Small office networking (one machine doesn’t see anything)

Hi guys,

I've been battling this issue for quite some time now and I hope somewone have had simular experience or would otherwise know of a solution to my problem.

It is a small office network, nothing fancy, 10 computers, 8 of them are Windows XP and the other two are legacy of the past with Windows 98. Up until recently everything worked well, all computers saw each other and could share files without any problems.

However one day one of the XP computers just “dropped” from the network. It couldn’t access other computers any longer and ever since I am trying to fix things up. Here is the situation in a nut shell.

9 out of 10 other computers still see each other and share files, both XP and 98 alike, aside from that machine that dropped off.

All of the computers can ping each other, and computer that stoped sharing files can still access the internet and print. It can do everything but file sharing.

Whenever I try to connect to the computer I get an error saying that it I should check my permissions / not found, contact your system administrator.

If I am trying to connect to other computers from the dropped machine I get workgroup unavailable, check your permissions / network path not found.

There are no firewalls what’s so ever, not software, not hardware. ICF that comes with windows is off.

Only work around that I’ve found so far is using NetBIOS over IPX, that works with Windows XP machines but I can’t get the two 98 machines to work over IPX. There are protocols but they don’t seem to be working for NetBIOS.

Another thing that could be helpful – even with NetBIOS over IPX on, troubled machine takes a lot of time to open up “My Network Connections” which speeds up to normal levels if I disable NetBIOS over TCP/IP on that machine (all though other computers work just fine with or without that setting)

Because NetBIOS works over IPX makes me think that all settings (NetBIOS wise) are fine and the fault is some place else.

I have tried to kill all of the processes on the “victim” machine but it doesn’t seem to help.
Services such as Computer Browser, Server and Workstation are working well. I tried both Simple and other kind of file sharing. I’ve checked to make sure that Everyone can access the file sharing and that Guest accounts are on.

I’ve tried to remove / reinstall Client for Microsoft Network and File and Printer Sharing with no avail.

If someone knows a solution to my problem I’d appreciate heads up,

Even though I got XP machines to work over IPX, this is only short term quick fix because I do need the 98 machines as well

In Case if I veered off somewhere: I need NetBIOS to work over TCP/IP and not IPX - do you guys know why it wouldn't do that?

Thanks,

When you say the 'invisible' machine can still print, do you mean to a printer out on the network? (Not local.) If so, have you just checked to see if your root (or the folders you want to share) still has sharing set? Sounds mundane, I know. What happens when you run the network setup wizard? It's easy to set it up manually, but the wizard might give you an informative error message.

I've tried to run network set up wizzard and network ID wizzard all to no avail. Printer is on the network, has it's own IP and computer print directly to it. And yes, there are shared folders on all of the machines, though problem still there.

Any most suggestions guys?

Open the Control Panel, Network Connections and right-click your Local Area Connection and select Properties. Double click Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) and click the Advanced button. Click the WINS tab. At the bottom, you'll find an option to enable NetBIOS over TCP/IP, if that's what you want. This is OK for XP - I doubt there is the same option for 98 though.

Yup - I've done that.

I have a router on the network that serves as DHCP server. All of the machines have following setting on "Default: Use NetBIOS settings from the DHCP server..."

However "bugged" machine still can not share files or be shared with that setting. So I have experimented tried to use "Unable NetBIOS over TCP/IP" with no luck and then tried to "Disable NetBIOS over TCP/IP" and enable it again - all with no avail.

Thanks for these suggestions, does anybody have any more?

Are you really sure that all of the permissions are correct, the IP address is set correctly and the computer is on the same workgroup as the other machines?



If it "dropped" one day suddenly, could you just use System Restore?

IPs are set properly. Workgroup is the same (otherwise via IPX wouldn't work would it?) I use simple file sharing, all though I did try to go advanced with no avail what so ever.

And System Restore was my first call, which I desperatly try to restore to previous days or even futher back when I know for a fact it worked.

All to no success.

Anything else perhaps?

Did TCP/IP filtering somehow manage to get garfled up/turned on with stuff disabled?

You'll find that in the Properties of your connection, Internet Protocol TCP/IP, Advanced, Options, Properties. You want to make sure that "Permit All" is selected in all three sections, and that "Enable TCP/IP Filtering" is not ticked.

It's all off.
Any more suggestions ?

I don't think this has been mentioned yet: why don't you try running the XP network setup wizard? It may repair any settings that have been corrupted somehow.

Also, have you installed any software / drivers on the computer recently that may have caused the problem in the beginning?

I did that, again with no luck.

However I did fix the problem. Turned out that who ever removed Zone Alarm didn’t do it properly and there was still some sort of component left on the system that would mess up network sharing.

First I used FPORT to map TCP/IP ports to applications that use them and I saw that sneaky Zone Alarm there (even though it was technically set on “Disable Zone Alarm”) I renamed program that was responsible for that port (since I couldn’t kill the process, even under Administrator account)

How curious was I when machine refused to even browse the Internet after I did that. I had to re-install Zone Alarm and use its own uninstaller to get rid of it cleanly.

Serves me well, there is a reason I always strongly urge people to stay away from software firewalls. If the network isn’t big enough to have some sort of routing system – set up your software correctly and you won’t need firewall. Unless you only have one machine, software firewalls are more trouble than they worth.

LOL, Edwin, you always mention zone alarm! Better put that in your cut and paste thangy! :-)

Regards,

David

Hi David - ZoneAlarm is one of the most popular ones though especially since it is free! I've already got firewalls mentioned in my copy and paste text file, but I'll add ZoneAlarm to it just for you

Gk0r - perhaps you should try repairing the OS. Boot from the XP disc into a blue, text-based screen. Follow the on-screen instructions and there'll be an option to repair your current installation. This will reinstall Windows and hopefully get you networking again, but all software and documents should be left untouched.