XP not communicating with others on the network

[Maybeck Highschool]

We have updated a number of computers in our computer lab
from Win98 to XP. None of the computers (neither XP nor
the computers still running 98) will allow connection to
any of the XP computers, even though the computer names
show up on in Network Neighborhood; the error under 98 is:

\\Compulab_2 is not accessible
The computer or share name could not be found. Make sure
you typed it correctly and try again.

Under XP it says:

\\Compulab_2 is not accessible. You might not have
permission to use this network resource ... The network
path was not found.

Help,

Thanks,
Doug Broadwell

 

[Ron Lowe]

We have updated a number of computers in our computer lab
from Win98 to XP. None of the computers (neither XP nor
the computers still running 98) will allow connection to
any of the XP computers, even though the computer names
show up on in Network Neighborhood; the error under 98 is:

\\Compulab_2 is not accessible
The computer or share name could not be found. Make sure
you typed it correctly and try again.

Under XP it says:

\\Compulab_2 is not accessible. You might not have
permission to use this network resource ... The network
path was not found.

Help,

Thanks,
Doug Broadwell

First thing to check is that the firewall is not enabled
on the local area connections.

 

[Hans-Georg Michna]

We have updated a number of computers in our computer lab
from Win98 to XP. None of the computers (neither XP nor
the computers still running 98) will allow connection to
any of the XP computers, even though the computer names
show up on in Network Neighborhood; the error under 98 is:

\\Compulab_2 is not accessible
The computer or share name could not be found. Make sure
you typed it correctly and try again.

Under XP it says:

\\Compulab_2 is not accessible. You might not have
permission to use this network resource ... The network
path was not found.

Doug,

I agree with Ron's advice. But, just in case that that's not it,
please have a look at http://www.michna.com/kb/WxNetwork.htm.

Hans-Georg

 

[Sharon Jackson]

I have the same problem except I can't even get the XP
computer name to show up on the Win 98 network pcs NOR can
I get the Win 98 pcs to show up on the XP network.

I think the problem might be protocol - I have the Win 98
computers running on NetBEUI not on TCP/IP because when I
first set up the network years ago, I could not get the
TCP/IP protocol to work.

XP software does not include the NetBEUI protocol files. I
found a topic in windows support that gave instructions on
how to load the NetBEUI protocol into XP from the Windows
XP disc. I tried to do that but My new XP PC is a Dell
4600 and when I load the Operating System Disk in my CD RW
drive, it won't "show" me anything.

If I'm right on this, can anyone direct me to another
place here or on the net where I can get the two Windows
XP files:

Netnbf.inf and Nbf.sys

This might solve my problem, and if it does, perhaps it
can help solve your problem. I'll let you know.

 

[Bob Cerelli]

The basics for troubleshooting are:

1. Make sure you have the same IP scheme (e.g. 192.168.0.x).

2. Make sure you have the same Subnet Mask, Gateway, and DNS IP addresses.

3. Make sure you can ping the other computer's IP address. If this fails,
make sure you turn of XP's firewall.

4. Make sure you can ping the other computers by name.

5. Make sure you have the same workgroup name (watch for trailing spaces)

6. For troubleshooting purposes, turn off XP's and any other firewall
software. You can always add more complexity after you get it working.

7. With XP, make sure you have the same username and password as the person
logging onto the other computers. The default setting for XP Pro is to
require a password for network access.

8. More details about how to network XP can be found at:
http://www.onecomputerguy.com/networking/xp_network.htm

9. More details about how to troubleshoot TCP/IP networkcs can be found at:
http://www.onecomputerguy.com/networking/trouble.htm

10. Apply the registry edit to fix the browsing delay from XP to Win9x
computers
http://www.onecomputerguy.com/windowsxp_tips.htm#browsing_delay.

There continues to be a lot of misinformation about needing NetBEUI or to
changing the NetBIOS setting. You can ignore both. Installing NetBEUI to
solve a networking problem will just mask a some underlying and potentially
important misconfiguration with TCP/IP. The default NetBIOS setting works
fine so there is no need to change that either.