WinXP PCs cannot connect to shared drive

[Stattlich]

FIXED

I have a mish-mash of a LAN problem. It's about ten computers all running either WinXP Home or Pro, and most of them regardless which version (all have SP2) can connect to a shared drive on the same workgroup.

But two of them cannot. Both can see the share and ping it successfully, but not connect. Is there any truth to there being a limit as to how many WinXP Home computers there can be on a LAN in one workgroup, or similar?

edit: WOOO! 100 posts!

 

[bluestrobe]

I think it is 8 but it's better to google it and find out the true answer. Please don't say you are using "My Network Places" to try and connect to the share.

 

[Stattlich]

Originally posted by: bluestrobe
I think it is 8 but it's better to google it and find out the true answer. Please don't say you are using "My Network Places" to try and connect to the share.

Ok, so there is a limit... I'll go find out shortly.

Call me a n00b, but I was using 'My Network Places' initially to connect. I'm not trying to map the drive either, just use the Windows Backup utility to backup all of these computers to the share drive on the LAN. And for most of the PCs, I've gotten it to work. But these two just won't cooperate. I don't understand how they can ping, but not map the drive or connect to it through 'My Network Places' (file sharing is enabled on them).

Am I missing something? I'm no expert on this stuff- I just know my way around the basics and that's about it.

edit: oh man, I must be! I like the WRT54G, but I wouldn't use it for an enterprise solution, haha.

 

[bluestrobe]

try typing in the computer names in the text bar in "my computer". Using network neighborhood to navigate a network will leave you pulling your hair out for days.

 

[Stattlich]

I'll give that a shot and report back tomorrow- this is off-site for an organization I'm doing some consulting for, not at my home. Thanks.

 

[RebateMonger]

Up to 5 PCs can have a simultaneous connection to an XP Home PC.
Up to 10 PCs can have a simultaneous connection to an XP Professional PC.

The limit is hard-coded.

If you need more connections to a PC, you'll need a Server OS, like Windows Server 2003.

 

[Stattlich]

Thanks for the clarification- the shared drive is a beefed-up workstation running XP Pro with a RAID setup.

In retrospect, the LAN has only 9 users simultaneously connected to it, and perhaps me if I come on-site with my Thinkpad. That's it. Even though the 'server' is running XP Pro, if some of the computers connecting to it are XP Home, is that fubaring it for the rest of the XP Pro computers connecting to the 'server'?

 

[Fardringle]

There isn't really a limit as far as how many computers can be on a LAN apart from addressing and congestion limitations of the LAN itself (which aren't an issue with the handful of computers indicated in the original post). However, there is a hard-coded limit on how many simulatenous connections you can have to each computer.

As RebateMonger said, the limits are 5 for XP Home and 10 for XP Pro.

To put it simply, you can have a maximum of 5 computers mapped to a shared folder on the XP Home "server" PC at any one time. So, if you have more than five computers that need to connect to the share, you'll either need to have the computers manually disconnect from the shares when they are not in use, or upgrade at least to XP Pro to allow 10 connections to the share, or purchase a server operating system if more than 10 are needed.


Edit: Darn typos. I shouldn't try to type forum replies and work at the same time.

 

[RebateMonger]

Here's how the connection limit works, according to Microsoft.

 

[Stattlich]

Thanks for the link!

For the record, the shared drive/server is XP Pro, not XP Home. And in my issues, I've never received that "No more connections can be made to this remote computer at this time because there are already as many connections as the computer can accept." error message, so maybe I'm not running into that barrier yet. Again, with only 9 inbound connections, I shouldn't expect to at this point.

I'll be making my way on-site in the next hour to try a few of everyone's suggestions and some of my own, but I'm wondering if I have a hardware issue on my hands instead (bad NICs?). The last time I couldn't figure out something like this, it was a defective NIC.

We'll see- thanks again, guys. You're a valuable resource.

 

[Stattlich]

For the record, the computers started to just magically connect today... it's like the Windows Networking protocol or something takes several hours to kick in before all systems can recognize eachother in the way they're supposed to. Nothing was wrong...

Thanks to all once again.