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can't get workgroup comps to see each other

D

deeyo

Member
I'm having some trouble getting file-sharing to work between the computers in my house. They are all windows XP and are connected through one router, which has wired and wireless connections. I cannot get all the computers to consistently see each other or access shared files.

Last time i tried, i was working between a desktop and a laptop both hooked up wired-ly. The desktop could see both computers in the workgroup but could not connect to the laptop. The error had to do with insufficient permissions. The laptop could not access the workgroup at all.

I tried going through the windows networking wizard a couple times and then tried changing the workgroup name. When i did that, the desktop now could not access the workgroup while the laptop could, but couldn't connect.


File sharing used to work fine like last year... any ideas what the problem could be?
 
Any firewall software running? Windows file-sharing and browsing uses several ports and it's easy for something to get blocked inadvertantly. If you've got firewalls going, turn them off while you test.

For permissions, are these XP Home machines (which only do so-called "simple file sharing") or Pro machines (which can do either simple or regular sharing)? If you're doing "regular" sharing, make sure that usernames and passwords on both machines are identical. That may even be necessary in simple sharing, but I don't remember.

Firewalls aside, workgroup-style (as opposed to domain) browsing and sharing is a pretty ugly thing. The list in Network Neighborhood may not update instantly - if you want to test, do so by entering \\computername in the address bar rather than relying on what you see. The network browser should update eventually.

I think that should do it, provided that the machines are both on wired connections, but I tend to stay away from Windows networking as much as I can, so I may be missing something. Also, if the wireless connection is on its own subnet that will complicate things further. Get the all-wired scenario working first (which seems to be your plan already).

Finally, don't touch the wizard. It likes to break things.
 
Im going to guess your doing the Network Neighborhood to look for the other PC's

Best/easiest/most reliable way is to go to Start>Run and type in \\OtherPCName and oush enter to get the available shares from that PC.

- all the computers should have the same EXACT username and password on them

ie John, Bill, Mary and Steven on each PC, with the same PW on each account
 
With XP Home user accounts don't really matter because your forced to use Simple File sharing with Home, which uses the guest account to access resources anyway. User account's also would have nothing to do with name resolution. Network Places and NetBIOS name resolution has never been worth a crap without a local WINS, or DNS if your in a windows domain, to resolve names.

What your probably experiencing is browser wars. The easiest thing to try and it typically will work is to bring all the PC's on the network down. Then bring up the machine that stays on all the time up first. Once it's up and at the desktop you can bring all the other machines up. As long as they are in the same workgroup they should show up in network places in that workgroup. But even if you do all that network places is a flaky piece of garbage and it may not work at all. The answer. Do not use it. Ever.

Click start, then run. From the run box use the UNC path to the remote machine, the server in this case.

syntax is \\servername or you could add the shares you've shared out \\servername\sharename Obviously substituting my generic labeling for your actual LAN server and share names. If that doesn't work then use the IP in the UNC path instead of computer name. I've been installing and using networks for 10 years. Daily accessing network resources. I've used Network Places/Neighborhood perhaps 2 or 3 times in that span. Conversely I've used the search component or UNC thousands of times. You can use UNC from anywhere. Windows Explorer, Internet Explorer, Run. Anyplace in Xp that you can put an address in.

If you don't want to keep typing the path (though it will cache so you really wouldn't have to type it) then just map the drive. Once you get to the server via UNC \\servername, you'll see all that is shared out. Right click on any of the resources and click Map Network Drive. Making sure Reconnect at logon is checked. Now it's a drive letter available to you in Explorer etc...
 
errr it still doesnt work. I assum "UNC path" just means the place you type into, and so i've tried just entering the computer name but it gives me a "The network path was not found" error. I can still see all the computers in the network through my desktop through network neighborhood, but double clicking gives the same deal as running the computer name.

another idea: could my router be the problem? i've got this white netgear router that pretty much sucks in every other sense. Maybe it's messing with the computers seeing each other?
 
Their probably cached entries. UNC stands for universal naming convention. Try the IP, as I suggested, in the path in lieu of the NetBIOS (Computer) name.

So if the remote computer name is station1 and it's IP is 192.168.1.13 then instead of \\station1 it would be \\192.168.1.13 Hit enter. What happens?
 
Their probably cached entries. UNC stands for universal naming convention. Try the IP, as I suggested, in the path in lieu of the NetBIOS (Computer) name.

So if the remote computer name is station1 and it's IP is 192.168.1.13 then instead of \\station1 it would be \\192.168.1.13 Hit enter. What happens?
 
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