Home networking on WinXP SP2

28 Aug 2006 5:39 PM

MechMan

Small home network of 2 computers both running WinXP Home connected through a
router. Sharing files worked fine on SP1 and I finally got around to
installing SP2 and now I can't share folders on either computer. I know
there's info on this out there but my search terms haven't turned up anything
other than the WinXP firewall which I've disabled on both computers. I can
ping between the 2 computers so that connection exists but I can't browse my
workgroup and I also can't browse the computers by typing in IP addresses.

I'm sure there's some security thing with SP2 (other than Firewall) that I'm
missing but I can't find it. Any help is appreciated.

28 Aug 2006 5:55 PM

Chuck

On Mon, 28 Aug 2006 10:39:01 -0700, MechMan <Mech***@discussions.microsoft.com>
wrote:

>Small home network of 2 computers both running WinXP Home connected through a
>router. Sharing files worked fine on SP1 and I finally got around to
>installing SP2 and now I can't share folders on either computer. I know
>there's info on this out there but my search terms haven't turned up anything
>other than the WinXP firewall which I've disabled on both computers. I can
>ping between the 2 computers so that connection exists but I can't browse my
>workgroup and I also can't browse the computers by typing in IP addresses.
>
>I'm sure there's some security thing with SP2 (other than Firewall) that I'm
>missing but I can't find it. Any help is appreciated.

Well, a few changes, other than just adding Windows Firewall, went into SP2. So
congrats to you for taking the plunge.

A misconfigured or overlooked personal firewall, or other security component, is
the most frequent, but not the only, possibility for your problem.
<http://nitecruzr.blogspot.com/2005/10/irregularities-in-workgroup-visibility.html>
http://nitecruzr.blogspot.com/2005/10/irregularities-in-workgroup-visibility.html

Is NetBT consistently enabled?
<http://nitecruzr.blogspot.com/2006/04/netbios-over-tcpip.html>
http://nitecruzr.blogspot.com/2006/04/netbios-over-tcpip.html

We could look at "browstat status", "ipconfig /all", "net config server", and
"net config workstation", from each computer, and diagnose the problem, if you
like. Read this article, and linked articles, and follow instructions precisely
(download browstat!):
<http://nitecruzr.blogspot.com/2005/05/troubleshooting-network-neighborhood.html#AskingForHelp>
http://nitecruzr.blogspot.com/2005/05/troubleshooting-network-neighborhood.html#AskingForHelp

--
Cheers,
Chuck, MS-MVP [Windows - Networking]
http://nitecruzr.blogspot.com/
Paranoia is not a problem, when it's a normal response from experience.
My email is AT DOT
actual address pchuck mvps org.

28 Aug 2006 10:25 PM

MechMan

Thanks Chuck.

Ok, I can ping the other computer AND I can access the other computer by
typing in it's IP address. So the network is working and under My Network
Places it sees the workgroup name but won't allow me to browse the network. I
get the "<workgroup name> is not accessible. You might not have
permission..... The list of servers for this workgroup is not currently
available" error message.

Does this help narrow my problem down to a more specific solution?

Thanks.

28 Aug 2006 11:19 PM

Chuck

On Mon, 28 Aug 2006 15:25:01 -0700, MechMan <Mech***@discussions.microsoft.com>
wrote:

>Thanks Chuck.
>
>Ok, I can ping the other computer AND I can access the other computer by
>typing in it's IP address. So the network is working and under My Network
>Places it sees the workgroup name but won't allow me to browse the network. I
>get the "<workgroup name> is not accessible. You might not have
>permission..... The list of servers for this workgroup is not currently
>available" error message.
>
>Does this help narrow my problem down to a more specific solution?
>
>Thanks.

It eliminates a straight connectivity problem. Either a protocol problem, or a
firewall problem, could produce this. Or a workgroup name mismatch.

Read thru the articles, and see all of the possibilities yet. Or do some
diagnostics.

--
Cheers,
Chuck, MS-MVP [Windows - Networking]
http://nitecruzr.blogspot.com/
Paranoia is not a problem, when it's a normal response from experience.
My email is AT DOT
actual address pchuck mvps org.