Windows networking problem!
 

I just picked up a new HP laptop (got a bargain on it, too), and everything's working great on it EXCEPT its integration into my home network. My network consists of three Windows machines of various vintages and two linux machines, both running reasonably recent Samba servers.

This new laptop will happily bring up a network share, either Windows or Samba, provided I know its name. Additionally, the new machine and its shares show up in a Win98 machine's Network Neighborhood just fine.

The problem comes when I try to browse the workgroup from the new laptop (by hitting "View workgroup computers" inside "My Network Places"). I get the following error:

As a (I believe related) point, "Add Printer" won't add a network printer even when I know I'm typing its name correctly.

I'm running XP Home SP2. This error was happening even before I installed SP2 this morning.

I've been all over Microsoft's knowlege base and the Internet at large about this one. So far I've made sure I'm in the same workgroup, I've futzed with my TCP/IP, NetBIOS. I've made sure that the new Windows Firewall isn't blocking file/print sharing. I've modified my WinXP account to use a password. I've set up another Windows machine to enable Browse Master. None of these things have helped at all.

What suggestions have you, Win Networking Geeks??

I think you need to actually have matching user names on all the boxes. So if your XP login is "fred", you need a user on the win98 machine of fred as well.

I have found the same thing with two XP pro machines - had trouble sharing the printer until I created a user on the box with the printer that matched the user name on the other box.

HTH.

That doesn't seem to be it. I can get to the new machine from another machine without matching account names. I can get to remote shares. The problem is browsing network shares.

How about this:
http://www.jsiinc.com/SUBK/tip5300/rh5336.htm

I've had a similar issue with sharing when the accounts have no password/blank password.

quoted from this page which may also give you ideas for fixes http://www.experts-exchange.com/Netw..._21052862.html

Well, I've tried most everything mentioned here and in all those URLs (as well as those I've found by googling on my own).

Here's what I've noticed. My network contains a Win98 desktop, two WinXP Home laptops, and two Linux machines. One of those Linux machines as VMWare on it, running XP Home.

ALL THREE XP machines (two laptops and one virtual VMWare machine) exhibit exactly the same behavior. The can get to specific network shares by name (including pulling them up in Explorer, mounting network drives, etc), but they all get exactly that above error when trying to browse the workgroup.

I'm thinking about killing the samba server temporarily and seeing if that helps. (Edit: Nope, no help.)

Any other thoughts?

are you using work groups or domain servers? What type of firewalls are you running? I have had the same problems on pc's with firewalls and once the firewall is configured for it it worked great.

he has to be workgrouping - no domain stuff on xp home, if I am correct.

Yep, workgrouping.

I've tried everything that everyone has mentioned, still no good. Thought I'd give this thread the ol *bump* and see if any new brains see it that didn't see it before.

Well, here's my two bits: It sounds like you're having issues with your master browser. Check out <a href=http://www.tomsnetworking.com/Sections-article64-page1.php>this page</a>, and especially <a href=http://www.tomsnetworking.com/Sections-article64-page6.php>Tip #4</a>.

Hope that's helpful.

turn off windows firewall

Are you using Firewall Software on the Laptop(other than Windows Firewall)?

I've had the same problem exact problem that your describing except it was with two Windows XP Pro computers not being able browse the shares. The two computers were in the same workgroup, and had different Administrator Passwords.

Here are a couple of things I did, that seem to work.

1. The first one is the most obvious, but disable windows ICF (Start-->Control Panel-->Under Manage security Settings-->click on Windows Firewall-->then select Off.)

2. Make sure Simple File Sharing is Enabled. Open My Computer-->Tools-->Folder Options-->View.

3. When creating a share make sure to check share this folder on the network instead of make it private.

If neither of those things work:

4. Re-do or re setup your network. Use the Network Setup Wizard. Near the end of the wizard it will ask you if want to create network setup disks, or use the XP Cd, I usually skip this, but when I had this problem I decided to use the XP CD on each machine.

When it's done, you'll notice a new icon which is totally useless, in the Network connection Window, called Bridge. What you need to do is disable the bridge first, you can find that option by highlighting bridge, then on the left selecting to disable it. Then delete it. Do this same thing on all your computers, and it should work...hopefully

did you by any chance tweak your XP services (i.e. - black viper's XP services tweaks)?