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Win2k + WinXP Home + WinXP Pro

M

mphartzheim

Member
I'm running out of ideas here. I have 7 different PCs in my house, running a variety of operating systems... and I cannot for the life of me get them all to see or talk to each other. I've done almost everything I can think of to get them to cooperate, but I haven't found the magic combination yet.

The main issue is with the different OS's talking to each other. I have 1 Win2k machine and 1 WinXP Home machine, the rest are WinXP Pro. The XP Pro machines can all see and talk to each other just fine.

Here's where the problems are:

--Win2k machine will not see or talk to any computer on the network. WinXP (Home and Pro) can see the Win2k machine but will not talk to it.
--WinXP Home machine will see Win2k and WinXP Pro machine(s) but will not talk to them.
--WinXP Pro machine(s) can see every computer on the network, but will not talk to the Win2k machine (it will talk to the WinXP Home machine just fine).

So, Win2k is essentially seperate from the network (no communication to or from it, despite it's visibility). The WinXP Home computer can see other systems, but will not talk to any of them (no outgoing communication). The WinXP Pro computers can see everything and can even talk to the WinXP Home computers, but will not communicate with the Win2k computer.

I have no file transfers to/from the Win2k machine. If I want to transfer files between WinXP Pro and WinXP Home, I must do so from a WinXP Pro computer.

I've done most of the basic stuff, but feel free to suggest them as I may have left something out. One thing I'll note is that the WinXP Home computer is running both the Windows Firewall and Norton Internet Security. I plan on disabling them both to see if that fixes anything (but haven't done so yet).
 
What do you mean 'see' and 'talk'... do you mean over windows file sharing (SMB)? Can you ping all the machines form all the others?
 
Sorry, yes... "see" means they are visible in the Network Neighborhood of Windows (all computers are using the same workgroup). "Talk" means that clicking on that computer in the Network Neighborhood will access the shared folders of the computer (and allow file transfers).

All computers are pingable from every computer.
 
Well, I'm not an expert on this, but I think win2k has only 'regular old file sharing' with permissions while XP home has only 'simple file sharing' with less options. XP pro has both. You will be able to switch the XP pro machines between the two protocols so they're compatible with _either_ the 2k or home boxes but not both. I'd upgrade the 2k box or the home box to Linux (which can handle both types of sharing) or XP pro (if you want to pay).


 
Assuming that your Network settings are configured correctly on each computer and they are plugged to the same Switch/s.

It does not matter how many OS' you have all Windows OS are Ethernet compatible.

Each computer Sharing has to be set On, and they will "Talk".

May be this can Help, http://www.ezlan.net/sharing.html

:sun:
 
I disabled my firewall(s) and still no luck.

I did notice, however, that now the XP Home computer will "talk" to the XP Pro computer. The only wildcard left is the Win2k computer.

I also believe that, as in the link JackMDS posted, that my reg files are trashed due to running the Network wizard a million times while trying to fix this. I'm going to give NetBUEI a try with the Win2k machine and see what comes up.

Thanks for the advice thus far.
 
I wouldn't trust network neighborhood as much as the drug dealer on the corner. It?s a hit and miss deal on the computers "seeing" each other. If you need to swap files, just type the computer name in the address field and do it directly without hunting for the pretty icons in network neighborhood.
 
I've found netbuei doesn't solve this problem sometimes. I personally tried it and it did nothing new. Thats kind of why I just tell people to type in the computer name and be done with it.
 
Wow, thats a fun one, I'm sure youve been loosing hair ^^ Hopefully my 2 cents helps.

I know you said you disabled the firewalls, but under wxp sp2 w2k will NOT be allowed to connect to the xp machines (access denied error) if the firewall is on on the xp machine.

Also, turn off simple file sharing (tools->folder options->2nd tab, last checkbox off) OFF. It was a horrible horrible thing that shouldnt exist, it basically was made to cripple the home machine (which may be your biggest problem in the end)

Lastly, I would seriously consider just making the w2k machine a domain server and having all the xp machines join the domain, but I think the home machine wont be able to do that.

I am guessing you have usernames and passwords identical for each machine (or set up 7 users on each computer) and you only have a simple switch between them (some wireless routers DO NOT bridge the wireless to the LAN ports for file sharing)

GL!
 
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