"Network not present or not started" - windows 2000 on home lan

[dboy]

I have a home network like this : cable modem -> netgear RT314 router. Connected to that router are a win98 machine and a win2k machine. Internet access works great from both. When I go into network places on the 2k box though, I get a message "Workgroup is not accessible. The network is not present or not started." I used to be able to share files between these machines, but it is no longer working. Ideas how to fix and regain file sharing?

 

[WillyF1uhm1]

Check whether workgroupnames on both machines are the same.
If so, check whether IP range is the same.
Are subnetmasks the same? (probably 255.255.255.0)

 

[dboy]

Workgroup names are right, IP and subnet are ok too. I have this machine set up to dualboot 98 and 2k, so I tried accessing from 98. Guess what - network not accessible. So somehow, my internet access is working but not LAN - any ideas? Could there be something set wrong with the RT314 router? Everything there looks ok, but I could be missing something.

 

[MulLa]

Are they able to ping each other? What about manually connecting to the shares instead of going through the My Network Places?

 

[dboy]

The 2k box can ping the other computer, I haven't tried the other direction yet (other computer is occupied...)

When I tried mapping a drive directly, it told me no network was found.

 

[dboy]

I tried hooking up a laptop to the network. It was able to ping the 2k machine (and vice versa) with no problem. But it could not see the 2k machine in network neighborhood (and yes, workgroups were set the same) The 2k machine still errors "network not accessible" when I try to look in network neighborhood there.

HELP!

 

[Gorgonzola]

<< Could there be something set wrong with the RT314 router? >>



i doubt it.

when i was first trying to connect a win2k machine and a win98 machine via a crossover cable, the win2k one could ping the other, and the other could ping it, but the win2k machine would not show up in network neighbourhood (and manually drive mappings wouldn't work either). i had everything set right but it just wouldn't cooperate. i had to reformat the win2k machine (for unrelated reasons, obviously), and when i set all the options up just like they were before i reinstalled, it worked fine.

i still cant work out why it wouldn't work originally. it just seemed like a random problem.

 

[dboy]

Well, I finally got on the 98 machine. It can ping the 2k box, but it also says the network is not accessible when I go into network neighborhood. So the problem is not just with the 2k machine - starting to look to me more like a RT314 problem after all. Any suggestions?

 

[dboy]

Ok, another update. I rebooted all the computers as well as the RT314. Now the 98 machine can see and access the 2k machine. Great. The 2k still says network not accessible though. So I'm halfway there.

A new twist. I've added a laptop from work into the mix. It's set to the correct workgroup, can access the internet, but it cannot see the other computers nor be seen by them. Ideas on this one? It's got novell on it, so does that have anything to do with it? When I go into network neighborhood on it, it lists just "netware servers" and "novell directory services" but no computers. How do I get it to see the other computers? My real goal here is to copy files from it to the 2k machine. If it could just see the 98 box it would work, albeit roundabout...

 

[mboy]

Make sure you dont have a firewall connected (or in my case, Zone Alarm set to full, I had to set the local be able to see windows connection).
Took me 30mn to figure it out last nite when I set up my network with my SMC router.
Once I switched it, all was well.

 

[dboy]

Nope, no firewall installed. Any other ideas what could be wrong? As I said above, I have 98 and 2000 dual boot on this machine - neither can access the other computer. That leads me to think hardware issue, but what? However, the win98 machine CAN access this 2k box, so I'm really confused...

Since I COULD ping to/from all machines, I tried FTP. I had no problem FTPing from the laptop to the 2000 machine. Since my whole goal was to copy files from the laptop to my home computer, I guess I've accomplished what I wanted. File sharing not working is annoying though...

 

[mobly99]

check that the workstation service is started

 

[petel]

What network cards have you go on each machine? I had a problem on my w2k network that came down to incompatibilities between network cards. 2 machines have 3COM and Intel NICs on them and work well at 100 Mbps but the 3rd machine has a Netgear 10/100 NIC and at 100 Mbps it crawled to a halt, could log on, but nothing else, and loads of Network Not Found massages. Windows advised 6+hrs to copy a 600 MB across thenetwork. The solution, I run the Netgear card at 10 Mbps and the other 2 at 100 Mbps. This works well. Found the answer in UK's PC Pro magazine. Hope this works, its worth a try.

 

[dboy]

Workstation service is indeed running. I even tried stopping it (and computer browser) and restarting both, no effect.

Both desktops have linksys LNE100TX cards in them.

 

[petel]

Try MS TechNet site search facility, They have two knowledge articles that may shed aome light on your problem.

The URL is as follows, apologies if you already know this. http://search.microsoft.com/us/itresources/default.asp

I did a Boolean Search with the following search term - network near present near started. The 2 articles I thought you might want to look at are Q272991 and Q170336, but there are lots more. As the articles always say, be careful editing the registry, if you decide that is the problem.

 

[Cabius]

Are you able to map a drive using the IP address instead of the machine name?

 

[dboy]

petel, you rock! the second article you linked solved the problem. Just a missing reg entry... now all is well. Thanks!