's using a router. What does he want ICS for?

 

[Adam]

I have tried with McAfee Firewall disabled but this does
not seem to make any difference.

The laptops and both able to see the Desktop (one has
Win2000Pro the other XPHome SP1). Both laptops are able
to see each other.

Able to ping all computers from all computers and get
response.

Checked Computer Browser & TCP/IP Net Bios Helper both
were running and started.

On Desktop when viewing through Windows Explorer (My
Network Places / Microsoft Windows Network /
Workgroupname) the work group name shows. However
selecting the workgroup results in the following error:

"Workgroup_Name is not accessible. You might not have
permission to use this network resource......"

Running from CMD: "net view desktop_name" does not
produce a result and same with laptop1_name.

In looking at some of the other posts in the technical
support area I downloaded "BROWSTAT". Running this with
STATUS (STA) showed that:

"Status for Domain MSHOME on transport \Device\NetBI_Tcp_
{52EA8BF6-0B8D-4AEF-A315-7956377913F0}
Browsing is active on domain
Master browser name is LAPTOP1NAME
Could not connect to registry, error = 53 Unable to
determine build of browser master: 53
Unable to determine server information for browser
master: 1231
1 backup servers retrieved from LAPTOP1NAME \\LAPTOP1NAME
Unable to retrieve server list from LAPTOP1NAME: 1231"

Looking at Services (Local) Computer Browser is running
as is TCP/IP NetBios Helper. I stopped and restated both
but this has not changed the visibility in the workgroup
on the desktop.

In looking at the event viewer I have identified the
following two events (however I am unsure of the sequence
of occurrence and not sure is they are applicable to the
problem or a result of my stopping the browser)

1. Browser Event ID: 8021 The browser was unable to
retrieve a list of servers from the browser master
\\MICHAELGLENSNY on the network \Device\NetBT_Tcpip_
{52EA8BF6-0B8D-4AEF-A315-7956377913F0}. The data is the
error code.
The Data was: 0000: 01 00 00 00 ....

2. Browser Event ID: 8032 The browser service has failed
to retrieve the backup list too many times on transport
\Device\NetBT_Tcpip_{52EA8BF6-0B8D-4AEF-A315-
7956377913F0}. The backup browser is stopping.
The Data was: 0000: 01 00 00 00 ....

I disabled all applications in startup group except
firewall in case the Norton Anti Virus was impacting this
made no difference (McAfee was in place and then
disabled).

I then stopped and started TCP/IP Net Bios Helper and
Computer Browser. Again no difference.

Put it all back together again and after a while of doing
other things restarted the computer and I now had
visibility of the Desktop on the MSHOME workgroup and
also LAPTOP1. However still did not have access rights to
LAPTOP1.

Interesting this morning on boot again I lost access to
MSHOME workgroup.

Checked Computer Management/SystemTools/Event
Viewer/System and there were two items in the log:

07:36:09 BROWSER Event ID: 8021 "The browser was unable
to retrieve a list of servers from the browser master
\\LAPTOP1NAME on the network \Device\NetBT_Tcpip_
{52EA8BF6-0B8D-4AEF-A315-7956377913F0}. The data is the
error code." Data: 0000: 01 00 00
00 ....

07:38:15 BROWSER EVENT ID: 8032 "The browser service has
failed to retrieve the backup list too many times on
transport \Device\NetBT_Tcpip_{52EA8BF6-0B8D-4AEF-A315-
7956377913F0}. The backup browser is stopping." DATA:
0000: 01 00 00 00 ....

Restarted Browser (success shown in log) and attempted to
access MSHOME. Again not possible to view MSHOME and no
error shown in log.

Just one onther item when I started previously and was
able to see all devices in MSHOME but not access LAPTOP1
& LAPTOP2 neither LAPTOP1 nor LAPTOP2 were commected to
the WLAN when I first carried out a view on MSHOME. I
will restart the group in the same sequence and see if
that makes a difference.

 

[Adam]

Interesting.....

1. Powered up LAPTOP1, waited for connection to WLAN the
powered up DESKTOP. Unable to view computers on MSHOME
workgroup from DESKTOP but able to do so from LAPTOP1

2. Powered up DESKTOP without LAPTOP1 being present on
WLAN. Able to view DESKTOP on MSHOME workgroup.

Side issue but may be significant. In scenario (2) able
to see "Printers & Faxes" and "Scheduled Tasks" on
DESKTOP in MSHOME Workgroup. However whilst able to see
existence of "Shared Documents" in DESKTOP in MSHOME
workgroup I am unable to access the "Shared Documents"
folder and receive the same error message of not having
authority.

 

[Adam]

In an attempt to resolve I installed a wireless card on
the DESKTOP and remove cable from DESKTOP to wireless
router. This means that DESKTOP is only connected
wirelessly.

Guess what.... No difference. Still unable to access
LAPTOP1!!!! Even less hair now....

 

[Adam]

It seems to be working now, though I do not understand
why....

1. Upgraded LAPTOP1 to XP Home SP2. Immediately struck
problems as LAPTOP1 was now no longer able to access
other computers in workgroup. Disabled Windows Firewall,
McAfee Firewall running. Still not able to access. Then
found that Norton Internet Security was active. Do not
know why this was active as it had previously been set to
off. Disabled Norton Internet access which allowed access
to other computers in workgroup but no internet access.
Disabled Norton Internet security from loading at boot
time (set to manual load), rebooted and LAPTOP1 now
working.

2. DESKTOP was still not able to access other computers
in workgroup. Had to do some work so connected through
Cisco VPN to work network whilst IE6 was still up. Able
to access through Outlook but strange things happening in
IE. Changed proxy settings, though not needed as
operating within intranet. Still strange. Disconnected
Cisco VPN and reset proxy. Now IE6 requested connection
through DEFAULT Dial-up. (Hmmm, I do not have modem card
on the machine!). I rejected the request and IE6
indicated off-line. Closed IE6 and deleted DEFAULT Dial-
up connection. Rebooted system. DESKTOP now able to see
ALL computers. Rebooted several times just to be sure
that my eyes were not deceiving me. To date still
working...

So,......

A. Methinks there has been a hang over virus on the
DESKTOP associated with DEFAULT Dial-up - neither McAfee
Virus, Norton Virus or RAV have identified. Adware,
Spybot and Spy Sweeper did not identify...

B. LAPTOP1 having Norton Internet Security though
disabled may have been a problem when connecting from XP
Home at SP2 though the was no issue on connecting from a
machine running Win2000 Pro. Why this should cause an
issue I do not know. It is however worth noting for any
upgrade to SP2 as this seemed to have switched it
on !!!!!!

C. About 18 months ago there was Norton Internet Security
on the DESKTOP with a couple of other Norton Products.
Unfortunately they were deleted by use of Control
Panel/Add-Remove Programmes which has left some rubbish
on the system I have not been able to clean up and till
now "if it aint broke do not fix" applied. Perhaps I will
have to invest the effort to rebuild DESKTOP.....

D. Both DESKTOP and another PC on a different WLAN had
been used by the same user and received some interesting
Virus's. The other PC on the different WLAN is exhibiting
similar problems or was with LAPTOP1 but I think I will
keep quiet as I really do not know what I did....

 

[Quaoar]

He's using a router. What does he want ICS for?

If this service is disabled, at least on my three SP2 Home computers
using wireless/router, I can duplicate the OP's workgroup problem.

Q